Armageddon?

A set of unbelievable, but true, and surreal events took place in Milwaukee yesterday. I haven't fully recovered mentally and emotionally yet, but wanted to document a bit of how it impacted me before I forget.

It wasn't raining in downtown Milwaukee when I left the office at 5:10pm but within two blocks of exiting the building, on my way to my car, raindrops began falling. I knew it had been raining to the north of the city so I wanted to get home and thought I was leaving early enough to make that happen.

I got on I-43 heading north and shortly upon entering the freeway I heard that I-43 was closed in both direction about 15 miles north. I took the next exit and, knowing the city fairly well, mentally calculated my new route home. I headed east on North Avenue and then north on MLK Drive which I knew would eventually become Port Rd. Alas, just south of Hampton Ave, I encountered an intersection with rushing water; too deep for my little Civic to traverse. At this point the streets were more like parking lots and the rain was coming down in sheets. I decided to find a nearby high spot and wait it out for awhile. Over an hour later, just as the rain was diminishing, the tornado sirens began wailing. I made my way out of the parking space and ventured up the street. The on-ramp for I-43 was directly in front of me with no barricade or police car blocking the entrance - and so I proceeded onto northbound I-43 again.

Eerie doesn't quite capture what it felt like to be the only car on a major freeway at 6pm on a weeknight. I suddenly felt very alone and very scared and completely wrong. Within seconds the radio announcer confirmed that I-43 was closed in both directions and so I realized that I wasn't supposed to be there and I took the very next exit - thankfully only a quarter of a mile away.

"Aha! I can pick up Port Road again," I thought to myself. It took less than three blocks of driving north on Port Road to determine that it was flooded ahead. I turned to go east (the freeway was blocking my path west) and within half a mile I encountered more flooded streets that prevented me from going further. I tried to go north from that point and encountered more flooded streets. I tried to drive west from that point and encountered more flooded streets. And so I resolved to go back the way I came but this time head south on Port Road to Capitol Drive. Surely I could head west on Capitol and then go north from a point around 76th Street.

At 22nd and Capitol, the police had blocked further westbound travel due to flooding so I headed northwest on Atkinson. At approximately 28th and Atkinson, the traffic had come to a standstill due to an accident and flooding ahead. Feeling quite defeated at this point, and with a full bladder in a not-so-great neighborhood, I decided to either return to the office or attempt to get to my mother's apartment. It wasn't long before I found out that Miller Parkway, the road I would need to take to get to Mom's house, was completely under water. To the office I did go. I arrived at 8:50pm.

Remember the movie A League of Their Own? with Geena Davis and Madonna and Rosie O'Donnell? The scene where Tom Hanks takes a leak that lasts like 5 minutes? Nuf said.

So I booted up my laptop at work and reviewed every radar I could find. They all told me the same thing... more rain, heavy rain, was coming. Sure enough, within 15 minutes the skies over the building opened up. The company I work for resides in a 7 story brick building that takes up an entire city block and yet I swear the building was shaking from the thunder and heavy rain that fell on downtown Milwaukee shortly after 9pm. The only light on my floor was coming from my task light and the glow of my laptop. It occurred to me that if the power went out I would be thrown into complete darkness. I mentally mapped out the route from my desk to the stairwell and pictured the four floors down to the security desk that I would have to navigate to find another human being in the building.

Did I mention that I had very little battery power left on my cell phone and no charger with me?

So, after an hour, the radar (and lack of noise outside) indicated that there was a lull in the storm. Having looked at several traffic maps, I learned that I-45 had opened to traffic again - it was closed during my earlier foray. Furthermore, I-94 was open as well! That meant I could leave the office, head west on I-94 and then go north on I-45. I knew I could get home from there - even if it was the long way home.

Lest you think that I was truly alone in all of this, I want to clarify that my husband, a human GPS, was in frequent contact with me through all of this even though he was working. He's a delivery driver for a popular pizza chain and he was out in the rain all night making sure that people who didn't want to risk their own lives got some dinner by risking his life. He actually got stiffed on one delivery - after standing in the rain on a guy's porch waiting for Mr. Customer to figure out where he could find a wallet with cash in it. But I digress... I want to be clear that hubby was on the phone with me the whole time, telling me where to go and how to get there and where not to go and what not to do. That might sound annoying in this retelling of the story but let me assure you that the sound of his voice on the phone kept me sane. It terrified me to think that my phone might die and I would lose my connection with him. It seems silly in retrospect but this was all quite traumatic. He told me later that it was difficult for him to feel the helplessness of not being able to rescue me. I think he loves me.

So at approximately 10pm I called hubby and told him the exact route I would be taking. I estimated that I had about 15 minutes of battery left on my phone and told him I would call to say where I was, briefly, at each change of direction. He was leaving work at that time as well and was determined to meet me on the west side of town so we could "convoy" home the rest of the way. So got to my car and called him. I drove west on I-94 and turned north on I-45 and then called him again. He told me where to meet him and we drove home the rest of the way without incident. The clock in my car glowed 10:53 when I pulled into our garage.

I was concerned about the possibility of flooding at our house but the basement was dry. The northern burbs didn't get as much rain as Milwaukee had.

I thank GOD for protecting me from myself and from the storm. I saw so many stalled cars, and cars that floated out of control. I saw numerous houses surrounded by water and many, many ambulances, but I was, finally, safe at home.

Although I do not list names, I cannot take credit for any of these photographs. They were all reader-submitted photos from JSOnline.com. I was too frantic to think of taking pictures but most of these pictures were from neighborhoods or streets that I had been on while trying to find a way home. They paint a thousand words. You can't fully understand what it was like from my story but the photos sure help fill in the gaps.