Local News

Floods Shut Down Highways

Floods Shut Down Highways

Melanie Stout
Katie DeLong

DELAFIELD - Even if your home isn't flooded, you'll probably be affected by the flooding sometime this weekend. Travelers are feeling it right now.

The westbound lanes of I-94 are shut down again, this time near Delafield. Those barricades went up in the middle of the afternoon Friday, and that caused a big mess during the rush hour.

Westbound traffic along I-94 was backed up for miles in Waukesha County, all because of flooding over I-94 west of Highway 26 in Jefferson County.

“You sit out there for awhile. You're very slow when you get down to one lane,” Jeff Turnbull said.

A lot of people who are trying to get to Madison or to the Dells are finding detour after detour. Rick Hanson came in from Chicago and got stuck.

“Down there, it was just construction there and then we got here and this is just as bad if not worse because you’re at a stand still for probably about an hour,” Hanson said.

Traffic was being diverted off Highway 26 in Johnson Creek, but because of flooding problems on other highways and roads the detour had to be pushed all the way back to Highway 83 in Delafield.

“You can not enter I-94 westbound from 83 all the way past wherever the issue is in Jefferson County,” Waukesha County Sheriff's detective Steve Pederson said.

“I talked to my sister from Beaver Dam she said pretty much stay away from this whole area,” one traveler said.

People being detoured are pulling out the maps and coming up with new plans. Some people coming in from Minnesota for the Brewers/Twins game were stuck near Baraboo for nearly two hours.

“You were basically on your own, grab your own rope,” Bob Schwitters said. “So we grabbed a map and grabbed our own road and hey, we saw some nice country.”

Traveling through the central part of the state is also difficult. I-90/94 is shut down near Portage.

Chopper 4 flew over the area Friday and no one was on the freeway.

Traffic is detoured around Portage.

Click on the links under related content for more highway closures and traffic information.

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