WoW updates and Flooding in Southern Wisconsin
I updated my bare bones Warcraft webpage today. I updated a few webcomic links but the two main features are a profile page for Skarlette, and one new illustration for my fanfic "Nothing Without You", in part three.
Meanwhile, Obsydia had a very good night in Karazhan last week, having picked up the Robe of Elder Scribes from Nightbane and the Ring of Recurrence from the Chess event. Woot!
The guild is still trying to put a dent in Serpentshrine, but so far we haven't managed to down any bosses. It's really frustrating for the core group of 15 or so people who are dedicated to progressing and always come on time with all our potions/flasks/food buffs/etc. Oh well, word has it that in the next expansion all the endgame dungeons will have both 10- and 25-man versions, so we won't have to worry about finding enough people.
Meanwhile, it's been a wet and stormy few days, but nothing we've had here comes close to what happened down in Lake Delton, Wisconsin. I've been to the Lake Delton/Wisconsin Dells area dozens of times. It was a regular pilgrimage every summer when I was a kid. It's a real shame to see what's been going on down there.
I'll quote part of an article from The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (follow the link for the full story and some amazing photos)...
Swollen by rain, Lake Delton nearly empties, wrecking homes, damaging tourism hopes
Posted: June 9, 2008
They moved there from Cudahy three years ago after retiring - Tom taught math, Tina worked as a recruiter for Midwest Airlines - and it sat on a beautiful spot.
On Monday, the house was a wreck, ripped from its site and tipped at a crazy angle where rain-swollen Lake Delton burst open, washing away three homes, shearing another in two and turning the once-sparkling body of water into a vast mud flat.
"It's unbelievable," Tom Pekar said, struggling for words Monday evening as he prepared to return once more to what had been his home. "I never in my wildest dreams thought that was going to happen. Never."
Who would have guessed it?
On Sunday, man-made Lake Delton covered 267 acres and held more than 600 million gallons of water.
On Monday, it was all but drained within two hours after the shore gave way, less than a quarter-mile from the dam that controls the lake. The breach created a ferocious current as the water tumbled into the Wisconsin River 40 feet below. The failure destroyed homes and dealt a blow to an important piece of the Wisconsin Dells-area tourism industry just as the high season was about to open.
"We have nothing but mud in front of us now," said Tom Diehl, operator of the Tommy Bartlett Show, which features acrobatic water skiing on the lake. "No water. Just mud."
Owners of the dozen or so resorts that ring the lake, offering hundreds of rooms to visitors, were wondering what would become of their summer seasons.
"I called all my guests who were booked for the month of June, and I canceled out," said Linda Allessi, owner of the Sandrift Resort.
"Can you imagine families showing up here, coming down to the beach and wondering where the lake is?"
'Lake Delton's not there'
Among the larger properties affected is Wilderness on the Lake, a shoreline complex of 108 upscale resort condo units featuring lake views.
"The property's still fine," spokeswoman Heidi Fendos said, "but Lake Delton's not there."
Wilderness on the Lake is a relatively small part of the larger Wilderness Territory resort, the great majority of which sits apart from Lake Delton.
That's true for the Dells tourism sector generally. By far the largest part of Dells attractions, which line Highway 12 and downtown Wisconsin Dells, are unaffected. The same can be said for the area's many water parks and the natural rock formations along the Wisconsin River that first drew tourists to the Dells.
But for those on Lake Delton, it's another story.
"It's going to be a devastating impact on all the resorts (on) Lake Delton," said Diehl, who has long been a leader in the state tourism industry.
"It's going to be a devastating impact on the boat-rental operations. . . . It's going to be devastating for the Tommy Bartlett Show. It's pretty hard to put a water ski show on when there's no water on the lake."
...
Meanwhile, Diehl, who is also a trustee on the Lake Delton Village Board, said village engineers were already studying how best to repair the gash in the lake.
"We're going to try to get that breach repaired as soon as possible and try to get water back in the lake," Diehl said.
Just how that might be accomplished - or when - is another question, and Diehl acknowledged Monday evening that he didn't have the answers.
"The breach is mammoth. It's probably 400 feet across. A lot of it is going to depend on what the DNR is going to require," he said, referring to the Department of Natural Resources.
Rain weakened sand
Although sandstone - the stone that forms the famed dells of the Wisconsin River - rings most of Lake Delton, it is absent at the spot where the shore gave way, Diehl said.
Instead, he said, the soil there is "100% sand" from the lake to the river a couple of hundred yards to the northeast. The heavy rains of the weekend turned the sand into a soggy mass that finally gave way about 10 a.m. Monday.
What a mess! :-0
Meanwhile, Obsydia had a very good night in Karazhan last week, having picked up the Robe of Elder Scribes from Nightbane and the Ring of Recurrence from the Chess event. Woot!
The guild is still trying to put a dent in Serpentshrine, but so far we haven't managed to down any bosses. It's really frustrating for the core group of 15 or so people who are dedicated to progressing and always come on time with all our potions/flasks/food buffs/etc. Oh well, word has it that in the next expansion all the endgame dungeons will have both 10- and 25-man versions, so we won't have to worry about finding enough people.
Meanwhile, it's been a wet and stormy few days, but nothing we've had here comes close to what happened down in Lake Delton, Wisconsin. I've been to the Lake Delton/Wisconsin Dells area dozens of times. It was a regular pilgrimage every summer when I was a kid. It's a real shame to see what's been going on down there.
I'll quote part of an article from The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (follow the link for the full story and some amazing photos)...
Swollen by rain, Lake Delton nearly empties, wrecking homes, damaging tourism hopes
Posted: June 9, 2008
They moved there from Cudahy three years ago after retiring - Tom taught math, Tina worked as a recruiter for Midwest Airlines - and it sat on a beautiful spot.
On Monday, the house was a wreck, ripped from its site and tipped at a crazy angle where rain-swollen Lake Delton burst open, washing away three homes, shearing another in two and turning the once-sparkling body of water into a vast mud flat.
"It's unbelievable," Tom Pekar said, struggling for words Monday evening as he prepared to return once more to what had been his home. "I never in my wildest dreams thought that was going to happen. Never."
Who would have guessed it?
On Sunday, man-made Lake Delton covered 267 acres and held more than 600 million gallons of water.
On Monday, it was all but drained within two hours after the shore gave way, less than a quarter-mile from the dam that controls the lake. The breach created a ferocious current as the water tumbled into the Wisconsin River 40 feet below. The failure destroyed homes and dealt a blow to an important piece of the Wisconsin Dells-area tourism industry just as the high season was about to open.
"We have nothing but mud in front of us now," said Tom Diehl, operator of the Tommy Bartlett Show, which features acrobatic water skiing on the lake. "No water. Just mud."
Owners of the dozen or so resorts that ring the lake, offering hundreds of rooms to visitors, were wondering what would become of their summer seasons.
"I called all my guests who were booked for the month of June, and I canceled out," said Linda Allessi, owner of the Sandrift Resort.
"Can you imagine families showing up here, coming down to the beach and wondering where the lake is?"
'Lake Delton's not there'
Among the larger properties affected is Wilderness on the Lake, a shoreline complex of 108 upscale resort condo units featuring lake views.
"The property's still fine," spokeswoman Heidi Fendos said, "but Lake Delton's not there."
Wilderness on the Lake is a relatively small part of the larger Wilderness Territory resort, the great majority of which sits apart from Lake Delton.
That's true for the Dells tourism sector generally. By far the largest part of Dells attractions, which line Highway 12 and downtown Wisconsin Dells, are unaffected. The same can be said for the area's many water parks and the natural rock formations along the Wisconsin River that first drew tourists to the Dells.
But for those on Lake Delton, it's another story.
"It's going to be a devastating impact on all the resorts (on) Lake Delton," said Diehl, who has long been a leader in the state tourism industry.
"It's going to be a devastating impact on the boat-rental operations. . . . It's going to be devastating for the Tommy Bartlett Show. It's pretty hard to put a water ski show on when there's no water on the lake."
...
Meanwhile, Diehl, who is also a trustee on the Lake Delton Village Board, said village engineers were already studying how best to repair the gash in the lake.
"We're going to try to get that breach repaired as soon as possible and try to get water back in the lake," Diehl said.
Just how that might be accomplished - or when - is another question, and Diehl acknowledged Monday evening that he didn't have the answers.
"The breach is mammoth. It's probably 400 feet across. A lot of it is going to depend on what the DNR is going to require," he said, referring to the Department of Natural Resources.
Rain weakened sand
Although sandstone - the stone that forms the famed dells of the Wisconsin River - rings most of Lake Delton, it is absent at the spot where the shore gave way, Diehl said.
Instead, he said, the soil there is "100% sand" from the lake to the river a couple of hundred yards to the northeast. The heavy rains of the weekend turned the sand into a soggy mass that finally gave way about 10 a.m. Monday.
What a mess! :-0