The Big Storm

by ML of Northwestern Middle School, Poplar, Wisconsin

In the spring of 2000, we were getting back from Minneapolis. When we got home and got out of the car, we noticed that all the small hills were starting to flood.

"It was raining almost the whole way home," I said.

"I never expected to get this much rain," my dad said.

We started unloading the car just as it started to rain harder and the wind started to pick up too. We finally finished unloading the car and since it was late we decided to go to bed.

Everybody eventually fell asleep, but it started storming. My little brother and sister were afraid and ran downstairs to my parents' room. In the morning I quickly tried to turn on my TV but the power was out. I turned on my radio to hear them saying, "Maple Northwestern school district, closed." I was so happy I ran downstairs to tell my family! That's when I caught my first glimpse of what had happened. Everything was flooded, trees were knocked over, and the power lines down the road were knocked over too. The water was all brown from the mud.

At the time we lived on Lake Nebagamon and the yard down the hill at our house was flooded half way up our yard! We couldn't even see our dock. Later that day our neighbors came over and told us about an hour after we had left for the Cities that a section of the road had collapsed. The section of road was on a stream that flows to Lake Nebagamon. The culvert wasn't big enough for all the water. When we left, there was already water flowing over it.

The weather stayed rainy and nasty for a while, so they were unable to fix anything until the summer. We were unable to use that road until later that spring.

We stayed out of school for a few days due to lost power in some places. We just so happened to be one of those places. This is one experience I will never forget.