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Floodwaters creep into Beloit Township

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Photo by Al Hoch

J.P. Lengjak returned in his pick-up to his home on Riverside Dr. in Beloit Township with a load of sandbags.

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Photo by Al Hoch

Jerry's Sport Service on Riverside Dr. in Beloit Township.

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Photo by Al Hoch

The flooded Rock Shores Trailer Park in Beloit Township.

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Photo by Al Hoch

Rich Tippelt of the Beloit Township Fire Department drives thru the flooding that the Rock River brought to residents in the Glenwood Subdivison.

BELOIT TOWNSHIP — A canoe was tied Sunday to a light post in the front yard of a house at Idlewild and Woodland drives.

The intersection looked like an extension of the Rock River, which has spilled into the backyard of nearly every house in the area.

Rich Tippelt, public information officer for the Town of Beloit Fire Department, parked a red truck amid the murky floodwaters.

“We’re probably the least affected compared to Janesville and Newville,” he said of the record flooding in the area.

While scores of people to the north have evacuated their homes and dozens of businesses have closed their doors, the flooding has affected fewer people to the south, where the river is wider and slower.

Tippelt said the flooding has been more gradual since the initial onslaught a week and a half ago.

“It’s not going up, it’s spreading out,” he said. “It’s just kept creeping slower and slower.”

Residents along the river constructed sandbag walls that held back the water, but as the river approached its crest, the water inched closer to houses farther from the river.

“People didn’t realize it was going to affect them until it was in their backyard,” Tippelt said.

‘We’re frustrated’

J.P. Lengjak, a town of Beloit firefighter, has given up sandbagging at his South Riverside Drive home.

More than 700 feet of the 936-foot driveway is submerged. Floodwaters have reached the garage, the structure that sits closest to the river, but lurk uncomfortably close to the sandbag wall in front of the house, which sits farther from the river.

Although there’s no water in the house, the Lengjaks have moved everything off the ground floor as a precaution. The electricity hasn’t been compromised, and the family hasn’t considered evacuating yet.

“We can still come and go,” Lengjak said.

He has fitted a snorkel to the exhaust pipe on his sport-utility vehicle so he can drive through the water to the garage.

But with 16-inch boots, the trek is a dangerous one, Lengjak said as he slowly made his way through his flooded yard.

“We’re frustrated because the water level never goes down,” he said.

“We just wait and make sure the sandbags are holding up,” he said. “We’re frustrated and waiting.”

Response criticized

Tippelt said the fire department has provided sandbags at its station, the township’s emergency operations center at Newark and Afton roads, and has trucked sand into flooded neighborhoods.

But some people have been critical of the department’s response, he said. They’ve demanded that the department do more, such as provide portable toilets for those who haven’t evacuated their flooded homes.

Tippelt said the fire department has done all it can and must wait for the waters to recede before taking action.

“It could be two or three weeks before we see a difference,” he said. “We still haven’t set any parameters for cleanup because we don’t know what we’re going to do yet. There’s lots of questions we have to resolve, yet.”

The tentative start date for cleanup is July 7, but that’s just a guess, Tippelt said.

As he drove south toward the fire station, he looked over his right shoulder at streets and lawns submerged in yellowish-brown water.

“You can imagine what a mess this is going to be,” Tippelt said.