Heavy Rainfall Leads to State of Emergency in Many Areas

Thursday, June 12, 2008 8:03 AM CDT

Joan Sanstadt, News Editor

Gov. Jim Doyle declared a state of emergency for 30 counties due to severe storms and flooding.

The announcement that came Sunday night includes the counties of: Adams, Calumet, Columbia, Crawford, Dane, Dodge, Fond du Lac, Grant, Green, Green Lake, Iowa, Jefferson, Juneau, Kenosha, Lafayette, La Crosse, Marquette, Milwaukee, Monroe, Ozaukee, Racine, Richland, Rock, Sauk Sheboygan, Vernon, Walworth, Washington, Waukesha and Winnebago.

Such a declaration by the governor allows Wisconsin’s Adjutant General, Brigadier General Don Dunbar, to activate National Guard troops to assist the affected counties as necessary. Six soldiers and three high profile vehicles were deployed Sunday evening to assist with evacuation of a mobile home park in Ontario in Vernon County.

The National Guard’s Joint Operations Center is activated and ready to coordinate any requests for support.

On Saturday afternoon, the State Emergency Operations Center was activated. Members of the Wisconsin State Patrol have been assessing road damage throughout southwestern Wisconsin.

The Department of Corrections has been responding to requests from counties for personnel to assist with sandbagging and the Department of Natural Resources has been monitoring dams throughout Wisconsin.

Although there have been no reports of serious injuries or deaths related to the widespread flooding and severe storms, numerous roads have been washed out and many downed trees have also brought down power lines.

The 24-hour Emergency Hotline for Wisconsin Emergency Management headquarters located in Madison is 800-943-0003.

Farm wells

The weekend’s heavy rains, particularly in southern and southwestern parts of the state may have caused private wells to become contaminated with flood wells, according to information released by the state’s Emergency Operations Center and the Department of Natural Resources.

Well owners should treat their wells prior to use if their well is known or even suspected of being overtopped by floodwaters. Well owners whose wells become flooded need to have the well tested before resuming use of the water.

Floodwaters can contain bacteria and waste contaminants that threaten water supplies. Wells located in pits and basements are especially susceptible to such contamination.

Any water supply system which has been overtopped by flood waters should be thoroughly disinfected and then tested to determine water safety.

This work is best performed by licensed well drillers or pump installers, the DNR recommends. Wells should be disinfected with a strong chlorine solution or chlorine tablets. The chlorine must come into direct contact with all interior surfaces of the well, from top to bottom and throughout the distribution plumbing.

That solution should remain in the system for 24 hours and then be flushed from the system. Then a water sample can be collected and submitted for bacteriological testing.

Information about how to chlorinate your well is available from DNR customer service centers in Fitchburg, Dodgeville, Horicon, La Crosse, Eau Claire, Wisconsin Rapids and Wausau or the DNR website at http://dnr.wi.gov/org/water/dwg/flood.htm

Here are a few of the DNR Water Supply contact numbers:

- William Roberts, La Crosse, DNR Water Supply, 608-785-9976

- Larry Schaefer, Eau Claire, DNR Water Supply, 715-839-3745

- Steve Ales, Fitchburg, DNR Water Supply, 608-275-3311

- Marty Nessman, Fitchburg, DNR Water Supply, 608-275-3215

Water sampling kits are available from the State Laboratory of Hygiene at 800-442-4618. County health departments may also have sample bottles.

Food safety

The state’s Food Safety Division is advising extreme caution after a flood for “food, dishes, water or anything that goes into someone’s mouth n even though it may appear harmless.”

That’s because flood water can carry silt, raw sewage, oil or chemical wastes and even a few drips can contaminate whatever is touched.

- Discard everything edible, except undamaged commercial canned goods n and these must be properly cleaned before using.

- Discard unopened glass jars, flip-top cans, bottled water and juices and plastic-wrapped packages as well as fresh produce, spices, food stored in canisters, baby food, bagged pet food and home canned goods.

- Discard porous dishes and other items that might go into someone’s mouth, including baby bottles, nipples and pacifiers, wooden bowls, plastic dishes and cups, as well as foam and paper products.

If properly cleaned, you can save metal canned goods if the cans are free of dents and rust, glass, china and metal dishes, containers and utensils.

To properly clean, you will need a strong detergent, household chlorine bleach and clean, uncontaminated water. To clean:

- Remove paper labels

- Wash in strong detergent solution,

- Use a brush to remove all silt.

- Immerse in lukewarm solution of chlorine for one minute. That solution should be one tablespoon of household chlorine bleach to each gallon of water.

- Allow to thoroughly air dry. Re-label cans with permanent markers.

For more information, contact the Food Safety Division at 608-224-4713.

Electrical safety

Flooding also brings special concern for electrical safety. Alliant Energy has provided some guidelines that can help ensure safety during flooding situations. They include:

- Never walk through a flooded home or building until the electricity is disconnected. Even a small amount of water on the floor of your basement can put you at risk for electrocution.

- Call your electricity provider to have service disconnected at the meter. DO NOT STAND IN WATER.

- Call your natural gas provider to have your natural gas turned off. Standing water can snuff out pilot lights on hot water heaters and furnaces. If this occurs, natural gas may collect in your home, creating the risk of an explosion.

- Have a licensed electrician inspect your electrical system before calling to be reconnected.

- Have your furnace and water heater inspected by a heating or appliance and service repair contractor before calling to be reconnected. Gas appliance manufacturers recommend replacing appliance parts that have been under water.

Alliant Energy does not charge for flood-related disconnects and reconnects. Alliant’s 24-hour Customer Service Center number is 800-255-4628.

Ag emergency preparedness

UW-Extension website provides information for agricultural emergency preparedness. With a click of the mouse, Wisconsin citizens now have greater access to resources and information that can be used in emergency situations.

In the case of a natural disaster or other agricultural emergency, a call to a UW-Extension agriculture agent or educator may have been one of the first calls made because agriculture agents/educators bring a breadth of knowledge, skills and experiences to help out in emergency situations.

Now these resources are available 24/7 through the Agricultural Preparedness and Response website http://www.uwex.edu/ces/agemergency/index.cfm.

The Agricultural Preparedness and Response website gives users access to practical information that can be used in an emergency situation. This information includes:

- How to report animal diseases;

- Information on various animal diseases;

- Pandemic flu;

- Agricultural biosecurity, and

- How to prepare for emergencies.

The website also provides links to other resources that may be useful in an emergency.

Grocers’ anti-ethanol campaign

Bill Bruins, president of the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation (WFBF), had some strong words for grocers who are fueling an anti-ethanol campaign. Here’s what Bruins had to say:

“There’s an old saying in farming that it is not wise to eat your seed corn. You may be full in the short-term, but there’s nothing left for the future.

Abandoning the ethanol industry at a time of runaway energy prices would be eating our seed corn. Yet that’s what a slick put-up job from an unlikely source is advocating; and not for the reasons they state, but instead in the name of higher profits.

It’s an understatement to say that farmers have had to play a lot of defense lately. Corn-based ethanol has been blamed for world hunger, high food and fuel prices, and environmental degradation from the polar caps to the Amazon rainforests. Yet farmers know they live in a world where drought, surging world population, crop acreage shifts, surging input and transportation costs are among the many factors behind the food price and supply dilemma. Lately it’s become harder to point out these realities to a mainstream media that has jumped on the increasingly aggressive anti-biofuel bandwagon.

It turns out this groundswell is actually the work of hired-gun public relations firm on a $300,000, six-month retainer. What’s troubling is who is behind this well-funded smear campaign: the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), which is made up of many of the nation’s largest food, beverage and household goods companies.

“The Grocery Manufacturers Association, I have come to the conclusion, needs an excuse to gouge consumers of America with higher food prices, and an easy scapegoat for increasing food prices is, of course, ethanol,” said U.S. Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa).

He’s right. The ‘grocery gang’ knows that corn is an ingredient in less than one-third of everyday food items. They know that even with $5.50 per bushel corn, the value of corn in each box of corn flakes averages less than 8 cents.

Yet, comments waged by the GMA’s president faults agriculture for growing more corn for biofuels, even as U.S. corn exports climb. He was faulting farmers when corn reached $3.50 even though rising farm inputs were making it impossible to grow corn for anything less. This businessman faults farmers for making planting decisions based on market signals. He knows all too well that energy is the driving factor to higher costs, but instead his group has chosen an easier fight.

In a back-door effort to roll back ethanol initiatives in last year’s U.S. Energy Bill, the GMA’s publicity plan is reportedly aimed at taking advantage of “extraordinary earned media opportunities” caused by higher food prices. This well-financed manipulation didn’t stop at targeted media elites, but was taken to former presidents and African embassies who were duped into spreading this disinformation campaign to the public.

It’s unfortunate that food companies are biting the hand that feeds them. They have made farmers the scapegoats of global issues that are well beyond their control.

A coalition of commodity groups recently reached out to the GMA by saying, “Exploding energy costs, food price issues, wholesale and retail margins, food safety and other environmental issues in agriculture are topics that your segment of the industry seemingly has more in common with us in production agriculture than differences.”

One thing we should be able to agree on is that the success of our overall economy depends on access to affordable energy. I recognize that they want to change the mandates for ethanol within the Energy Bill, but then what? Solely doing that does not lessen our need for foreign oil or bring down fuel prices.

Instead of launching dishonest and unnecessary attacks, we should be using our resources to urge politicians and the public to seek a comprehensive national energy plan. That’s the only thing that is actually going to fix this mess.

Although the GMA says it supports the emerging cellulosic ethanol market, their manufactured hysteria threatens to squash it before it gets off the ground. That would be a missed opportunity for Wisconsin which is uniquely situated to be the home of this next generation of biofuels. Our mix of farmland and forests stand ready to supply the biomass needed for cellulosic ethanol. Research at UW-Madison will make its production more energy efficient, but it won’t happen over night. Seed corn never grows overnight.

In the meantime, some people lose sight that corn-based eethanol is both decreasing the price of gas, while generating tax revenue and good-paying jobs at a time when Wisconsin sorely needs them.

There’s no denying we have serious, long-term problems on our hands when it comes to food and fuel. However short-term, sound-byte, politically-expedient gamesmanship will not garner the solutions we need. Despite what you’ve heard, farmers are not the problem. Instead, agriculture’s bag of seed corn holds the solutions.”

Raiding designated funds

Last week the Wisconsin Medical Society filed a motion for summary judgment in its lawsuit to restore $200 million to the Wisconsin Injured Patients and Families Compensation Fund.

Like many other allocated funds, such as those for highways, ag chemical cleanup, etc., money has been taken from this compensation fund to help balance the state’s budget.

The Wisconsin Medical Society President Steven Bergin, MD, said “the fund must be restored or we jeopardize a key component of Wisconsin’s excellent health care system.”

In its motion, the society asks the court to declare that:

- The raid on the Fund was an unconstitutional taking of health care providers’ property rights without just compensation;

- An unconstitutional impairment of health care providers’ contractual rights;

- A disguised tax on health care providers and on injured patients and families; and

- An unconstitutional denial of health care providers’ rights to equal protection.

The Society is asking the court to order the state of Wisconsin to replace all money removed from the Fund, including lost investment earnings and interest.

The Injured Patients and Families Compensation Fund was created in 1975 to minimize the effects insurance costs caused by lawsuits might have on health care costs and quality. Wisconsin physicians, hospitals and other health care professionals are required to pay an annual sum to the Fund. There are no taxpayer dollars in this Fund.

The Wisconsin Medical Society has nearly 12,000 members.

But it isn’t just doctors and health care professionals who are complaining about budget-balancing-raids on designated monies.

State Rep. Barbara Gronemus (D-Whitehall) is blaming the closure of the bridge from Wisconsin into Minnesota at Winona squarely on fellow Democrat and Governor n Jim Doyle. (Gronemus has already announced she is not running for re-election.)

By taking $100 million in gas tax revenues from the Highway Fund to balance the budget, funds for bridge and highway maintenance are not available. The funding for roads and bridges must be stable, Gronemus says, adding “the shutdown of Winona’s only bridge shows why this is important.”

The bridge was closed last week after inspectors from the State of Minnesota found rusted connectors that were fastened on to the concrete. In one instance, the rust allowed an inspector’s hammer to go right through it.

At a time of record high gas prices some Wisconsinites last week had to go more than 100 miles out of their way to get to their jobs in Winona, Gronemus pointed out. Not only is it bad for workers, the bridge closing has also made it hard for farmers to move their products.

The alternative for commuters is a bus and ferry service costing $15 a week…but much of that cost is being borne by the city of Winona and the State of Minnesota.

No Call for cell phones

To comply with the recently-passed law allowing cell phone numbers to be placed on the state’s No Call List, the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) is doubling its number of intake lines from 48 to 96 in anticipation of higher numbers of consumers’ cell phones being added to the list.

Consumers have from now until the end of August to get on the next No Call list starting in October.

To get on the list that begins Oct. 1, all consumers must do is visit the Wisconsin No Call List website or call 866-966-2255.

For more information, call the toll free hotline of the Wisconsin DATCP at 800-422-7128.

Capitol Notes:

- Jessica Erickson, former press secretary to Gov. Doyle and communications director at the Department of Workforce Development, has been named executive director of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin effective July 7.

- Dairyland Power Cooperative signed an agreement to purchase the full 40 megawatt electrical output of a proposed new biomass power plant located in Cassville. The proposed plant is scheduled to come online June 1, 2010.

- Eric Callisto, formerly the executive assistant at the Public Service commission, last week took over the reins of the commission. He succeeds Dan Ebert who has held the position since 2005.

- A Veterans Job Fair will be held on June 18 from noon until 4 p.m. at Liberty Hall, 800 Eisenhower Drive in Kimberly. It will provide opportunities to visit with over 60 local employers about job opportunities and they can also learn about and apply for federal and state benefits, loan eligibility, VA health care and education programs. For more information call The Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs at 800-947-8387.

- Senator Jeff Plale (D-South Milwaukee) and Rep. Phil Montgomery (R-Ashwaubenon) received the Excellence in Leadership Awards for the 2007-08 Biennial Legislative Session from the Wisconsin State Telecommunications Association. They were the lead authors of the telecommunications bill that has now become law.

- Was it the higher price of gasoline? May 2008 was the safest month of May in terms of traffic deaths in the state since World War II. There were 47 fatalities in 44 traffic crashes last month. The deadliest May was in 1968 when there were 123 fatalities.

- Wisconsin Tourism Secretary Kelli Trumble is hoping Chicago is picked to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. Having the games in the Midwest would be “an amazing opportunity” to bring in billions of dollars to the region and raise Wisconsin’s profile as a vacation destination. Chicago is one of four finalist cities competing for the 2016 games. The others are Madrid, Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro. Trumble says some Olympic events such as cycling could well be held in Wisconsin. The decision won’t be made until October of 2009.

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