Coon Valley residents show resilience as volunteers help them wade through flood wreckage

Sept. 02--COON VALLEY -- Joyce Stephan had yet to pry open the swollen lid of her cedar chest, but she knew, like most of her possessions, its contents would be unsalvageable.

"My wedding dress -- 46 years -- is probably gone," Joyce said, standing in her garage. Four days after torrential rains sent Coon Valley residents fleeing their flood-ravaged homes, rain was again pelting the streets of Coon Valley as homeowners combed through the wreckage.

Joyce and husband Roy purchased the brand new home on Anderson Street in 2006, customizing the rooms and opening their small business, Mega Parts, which sells Mopar muscle car parts, next door. The upper floor of the store will likely be their home for the next several months, as they start from the studs in repairing the damage to their beloved home.

On Saturday morning, Joyce and Roy had the help of some two dozen volunteers as they sorted through mud covered papers, soaked rugs and warped furniture. Among the cleanup crew was Shelby Fire Department Captain and town chairman Tim Candahl, who gathered firefighters at 7 a.m. to drive to Coon Valley, a town of 700, which had been largely inaccessible to safety workers as bridges sustained structural damage and streets filled with several feet of water.

Up to 10 inches of rain hit the area, requiring residents to evacuate first to Coon Valley Village Hall, then Coon Creek Fire Station, and ultimately to Coon Valley Elementary School, as safe havens successively succumbed to the rising waters.

With many Coon Valley firefighters dealing with damage to their own homes, Shelby firefighters stepped up Tuesday and Wednesday to help with rescues before moving on to damage control, sucking up water from basements, hauling soaked couches and mattresses to dumpsters, and clearing sludge from driveways.

"This is probably the worst damage I've seen from any of the floods we've had," Candahl said. "The scope of damage is going to take a lot of time ... the amount of water they had is just astronomical."

The flooding has caused an estimated $4 million in damage to Vernon County homes, and Shelby firefighters have been canvassing neighborhoods throughout Goose Island as well, with the southern portion of Shelby having sustained substantial damage.

"We're just trying to reach out to our neighbors because we never know when this will be back in our area," Candahl said. "We're dealing with the same problems we did with the 2017 floods. Residents are back at it again cleaning mud out of their basements."

In the Stephans' basement, mud reached the top of the nine foot ceiling, seeping 18 inches up into the first floor. Members of the Westby chapter of Christian Disaster Relief spent eight hour shifts wading through the basement and tearing up carpet padding, impossibly heavy with water, and hauling it to the curb. Rugs, rapidly molding walls and puffs of insulation were tossed from windows and dragged to a dumpster, already overflowing by 10 a.m. With no more dumpsters available, volunteers wondered where to discard the rapidly growing pile on the lawn.

Along with the complete loss of their appliances and furnishings, the Stephans' vehicle, flooded nearly to the roof, is a loss. The couple is driving around in the last available rental car from Sleepy Hollow and sleeping at a hotel in Westby, which they won't be able to afford much longer. They plan to set up house in Mega Parts with their dog and cat, who are being temporarily boarded at a kennel.

They took refuge on the second floor of Mega Parts after their home was overcome with water 2:30 a.m. Tuesday. However, the building was far from immune to damage despite being situated on a small hill. A foot of water took with it boxes of files and containers of expensive car parts, though power to the building has been restored.

"Our income is gone," said Joyce, who estimates up to $300,000 in inventory has been lost. "We can't fill orders."

Rubber boot-clad volunteers ranging in age from 7 to 70 have been on the Stephans' property since Tuesday, pushing wheelbarrows full of mucky collectibles and books out of the home.

"Do you want to keep this -- the family tree book?" one volunteer asked, holding up a binder of memories.

"Throw it," Joyce responded. "It's covered in water."

At times teary-eyed but also quick to joke, Joyce, surrounded by the her flood-wrecked possessions, was coping surprising well -- "It doesn't do any good to cry" -- and repeatedly expressed her gratitude for the volunteers.

"We didn't realize how much help we'd need," Joyce said. "It took a couple days to sink in -- we've never been affected by a flood before. People have just stopped by, offering help, putting in 12-hour days cleaning up."

The couple, like many affected, do not have flood insurance and will likely have little financial assistance in rebuilding their homes and their lives. Right now, they are finding blessings in the little things -- their daughter taking their laundry back to her La Crosse home for washing, free meals served at the Coon Valley Village Hall, uncovering possessions spared by the storm.

"We're doing OK," Joyce said. "We're making it."

Lowen Kanagy, one of 30 members of Christian Disaster Relief lending a hand in Coon Valley Saturday, said that while the flooding is the worst he's ever seen he is impressed by the resilience of those who lost nearly everything.

"There are a lot of brave people out here," Kanagy said. "When we meet them and get started, everything seems a little dim, but normally by the end of it they're holding up pretty well given the situation. We're here to bring a bit of brightness and help people see the light, really."

As cleanup winds down, Candahl will shift his focus to mitigation. At 3 p.m. Sept. 12, Town of Shelby representatives will meet with government officials to discuss funding infrastructure repairs.

"We'll climb the ladder as high as we can to get someone in here to realize what our issues are," Candahl said. "They're the same issues we've had since the last flood."

Emily Pyrek can be reached at [email protected].

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