Wisconsin Guard supports flood relief, stands by to assist as needed

By Tech. Sgt. Jon LaDue

Wisconsin National Guard

The Wisconsin National Guard was put into action last week after Gov. Jim Doyle declared a state of emergency Sept. 23 in Trempealeau, Clark and Jackson counties.

Wisconsin's Guard members stand ready to assist again as flooding continues to be a concern across north-central Wisconsin and along parts of the Mississippi River that divide Wisconsin and Minnesota. As of Monday (Sept. 27), Doyle has declared a state of emergency for eight Wisconsin counties; including Trempealeau, Clark, Columbia, Jackson, Buffalo, Marathon, Portage and Wood.

"Our future operations division is reviewing the areas of most concern and identifying logical places to draw equipment and forces from as well as armories to stage in," said Lt. Col. David May, deputy director of operations for military support.

Thirty Wisconsin Soldiers and Airmen stepped up to assist three communities, including Arcadia, Neillsville and Osseo, Sept. 23-25 following storms that drenched much of northern Wisconsin.

The first wave of Guard assistance came in the form of seven Soldiers from a field maintenance shop out of Eau Claire, with two 5-ton trucks, one Light Medium Tactical Vehicle, one Humvee and a heavy equipment wrecker. The Soldiers helped escort families to their homes in areas of Arcadia that were surrounded by up to two feet of water. The FMS Soldiers also assisted law enforcement with checkpoint security.

May said the FMS Soldiers, who had to travel about an hour to Arcadia from Eau Claire, did an exemplary job.

"The response time on this is a huge success story," May said. "To get the right equipment and the right people there in just three hours is amazing."

As the FMS Soldiers were assisting emergency responders, four Soldiers from Company C, 128th Infantry, 32nd Brigade Combat Team, were busy assisting the American Red Cross with opening a shelter out of their armory. The Red Cross sheltered more than 50 residents, including seven children, in the Arcadia armory.

"We know the armory fits the requirements that we have," said Heidi Jury, American Red Cross public support specialist. "It's nice and easy when we need a shelter to just call them up and they're ready for us."

Originally expecting another two to three inches of rain Thursday night, 11 more Soldiers from the 32nd IBCT relieved the FMS Soldiers and continued the role of checkpoint security.

Another four members of the brigade delivered 30,000 sandbags — 20,000 to Arcadia and 10,000 to nearby Osseo and Neillsville — in an effort to help the cities posture themselves for additional rain.

Lt. Col. Alec Christianson, incident commander, said his Soldiers were prepared to adapt to worsening conditions by transferring from checkpoint operations to evacuation operations if the weather worsened or water levels continued to rise. Fortunately for Arcadia residents, the additional rainfall never came and the Trempealeau River levels, which had reached more than a foot above "flood stage," began to hold steady and eventually recede.

"In this case, we were the first ones in and when we were no longer needed, we departed," said May.

The Wisconsin National Guard's Joint Operations Command, based in Madison, decided to deactivate the Guard members but did elect to leave some of the vehicles and equipment in Arcadia, in case of an escalation of the emergency situation. All of the vehicles and equipment have since been returned to their respective units.