Flooding victims in Coon Valley busy cleaning up

A normally quiet town in Vernon County suddenly became a disaster site on Monday night.

Property owners in Coon Valley, who aren’t used to regular flooding, found themselves in the path of a flash flood, after nearly a foot of rain.

“I had knocking on the door,” Coon Valley resident Eleanor Ekern said, “and the fire department woke everybody and I went to the high school down here.”

Ekern and every other family on her block had to empty their basements after the flooding Monday and Tuesday.

She said the main floor of the house was not damaged by the water, and she’ll be able to stay there while the basement is repaired.

“We’re not moving out,” she said. “Still the upstairs is fine, the bedrooms and so forth. Trying to clean up the mess that we can.”

Businesses and homes throughout the village have placed furniture, appliances, and other belongings in front yards, as they clean the flooded interiors.

One building on the west end of town has four businesses that have been disrupted by the storm.

“High water got into the building, up above the windows,” Doug Bean, one of those business people, said. “Throughout the whole building, the last couple days here, have been busy gutting out the building, cutting out sheetrock. Dumpsters, cleaning up, throwing away things.”

The building usually houses an accounting firm, a title company, a truck supplier and a massage spa. It’s not known how much it will cost the companies to fix the damage and return to normal.