Making a splash on the national news

In case you caught metro Milwaukee (The Writer's home base) on the network news last week for its giant flash flood, your waterlogged correspondent was, unfortunately, right in the middle of it. Writers enjoy irony, so here’s some for you: You buy a new condo eight years ago and in all of that time there is not a single drop of water in the basement—not one—from all of the various rainstorms. But as soon as you put your condo up for sale (with two open houses scheduled for the weekend), you get a once-a-century rainstorm of Biblical proportions that simply overwhelms the sewer system and floods thousands of basements. Including mine (with 8 inches of water).

During the storm you wonder, what is that thing floating by my front door? Why that’s a canoe with people in it, and your lawn and your entire street have been transformed into the Mississippi River, and that river is rising right up your front steps and you had better start moving your first-floor furniture to the second floor just in case. The water is so strong and violent that it sweeps a 19-year-old man to his death and blasts out the basement windows of some of my next-door neighbors, filling their basements with 4 feet of water. After the water subsides, neighbors in two adjoining condo units can suddenly shake hands in their basements because their dividing wall has caved in.

Although it was a traumatic, confusing experience, my wife and I got off relatively lightly, compared to so many people in the Milwaukee area (one of whom had 10 feet of water in his house). At this point it appears, after we heard many false assumptions about our damage, that our only permanent loss is about 30 art books of mine, all water damaged and probably unrestorable. I was so fond of those books, which had been lovingly collected over the years. But hey, it sure beats a ruined basement. Or worse.

--Ron Kovach, senior editor, The Writer

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