Posted: 09.28.2010

Emergency workers plan to inspect a 14-mile sand levee in Wisconsin that was partially breached by floodwaters, turning one rural neighborhood into a virtual island.

Greg Matthews, spokesman for the Wisconsin Department of Natural
Resources, says he's ``cautiously optimistic'' the levee protecting
the Blackhawk Park area would hold. Officials say workers will
inspect the levee after daylight on Tuesday.

Matthews says the levee wasn't really technically designed.  Instead, he said, it was a creation of farmers in the area to protect their flood plan farm fields. He says the materials used were  basically sand and gravel with no engineering design or reinforcement.

Columbia County Emergency Management director Pat Beghin said
about 25 homes remained occupied Monday after floodwaters from the
burgeoning Wisconsin River cut off dozens of houses from the
outside world. Some 300 people live in the neighborhood in the town
of Caledonia just southeast of Portage.
 

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