July 27, a memorable day in Madison..

A flashflood hit Madison last Thursday unexpectedly. Rain started pouring around 11.40 am but I thought it was only another typical rain. If you do not know, we always have thunderstorms warnings but in a year, probably less than 5 thunderstorms struck our little city. On that day, it took less than 45 minutes for the water level to rise above knee level. At the back our of apartment, my housemate, Nick and I could see water gushing incessantly causing several cars to float. Water level reached the roof top of one the cars as you can see in the pictures below.

It wasn't easy for a truck to move as well..

Wow, one man show...

Water still gushing and a garbage bag seen floating.

Two cars were almost fully submerged.

Parking lots in front of the apartment.

In the beginning, Nick and I were having fun taking pictures of the flood but soon enough, we were devastated by the fact that they had to turn off the power to the whole building and force us to evacuate the building. It has been 10 days since the flashflood and I am still homeless. We were relocated in one of the dorms until two days ago (Friday) - we were kicked out twice, first from the apartment and second from the Adams dorm.


Right now, I am at Milwaukee staying in Dan's (one of my housemates)house. We should be able to move back into the apartment by Tuesday after the city inspects the building. But then, we only have 7 days before we have to move out again into our new apartment. Nevertheless, I would like to extend my sympathy to my friend, Ling Siong whose properties were destroyed except for some of his clothes and laptop. Most of his electronics (desktop, iPod and camera) were found 'swimming'. Well, I forgot that I lost something too..my bike and precious time. Feel free to donate to kuokteong@gmail.com through paypal;).

For more pictures (courtesy of Nick Schafer), go to Nick's Flickr photo website