Biblical flooding in Midwest shuts down state fair, closes airport and leaves residents trapped in homes
Torrential rainfall battered the Badger State, with the National Weather Service (NWS) issuing a flash flooding warning for Milwaukee, West Allis and Wauwatosa.
Images emerged of flood waters rising over cars in the state, in one clip a man is seen stranded sitting on the hood of a car as fast flowing water passes him.
Other videos shared online show streets in the state flooded with rainfall totals exceeding six inches in some parts of the state, the NWS said.
Residents near the Menomonee River were reportedly trapped inside their homes in the early hours of Sunday morning after severe flooding swamped the area.
Mitchell International Airport said just after 3 AM on Sunday morning that all of their runways bar one was flooded.
The brutal storms also forced the Wisconsin State Fair to close early and cancel their main stage performance, Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Videos shared of the fairground captured the intense flooding at the event, with locals seen wading their way through high water to the nearest exits.
TMJ4 also shared video footage they had of vehicles trapped in the flood waters at the fair.
Fair officials announced the closure shortly before 10PM, saying: 'Attention Fairgoers! The State Fair Park is closing.
'Please use caution as you make your way to the nearest exit as safely as possible and follow the directions of the Fair Park staff and police as you exit.'
According to the We Energies outage map, around 45,000 customers were without electricity as of Sunday morning.
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the highest rain total was 10 inches in Butler.
Rain monitors ran by Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District said that over 13 inches had fallen in the 8100 block of W. Florist Ave in Milwaukee.
The outlet also reported that streets and creeks were flooded in Milwaukee, with some basements also underwater.
Benjamin Sheppard, a meteorologist at the NWS office in Milwaukee, said that those in the city should expect more to come.
He said: 'This first round of storms today has been to some extent unpredictable in terms of when and where they'll intensify and how fast they will propagate and move.'
The heaviest of the downpours are expected to land on Sunday night. Sheppard added that some fallen trees had been reported in Menomonee Falls.
In their latest warning for parts of Wisconsin, issued on Sunday morning, they said: 'At 619 AM CDT, Doppler radar indicated thunderstorms producing heavy rain across the warned area.
'Between 3 and 4 inches of rain have fallen. Muscoda and Boscobel had received over 3 inches of rain as of 615 am.
'Additional rainfall amounts of 1 to 3 inches are possible in the warned area. Flash flooding is ongoing or expected to begin shortly.'
The NWS urges anyone caught in a flash flood to 'turn around, don`t drown when encountering flooded roads. Most flood deaths occur in vehicles', they said.
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