Floodwaters inundate Wisconsin streets, trapping drivers, as Midwest rebuilds after storms

16/04/2026

Keith Johnson uses a chain saw to clear a large pine tree that came down in his neighbors yard during severe overnight storms on April 14, in Deforest, Wis. (AP)

ANN ARBOR, Mich, April 16, (AP): Floodwaters from record rainfall in Wisconsin inundated streets Wednesday, trapping drivers and forcing officials to close sections of a highway, as other Midwestern states worked to rebuild after storms.

Cars were stranded in high floodwater on a highway in Milwaukee and video shared by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel showed a woman and child being rescued from a vehicle. The Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office posted online to urge people not to drive in southeast Wisconsin.

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers declared a state of emergency after storms, which had started moving through the state Monday, brought strong winds, hail and heavy rain. At least three tornadoes were confirmed and more severe weather was expected.

Meanwhile, communities in Michigan were recovering after powerful overnight storms damaged two ice arenas, flooded streets and uprooted trees.

Wind gusts as strong as 70 mph (113 kph) were reported at the University of Michigan football stadium, with similarly strong gusts at the Willow Run Airport, meteorologist Sara Schultz said. National Weather Service crews were surveying damage in places including Ann Arbor to determine whether one or more tornadoes touched down.

Another round of strong storms with potentially damaging winds was moving into the area Wednesday from states to the west. Some public school buildings in Ann Arbor suffered structural damage and many lost power. The district was closed because of a fiber outage impacting fire, phone and camera systems, and building access.

Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher Taylor said structural engineers were assessing damage to a wall at the city’s Veterans Memorial Park Ice Arena. Part of the roof was torn from the university’s Yost Ice Arena. The storm uprooted a hulking tree outside Seungjun Lee’s home in Ann Arbor, barely missing his upstairs bedroom.

The storms dumped as much as 2.5 inches (6.3 centimeters) of rain across parts of southeastern Michigan by Wednesday morning, and more was expected across the Midwest, Great Lakes and Ohio Valley regions. Flood watches were issued for a big chunk of Michigan’s eastern Lower Peninsula, southeastern Michigan, northern Indiana, northwestern Ohio, the Chicago area and Wisconsin.

In northern Michigan, a power outage during a storm killed 1,750 steelhead trout at a state facility where eggs and milt are collected to produce more fish. Scott Heintzelman of the state’s fisheries division said it was a “devastating event” involving “big, beautiful fish.”