Flash flooding in SE Wisconsin following record rainfall Sunday night

OAK CREEK - McCarty Park in West Allis was calm Monday morning, Aug. 3.

“This morning you wouldn't be able to tell…” Rita Allerheiligen said.

But Sunday night was a different story. 

“...unless you look at the fine lines, that there was a lot of water last night,” Allerheiligen said.

While debris and branches were left in the road, it was nothing compared to the flooding and swirling waters from overnight. 

“All you could see was kind of this silvery color because, you know, it was dark, and you could hear the water rushing,” she said.

Several cars got stuck in the water near 82nd and Arthur, as the water spilled into the street. 

“It came up to the cement, and then it kind of stretched from the pond, across the hill, across the cement river, up to the grass, and then it started to come across the street,” Allerheiligen said.

In Oak Creek, a family cleaned out two cars that were parked near Drexel and Wildwood Drive overnight. 

The rain heavily damaged multiple vehicles parked on the bridge. 

“So the inside of my car, it's like, filled with water,” Micah Currie said. “The water is spitting out from my exhaust, too, so that means it got into it. It was well over my tires last night.”

Parts of I-43 had to be shut down due to the flooding, too. Those lanes later reopened. 

“I didn't realize how quickly like, a flash flood thing could happen, and it just really surprised me, and then, how quickly it went away again,” Allerheiligen said.

The total rainfall was 4.79 inches in Milwaukee -- a new record for the city.