Flooding displaces residents in Prairie du Chien

MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) - Flooding from the Mississippi River has hit peak levels in Prairie du Chien and community members are feeling the impact of the rising water levels.

Brittany Nichols and her family are among ten others to be displaced from their homes due to the recent flooding.

“It’s been pretty hectic,” Nichols said. “In 2019, there was a flood, but it wasn’t this bad.”

Crawford County Director of Emergency Management Jim Hackett said this is the third highest flood Prairie du Chien has ever seen.

“This is better than we thought it’d be,” Hackett said. “We were planning for 25 feet. We’re about two feet less at the crest.”

Nichols said this is an unusual time for her family.

“We’ve had a little bit of a hard time getting to our house, so we were able to wait there for the first few days,” Nichols said. “Now it’s over our boots.”

Nichols’ basement filled up with nearly six feet of water.

“We just got pumps going,” Nichols said. “My dad’s been up about every two hours refilling the generators just to keep the pump going so (the water) doesn’t get in the house.”

Once they were displaced, Nichols said her husband used one of their neighbor’s paddle boats to bring their young daughter to safety without getting her wet.

“When the water was so high, I asked him if he would put our daughter in the seat on it... so we didn’t get her wet,” Nichols said.

Hackett said 40 homes have been affected by the flooding.

“Once we see the crest die down, we’ll start doing damage assessments,” Hackett said. “We’ll open up hotlines for people to call in, and we’re going to report all that to Wisconsin Emergency Management.”

As the flooding continues, Nichols’ said she’s thanking the community for their help.

“The community has been awesome,” Nichols said. “The high school came and helped sandbag all of the houses down on North Main Street, which was really nice. We would have never been able to do it without them.”

Nichols’ family is now staying at her parent’s house as they wait for the water to go down.

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