Never knew about this and I live here in Wisconsin. Shows how much even local news truly cares.

We had a (every hundred years) flood in 2006 in N.E. Ohio. No flood insurance. FEMA gave us $2,000 for home/property. We got a mop, squeegee, broom combo and a towel from the Red Cross. We still laugh about the "help" we got. I can totally understand why people moved away from New Orleans and never went back after Hurricane Katrina.

How does this happen to American's when we literally give trillions in aid to other countries for disaster relief. This is an absolute nightmare even for those of us who didn't experience it! We have got to get this government under control!!!!

Wow, this is sad..And listing to the older gentleman speak about his experience..40 yrs of memory's gone..

I lived in elroy , it was my home town... the whole town wasn't abandon just that part of the street it is in one of the worse flooding zones with the baraboo River and small marsh near by. Most farming was done on the upper hills but the residents that lived on the hills were safe, it doesn't surprise me the town starting to be abandon. It isn't the best place to live and they don't care about the people there.....

Man, after living in your own home for 40 years than be living in an apartment, that is just awful, good luck to all of the victims of this floods!!

Interesting side note, the former governor of the state of Wisconsin, Tommy Thompson, was born and raised in Elroy Wisconsin. He went on to serve as Secretary of health and human services, and is currently in acting interim president of the University of Wisconsin. But I guess no one can figure out how to fix this problem in Elroy Wisconsin. They just don't want to, probably because there's no money in it.

Interesting. Very well done. It's crazy how people haven't heard about this. Someone needs to go there and do a real in-depth documentary, and get the word out to more people, and maybe pressure FEMA into doing something for them. Thanks for bringing this to our attention.

I love how you made contact with the people who lost these homes. The man at the church made me feel so sad and the woodwork was fantastic, I hope they save that. Sometimes the only answer is to let things go, people matter more

My father and his two brothers grew up in Elroy and we drive through there every time we go to our property. Everything is still there exactly how you see it

Damn bro this is some journalistic type stuff, crazy how these people haven't been compensated 12 years later

The homes have since been demolished

My heart breaks for all but the man in the beginning talking about 40 years of memories...really broke me!💔

I couldn’t even imagine loosing my home after 40 years,especially to a flood. I feel for these people.

I'm from Minnesota and we and Wisconsin have a Viking Packer rivalry but when you see this it just crush's your heart. Dam,what a sick terrible tragedy.

Ive always been fascinated by abandoned homes and neighborhoods and have often wondered how they got that way. This was very interesting- it makes me wonder how many other stories there are just like this one.

You were very respectful -your work in sharing this situation, especially with the owner who would have appreciated having you with him to check on his house and his neighbourhood

This is truly heartbreaking...I have never heard of this before. I hope and pray these people and families will be compensated enough to start a new life... Not in some apartment.

I am just in total shock ! Where are the representatives for this town, county, or state ? All the Americans taxes are supposed to be there for an emergency like this. No, life isn't supposed to go on like this in the USA. There is something really corrupt going on here. Thanks for making this. This shows the darker side of USA where good working people who don't believe in being the loudest squeaky wheel get screwed by the system. How much money did these people allow the government to take out of their checks for the insurance of something like this happening. Really makes me sick !

You can see the love that people put into their homes. Its eerie that its all just left to nature now. The way that he spoke of his home of 40 years. Feel so bad for him losing all those memories in the home.

"life goes on, you just gotta keep plugging away" This strong individual amazes me. God bless him 🙏

Thank you for this. These communities deserve to be remembered.

Thank you for making this. These kinds of places deserve to be remembered.

I live in Wisconsin and I recall the horror stories of the residents in the area surrounding Elroy. It's like one of those moments of sudden rememberance too. People talking about how their sump pump holes and drains started bubling up with flooding in water. And that church is one of the more beautiful ones too.

This is terrible I’m born and raised in Milwaukee and I’ve never heard about this town. As a Wisconsinite it was heartbreaking to hear that man’s story 40 years in a house of memories gone. Every family deals with it eventually my heart goes out to all the cheeseheads affected😢

Pretty heartbreaking for those people and families.

I live in central NJ, which was hit hard by Super storm Sandy in 2012. A number of people lost their homes, just like here, and they're still suffering to this day...

Wow! Hopefully some good will come from you raising awareness about this situation. These people deserve better. FEMA needs to resolve their part, which should've been handled much quicker. Good journalism! 💜✊

It is so tragic and breaks my heart. This is what it looks like after major hurricanes (I live in Florida). Sometimes there is so much structural damage the house is condemned and they have to leave everything behind. When houses are flooded it becomes a soup of everything imaginable. It is so heart wrenching to see exactly what we see down here after these storms happen way up north, just a different set of circumstances. I know that feeling of "what do I do now?" The stress is overwhelming. These incidents should have been covered more closely and these residents deserve help

That home owner.. totally “Salt of the Earth” Wisconsinite… much respect

Thank you for sharing this. A really great video. Feel really bad for all the people. Very sad but thanks for getting their story out. 👍

Elroy is still thriving town but Franklin St is right next to the Baraboo River and a large wetland area. Strong summer rains make the Baraboo grow over it banks often. Tho the 2008/2018 floods were the worst for sure. I haven't been back home in a while but it's rough to see how that area of the town is disappearing especially the Luthern church.

Thank you for allowing this community to share their voice. Hopefully, something will come from it. These families lost everything

Very interesting coming across this. Not long ago I was looking at some properties in Elroy via the internet and got to wondering about the obvious flood damage signs in the photos. Guess I know why now.

It appeared to be a very beautiful place to live before the devastating flood. Sad.

I used to live here, i had no idea this happened. I loved that town

I absolutely loved the blade runner blues intro sent chills down my spine hearing that again!

Thanks for taking the time to show what this area is still dealing with.

As a father who bought an old house and fixed it up for my family, my heart breaks for these folks.

In 2016 to 2017 I lived in Kendall WI. I worked at Walker stainless in Elroy WI. I eventually moved closer to the end of 2017. Crazy to see how much it's changed I remember those streets and houses and it's just a sad situation. There was alot of flooding in Monroe County from the same storms. The town of Leon was also under water.

I live in this town, its an amazing town with wonderful people. Another town you could do a video on is wonewoc wi there a ton of abandon houses downtown from the flood. Or viola/readstown wi.

What a tragedy, how did this place flood like that. I'm glad they were people that you could talk to to find out more of what happened.

God bless this man ! I am sorry for those problems! I sounded like Waverly in Tennessee!

Before Back in like ninety- six when was like an eight year old child living at the Valley Trailer Park of Clatskanie, Oregon we'd been awoken by our parents in basically the complete middle of the night to at least waist- high water packed full of all of our belongings floating by in order to basically wade over to a bit of higher grounds due to a big ole flood that ended up completely blowing away the damn as well but completely understand what those people been through for real!! 🥰🥰

Man, my heart breaks for him

This happened to us in 2008 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. WE lost our home and our entire neighborhood. Now it is a urban campground because nothing can be built on the land again. Our neighborhood has been gone for years, so its surprising to see this town left standing.

Thank you 🙏 i hope 🤞 they will rise again so beautiful 😍 place full of green 👌❤️

The tower part is called a widows peek..So sad to see the the two older gentleman not wanting to let go of memory’s

Your heart aches for this man and family, families. So sorry

Well I was born in Reedsburg, spent every summer with my grandparents in Wonewoc,my aunt and uncle lived in Elroy,it was run down even in the 60s

I live in baraboo which is probably an hour or so from Elroy. We had terrible flooding in 2008. I was only 7, but I remember walking down a park in the river and we walked through part of the river because it flooded so much into the land. We had mudslides too, I saw a shed almost completely buried in mud

This is incredibly sad, that man seen the home his children grew up in and he lived in for 40 years wiped out and he still visits

Having worked in construction for many years, we worked on several homes that lost concrete block basement walls to hydrostatic pressure build up from bad downspouts drains. This was the best selling point to individuals or families wanting to build a new home. 10 to 12 inch thick concrete walls simultaneously poured with the basement slab makes for a secure basement from flooding. With proper reinforcing these walls can withstand pressures from flooding. As for basement windows the forming and pouring of concrete wells is highly recommended while walls are being poured. Drainage system will be needed for the wells. As nice as it is, don't build on low lying land or in flood zones, the government will never help. All broken promises.

I used to live really close to the Yellow River in Wisconsin. My dad always talked about how if a flooding ever happened our house would be fine since we were on a hill. Where most houses roofs started was the bottom of ours.

I didn’t even know about this. It’s a real eye opener when we can see footage like this. It’s a very lonely feeling there now and I can’t imagine having to wait on fema like this. That man had over 40 years in his home and is still waiting. Sad. Great footage and thank you for posting !

Listening to that gentleman discuss his experience thru this situation… Makes me incredibly grateful to have not gone thru this. Never know what could happen to your home. Sending those families all the love and good energy thru this nightmare. 🖤

Thank you for showing us the church! Such incredible history and such a glorious church. That altar is wonderful🙌🏼

Peter Egan, the Road and Track and Cycle World writer was raised in Elroy. Sad to hear the town is in such sad shape.

Thank you for posting. I rode the bicycle trail between Elroy and Sparta Wisconsin. Elroy was a nice town.

These poor people. I’m so sorry to all that went through this. You try to build a life and circumstances rip your efforts apart. While we see buildings, the previous residents see so many memories lost.

I think these people will continue to wait. I have heard that there are still area in Louisiana basically just abandoned after Hurricane Katrina. My dad used to have a farm in Elroy. I believe in the 70's, he applied to have a dike put on his property. The army corps of engineers came out and said it would help benefit the area to prevent flooding. It allowed him to have a man made pond on the property and thus doubled the value. Not sure how they came to that conclusion about the benefit cause if the pond got to full the overflow would go down a pipe into a wooded valley that was uninhabited. #quadstatecameras

Getting better every video. Great editing, narrative and content. 👍👍

Interesting and well done including the information as to what happened ....Nice music too !

Native Texan but lived in Appleton Wisco for over 2 years. Did a 80ish mi Elroy to Sparta cycle loop, “there and back” starting in Elroy (2019) Rode the last 20mi pretty much at night due to my poor planning lol and didnt have a light. just my Iphone light LOL. I remember riding getting close to Elroy in the pitch black and the trail just like gave out and i flew on the ground. Luckily it was soft dirt. The trail had been completely washed out and i wasn’t sure why. I fell a couple more times that night and to make it more fun it started to drizzle. Shortly after i said screw the trail and hope on the adjacent road. It all makes sense now. Thanks for the upload. I enjoyed living in Wisconsin

It constantly amazes me how councils and States allow properties to be built next to or near a river and are then completely caught off-guard and surprised when the river floods and damages/destroys those properties. Does nobody bother to do any research before authorizing an area to be built on in regards building on potential flood planes? Sure it might be a super rare flood, but if the risk is above 0% you gotta address that. Flood defenses, build houses on stilts so the flood goes under rather than through properties. It's not like it's rocket science really. And properly compensate those who bought/built a house never knowing it was at risk of this for pete's sake!! We have this EXACT same problem in the North of the UK and it's becoming more common, sadly.

You were so kind and respectful. How devastating, mother nature has no mercy.

God be with everyone affected. Thank you so much for sharing this

really sad to see, it's so much more personal too hearing from some of the locals who were affected by this still around picking up the pieces so long after the disaster. hope they catch a break sooner rather than later.

Would have like to have known more history about the town and why FEMA hasn't paid out for these people? Why hasn't the city or county or state gone after the government for the funds?

This is so sad, I can't imagine being in that situation, losing everything and still getting no compensation.

I've been here!!! Many times! I actually had no idea there were so many abandoned homes!. But I lived very close to here in Wisconsin during the first flood and it was CRAZY! Just found your channel, interesting stuff!

So very sad that our government seems to care nothing about these people whether local, state or federal. Why?

Untenable situation these folks are in. This was around the same time in 2018 my area in Black Earth/Mazomanie got POUNDED by a stationary system right on the edge of the front that spawned these same floods. Western Dane County turned into an island, pretty much all of the major routes for the towns were flooded or washed out. Too many towns like this in the Midwest are simply forgotten, especially after major natural disasters.

Never thought of Wisconsin having a flooding issue before, until now. Crazy.

Wow that’s so cool that you happened to get an interview with that guy. Wish you had gotten his name. So interesting to think of all the stories from the town that may get forgotten.

This is so sad . Never heard about this before. America needs to do better. Praying for all these people

This is what happens when public officials take bribes... Proper surveys don't get done and things get built on flood plains...

My heart breaks for that guy....

Saddest urban exploration I've seen. Nothing quite like the sorrow that comes from an area left to rot that could have been saved. I feel for the residents who had to abandon their homes. So sad.

Great job with editing, interviews and backstory. Excellent story teller!

Yep I live in PA and those same two stors hit my area too. Another of people including myself ended up with 4 to 8 ft water in basement. Concrete Bridges over a the headwaters of a bigger river got pushed of foundations and are still not passable to this day.

We live in WI and remember this. So sorry this happened.

Oh wow, I live in WI and don't recall hearing about the devastation these floods caused. Thanks for the information.

Its nice to see nature reclaimed everywhere i wish america looked like that since I was a kid

Oh my gosh I couldn't wait for this video because I had a gut feeling it would be very valuable to me, and it was! #1 My deepest Blessings to that man and everybody who lost their homes and town🙏❤️🙏 #2 I'm buying a home an hour away from this town and flood probability is low, but I didn't believe that because there's lakes and water all around it! The realtor said I wouldn't need flood insurance, but I'm going to insure it to the max now! I forgot which flood it was 3-5 years ago in Texas and a woman lost her $700,000.00 house and had flood insurance! I'll be sure that doesn't happen to me and be sure to understand all clauses like the woman with the expensive house missed and she got nothing for her totally lost house! Thanks so much for this video! Perfect timing 🙏❤️🙏 Gosh what a waste of a darling little town. There's no such thing as to much insurance. Yikes!

As I was seeing the deserted town I was reminded of 'Salem's Lot in the Stephen King novel of the same name. Then I saw the name Kaiser Glick. In the novel there was a family named Glick. I sometimes imagine the town where I live as an abandoned place; it would be fascinating to be there alone and exploring after the people were gone---and before wolves and mountain lions returned!

Wow..so sorry for this man and family and all families involved

I'm so sorry for the people in this town. That would be rough.

My experience with fema is that they're great until the emergency is over then you are ON YOUR OWN. Things I have learned are 1. You can only depend on yourself at the end of the day. 2. Get the proper insurance coverage and a damn good agent. 3.Never buy any dwelling in any type of flood plane(renting is ok). Most importantly is that it is just stuff, you can get more stuff. People and pets should be the most important things you grab on the way out.

Sad. A lot of these houses actually look salvageable, though. They would need to be jacked up and have the foundations repaired and then rehabbed. Sounds crazy, but I've seen it done with river flooding a few times over the years. Same process they use to pour concrete foundations under old stone foundation houses.

Hoping this video will help bring light to the issue, thanks for sharing.

This is sad. It's a beautiful little town. Even now that it is abandoned, it looks like it was a great place to live. It's sunny and gorgeous there! I love little towns like that.

This is so sad. We need to be helping our own citizens instead of all the other countries.

I am sure the removal of the dam system from the Baraboo river has lots to do with why the flooding happened.

I remember this all to well. I lived in Elroy in 2008 when the flood happened. Water was over waist high. I volunteered to help sandbag.

A lot of people are complaining it wasn’t in the news. The first flood in 2008 was on June 7th. I was on-duty in the control room at WKOW 27 that day. I spent more than 6 hours on-the-air covering the floods. I don’t remember if we made it all the way up to Elroy or not that day. It’s a blur. I think we were stopped at Baraboo from going farther north. But also, Elroy was overshadowed by the fact the Lake Delton dam failed in the same storm. That said, I did a quick Google search of “Elroy Wisconsin flood” and the first link was to a news article form 2008, plus, there was a bunch of coverage from my former station of the 2018 flood. Especially since Tommy Thompson was living in Elroy at the time and KO interviewed him.

Why building in flood zones is allowed to begin with is always amazing to me. You might like the view until the river floods your house.

this is where the local citizenry steps up. creating water diversion and helping each other rebuild. Fema is not failsafe, nor is any other government organization. It's run by folks who don't have a dog in the fight so to speak. We had a flood that went up 1/2 way my sisters house. and what did they do? raise the house 3 feet. and build small hills to protect their home. How it should have been built to begin with

Haven’t watched the video yet but this is not too far from where I was born. I still live in Wisconsin too just on the other side of the state now. I never knew about this place and now I wanna explore it

Wow...so sorry for these folks struggling. So scary and dangerous. Heartbreaking.