APPLETON — Just eight days after flooding damaged buildings and forced evacuations in the city of Appleton, a new storm rolled in Saturday night and made things worse.
A flood warning from the National Weather Service for Green Bay was in effect until 11 p.m. Saturday night, covering Appleton as well as Kaukauna and Little Chute. The service’s Facebook page asked people to keep track of rainfall and flooding, and included numerous photos of ponds filling backyards, flooded roads and inundated rain gauges.
A post on the City of Appleton’s Facebook page just after midnight Sunday morning, along with a video from Mayor Jake Woodford, detailed the steps the city is taking to ensure safety and begin recovery efforts again.
“The storm approached the city of Appleton and, according to the National Weather Service, dumped over three inches of rain on significant parts of the city in a relatively short period of time,” Woodford said. He said there have also been reports of wind and hail, but it’s the amount of rain that’s of most concern.
Woodford added that he had convened a meeting of the city’s emergency operations center to coordinate the response among city departments.
“The National Weather Service shared with the city of Appleton data on summer precipitation, which was significantly wetter than normal,” Woodford said. “The ground is already saturated with water, which makes the situation even more challenging.”
Gov. Tony Evers on Friday declared a state of emergency for several counties in the region, including Outagamie County, to help with recovery from the July 5 flooding.
The city was hit by rain Sunday morning but cleared up earlier in the day. Forecasters said the National Weather Service expects a 20% chance of more showers and thunderstorms Sunday night, with chances of precipitation increasing as the day progresses on Monday, with “light precipitation” expected in the morning but becoming “likely” after 1 p.m.
Additionally, sunny skies are expected from Tuesday through next Saturday, with high temperatures between 75 and 82 degrees.
Flooding affects Oshkosh Lifest concertgoers
Further south in Winnebago County, flooding also forced the cancellation of the annual Lifest Christian music festival at the Sunnyview Expo Center in Oshkosh.
Manitowoc residents Kerrian Fisher Curtis and her husband, Christopher Curtis, were visiting the festival for the first time and were looking forward to seeing Matt Maher and King and Country perform, but rain threatened to ruin their experience.
“We were so glad that Matt Maher’s show started just as the thunder started to roll,” Kellyanne Fisher Curtis told the Post-Crescent on Sunday morning. “Apparently the lights went out in the grandstand and as Matt left the stage, a Lifest official came onstage and warned us to evacuate immediately, and then it started to rain.”
The Curtises had been camping on the property with Kellyanne’s cousin, Melissa Denault, and her boyfriend, and when they returned to their tent they found it had started to flood.
Kellyanne Fisher Curtis, left, and her cousin Melissa Denault pose in floodwaters at Lifest in Oshkosh on July 13, 2024. The couple, along with Kellyanne’s husband and Melissa’s boyfriend, had left the festival after their campground was flooded.
“We waited about 30 minutes for the campsite to fill with more water,” she said. “We were soaked from head to toe and it took us about an hour to carry everything out of the campsite. We didn’t have any dry clothes so we decided it was best to head home before it got worse and called it off.”
Denault’s tent was damaged when the group tried to leave the campsite, but Kellyanne Fisher Curtis said most of the items in the tent were dry, but walking around inside felt like walking on a waterbed.
“The best part was the support we received from other campers,” she said, adding that some people helped carry out bags, coolers and air mattresses, and take down tents. “We had kids as young as 7, teenage boys and girls, families, it was a blessing. Everyone pitched in and helped evacuate not only mine and my cousin’s campsite, but also the campers in the Youth City area who were flooded.”
The Curtises are looking forward to visiting Leifest again next year, but Kellyanne said she plans to be more prepared just in case.
“It definitely gained credibility for our camp and a story to tell in the future,” she said.
This story may be updated as more information becomes available.
Taima Kern is editor of The Post-Crescent. She can be reached at tkern@gannett.com or 920-907-7819.
This article originally appeared in the Appleton Post-Crescent: Appleton, Fox Cities hit by flooding July 13