Rainstorm hits Cedar Grove hard
Some quick thinking by the Cedar Grove-Belgium School District’s buildings and grounds director may have prevented thousands of dollars in damages from what turned out to be a historic rainstorm on Sunday morning.
Ben Lukens said he was driving through Cedar Grove with the fire department when he saw “the crazy amounts of water in the parking lots.”
As a result, “I thought a walkthrough was appropriate,” he said.
Lukens found that the connection between the roof drain and the drain pipe let loose and allowed roof water to enter the high school.
“We had a fair amount of water in the high school cafeteria,” he said.
Lukens discovered the problem at about 9:30 a.m. He and another employee cleaned up the water by about 1:30 p.m., he said.
Damages, he said, were limited to about $200 for 30 ceiling tiles.
“It looks like we caught it in time where we don’t even need to rewax the floor,” he said. “There was one little spot in the office with some wet carpet but we got that extracted and a fan on it and it’s fine now.”
The schools weren’t the only places in the village affected by the heavy rainstorm that dumped on communities across Sheboygan County.
Cedar Grove Public Works Manager Jan Hoitink said several basements were flooded, streets and parks were flooded.
Hoitink said more than the usual spots gathered water. Streets and storm sewers were backed up in various places.
“We’ve had streets flooding in places I’ve never seen,” he said.
Hoitink said he heard reports that the village received 7.25 inches of rain in two hours.
Videos and photos online show streets and portions of yards flooded, and one person kayaking in the street.
Hoitink was still assessing damages this week.
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