The Clarion

Issue date: 10/7/09 Section: News

Media Credit: Vishmaa Ramsaroop-Briggs

As the heavy rains fell on Sept. 22, Madison Area Technical College students sat in class and worried about staying dry as they walked back to their vehicles. Instead, students should have been worried about their cars staying dry.

By noon sections A2 to C2 in the first student parking lot were flooded with close to three feet of water in some places. Water levels rose over the front of vehicle grills and stood as high as the middle of car doors in some sections.

According to the office incident report, shortly after 11 a.m. MATC security officer, Lt. Tyler Mortenson observed the water cresting over the ditch and flowing into the student parking lot while responding to another incident.

Shortly after 11:30 a.m. Roger Price, Vice President of Infrastructure and Facilities Manager Tom Riffle toured the parking lot and Riffle notified the City of Madison that the drainage ditches were failing. William Bessette, Public Relations officer was working on the PA announcement, which was aired around 11:45 a.m.

The water level had started to reach the bumpers and the bottom of doorsills of the smaller vehicles that were illegally parked along the grass next to the ditch.
Students were also notified of the flooding situation via E-mail, the e2 Emergency Notification (WolfPack Alert) and on MATC's home page.

"I believe the college acted quickly and appropriately to inform as many students as possible about the situation as they could," said Price.

According to the report, the deepest water level on a level surface was about 31 inches (two feet seven inches) but in some areas the water easily surpassed three feet. Along the back ditch cars and trucks, including a Ford F150, located in some of the deepest water, slowly started to bob toward each other as the water level fluctuated with the rains.

On Scene…
Mortenson, along with officer Joe Steffen and off-duty officer Cory Johnson, were on the scene early to help students.

"Initially we were out there to keep students away from their vehicles for safety. We were worried about them freaking out and to keep an eye on everyone," said officer Steffen. "Students kept coming asking, 'What do I do? What do I do?' so we started to push cars out of the water."
Accompanied by the sounds of short-circuiting car alarms students waded out to their vehicles, disbelieving that the water level was above their seat cushions, to take insurance photos. Others looked in disbelief at their drowned vehicles and waited for help to push them onto drier land.

Mike Sieber, a displaced worked who is going back to school full time, was one of the unlucky students. His red 2002 Grand Am was featured in several photos on multiple TV station web sites. "It was submerged at least half way when the pictures were taken," he said.

Unlike most students, Sieber waited until he was finished with classes for the day before going out to his car. "I went out after my last class at 4:30, opened the door and had water come out," he said.

After calling a mechanic shop, who advised him not to star the car, Sieber's wife called their insurance company who told them to call Schmidt's Towing. "That was funny, because Alex from Schmidt's was already there in the lot next to me," he said.
From Pardeeville, Sieber's Grand Am was towed to Portage, where the insurance company declared it a total loss. "They said the wiring was already corroding," he said.
Rowena Thoms, a massage therapist, was another unfortunate student who lost her vehicle to the flood. After hearing the PA announcement she also decided to wait before looking in on her vehicle.

"Because I'm paying for school myself I didn't want to miss any moment of class whatsoever, so my class was done at 1:45 p.m. that was when I went outside." Her 1998 Toyota Tacoma was in the midst of the temporary lake.

"Some incredibly wonderful students were out there waist deep in water helping us move our vehicles to higher ground," Thoms said.
The water level was two inches above the bottom of the doorframe when she arrived but Thoms does not know for sure how high the water reached on her truck.

A long-distance commuter from Packwaukee, her vehicle sat for three days at the mechanic before the insurance agent was able to look at it.

"The insurance guy said it was a total loss right off the bat just because of how high the water was inside the truck," she said.

Record breaking rain
According to the National Weather Service, a total of 3.67 inches of rain fell at the Dane County Regional Airport. This broke the daily rainfall record, set at 1.37 inches in 1988. It also broke a record set in 1874 at 3.4 inches, for the largest amount of rainfall on any day in September. Of that amount, 3.2 inches fell between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. The torrential downpours caused flash flooding on Hoffman and Wright streets, which flooded the section of the student parking lot.

Roger Price, Vice President of Infrastructure said, "within the last couple years I think we had one other incident where there was some flooding, again with a lot of rain in a very short period of time and again, not to this level."

Designed 25 years ago, MATC's storm water system is integrated with the surrounding area so the flooding was a combination of MATC taking storm water from the surrounding area as well as downstream control.

"We're part of a larger area of trying to control storm water in an area that was a wetland at one time," Price explained.
After the parking lot flooding MATC worked with the DNR to see if there was anything that they needed to do immediately but the long-term solution lies with the facility master plan.

"I believe the facilities master plan where we look at parking, we look at storm water controls, we look at how water flows and where our responsibilities are to our neighbors both upstream and downstream. We look at how we protect personal property better than this circumstances that happened. So, looking back I think they have done as good as they could do, going forward I think we can address this," he stated.

Acts of God
According to Price, there was an estimated 45 to 50 cars that were in the flooded area but there is no accurate number on the total vehicles that were damaged.
Because vehicles are considered personal property, students with flooded vehicles will have to deal with their insurance company for compensation.

According to Price, the flooding would be considered an "act of god."
"With three-plus inches of water in a few short periods of time, and at one point I think they said there was over three-quarters of an inch in 15 minutes at the airport. That's just an unusual circumstance," he said.

Acts of God are covered my comprehensive insurance, which, coincidently also covers you if you hit a deer. Thankfully both Sieber and Thoms had insurance. Sieber received about $4,000 for his Grand Am and Thoms received about $7,000 for her Toyota Tacoma.

Price said that MATC is working with students on a case-by-case basis. Some students have received help replacing waterlogged textbooks while others have received help from Student Life finding consultations.

For students affected by the flood, their first contact is the Security Office to file a report.

"Between the security office, here, the Student Life office and our risk management office we have responded to the contacts we've had."

According to Mortenson, only three people have filed a report with MATC.
"I didn't know that was an option," said Sieber. He did receive e-mails back from Price and Joshua Cotillier, Risk Management/Health and Safety Manager, that basically said the same thing, "they are very sorry for my loss, but of course MATC isn't responsible," he said.

Thoms, on the other hand, had a different issue. "My husband called the school and talked to someone in administration and their answer was 'there's nothing we're doing about it, call security,' so my husband called and left a message for security and no one ever called him back."

Students First…
Currently, Sieber is borrowing his wife's van in order to attend school while his wife finds people to drive her to work and stores. On top of the stress of school, he is also trying to find new car. "I have no choice but to find something. The challenge will be to find something reliable and good in snow for the money they gave me," he said. "I have little money and am in no position to take out another loan."

Thoms is carpooling with her husband from Packwaukee. She arrives at MATC at 5:30 a.m. and leaves around 4:30 p.m. or 5 p.m. Before, there were days Thoms was in school for only a few hours before going home.

There are no plans to buy a new car.
"We put our money into school so we don't have any money to buy another vehicle, even a used one," she said.

"Another reason we can't afford to buy even a used car is because I can't work during the week now. Being a massage therapist I use to see clients during the day so I would see them before or after school and now I can't see clients. I'm loosing money because I can't work. Looking at the longer picture I don't know what I'm going to do for next semester," Thoms said.

"It would just be nice to know if they would do something. If they would reimburse us for the parking fee or something," she said.

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