Overflowing Lake Carves a Breach and Drains Away
AP/WideWorld
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ighway engineers in Wisconsin say a 500-ft section of a county road washed away in Sauk County on June 9 when nearby Lake Delton overflowed in a weekend of torrential rain and “found a way” to the Wisconsin River. Bob Fasick, highway operations engineer with the Wisconsin Dept. of Transportation, says the 245-acre lake’s dam, about 350 ft to the south, held, but sandy soil at the overflow rapidly eroded into a breach almost 400 ft wide. As the lake emptied, the water collapsed banks, destroyed three houses and blew through the highway embankment, which was not a flood-control structure. Swollen streams closed roads and bridges in 30 counties.