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This time they had some warning.
The flash floods of Aug. 19 flooded about 75 homes and forced an overnight evacuation of the village of 625 in Crawford County. Many are still working to rebuild.
With the Kickapoo River already running its banks and predicted to flood by four feet or more, the residents of Gays Mills prepared Sunday for another flood.
Some moved their belongings to higher ground. Some hunkered down, determined to stay.
Dozens of volunteers filled sandbags at Brockway and Son’s sand pit. A convoy of trucks hauled pallet loads into town, where others piled them against doorways and windows.
Based on morning flood reports, Crawford County Emergency Management Director Roger Martin expected the river to rise by Tuesday to within two feet of its record August crest. But forecasters were calling for even more rain.
By evening, the river had surged to a new record level upstream in La Farge. Martin said it usually takes 24 to 48 hours for that water to make its way down to Gays Mills.
Tina Martin, an EMT whose home was not damaged last year, helped evacuate residents then. On Sunday, she bagged sand.
“I hope they’re wrong,” she said, looking at the sky. “We don’t need anymore rain.”
Kate Vereschagin’s Park Street home is still being rebuilt. She wasn’t sandbagging because she feared her foundation might collapse under the pressure of too much water.
“I’m gonna go home and make a flood cake,” she said. “What can we do? The water is coming.”
In August, Lorraine and Ron Fortney had water up to the second shelf of their refrigerator.
They cleaned up that mess, mostly, and are back in their Grove Street home, which is scheduled to be raised four feet to get it out of the flood plain.
On Sunday, they loaded their new furniture into a trailer and hauled it to the hills. Ron used steel bars to stake down the wood pallets they used to replace their front steps, which washed away last summer.
“It just don’t seem possible we could be going through this again so soon,” Lorraine said.
Next door, Shirley Roberts sat in her front yard with her family. They had moved her furniture to the second story and packed her medicine and food in the car. A neighbor dragged over a chain to secure her picnic table.
Later, one of the sandbaggers working down the street called out.
“Look that way,” he said. “Look to the north.”
The sky was the color of a deep bruise.
Chris Hubbuch can be reached at (608) 791-8217 or chubbuch@lacrossetribune.com.
