Our Hyper Storm

This morning I woke when a wave of rain slammed into my bedroom windows. I rolled over, opened my eyes, the sky was weirdly pink with lightning flashing on and off like a dying neon sign. 

As you probably know, the weekend weather here in southeast Wisconsin was so intense we made it into national news. The craziness started Saturday night. Went to sleep at 11. At midnight rain came to town like a freight train trying to drive directly into our house. 

There’s stuff to be said about the sounds of climate crisis hyper storms that are so whippingly loud and unexpected. Rain smashed against the windows and drummed the side of the house. Even from inside I could hear the street in front of our house changing into a rushing waterway. The world had become a junior high orchestra of loud, wrong, and eerie. 

It rained hard and harder from midnight until morning.  There were nearly constant lightning flashes; the night sky was a strobe light. I went downstairs and to sit on the sofa because I was too alert to sleep. We have a new cat (I’ll tell you about her one of these days). Susan the Cat followed me everywhere and sat on me whenever I sat, so together we scrolled my phone. 

Most of the time I skip Waukesha Alerts on X (aka Twitter). I think the guy who runs it has a day job. But that night it was rolling drama and trauma. He communicates what he hears from emergency services in the county - and he was posting continuously. Lightning strikes were knocking down trees and wires. Fires started by lightning. People stuck in cars in rising water. A mom and kid climbing out of a marooned car in the pouring rain who were pleading for help. Road cave-ins. 

Power outages tumbled through the county. A nursing home had been struck by lightning, fire fighters were dealing with fire and smoke. People called with flooded basements or the smell of smoke. Terse announcements that off-duty emergency responders should come to work immediately. There were not enough responders to respond; they couldn’t even keep up with the incoming calls. And on and on the tweets kept unrolling. Susan and I were astonished at what was going on beyond our sofa. 

We were fine. There was a trickle of water in the back of our basement but we set up a fan and that dried it. We never lost electricity. This is a hundred-year-old neighborhood that’s not close to the river. We are also towards the bottom of a long low hill so our trees and tall houses, from the POV of lightning (?) aren’t as tall as trees and buildings further up the hill. 

In the morning Len and I walked to flooded Bethesda Park along the Fox River. We were going to go further but it started raining again so we went back home and ate the rest of our blueberry pancakes. Later we drove downtown to and walk along the flooded Fox River. We joined dozens of fellow-gawkers.  

Yesterday was Monday. By evening photos were popping up on TV, in social media, and in texts from a friend, that the river had continued to rise. More streets were flooded and closed. 

It’s raining again although this morning, it’s not the dramatic climate defying hyper storm of Saturday night into Sunday - when 8.5 inches of rain fell. Some communities on the north side o Milwaukee got fourteen inches. As one TV weather person commented, “In Wisconsin, 14” of rain in twenty days would be noteworthy. We got it in 20 hours.” 

Years ago Len and I increased the house insurance coverage for our basement. Since then when we hear about climate crises in other places, we comment that one of the safest places is right here in the Midwest. We ask each other what craziness would strike here and I guess now we know. 

Supercharged thunder and lightning storms. Too much rain too fast. Derechos of wind.

This is so political that it hurts. 

…

This is from a PRO-fossil fuels website. “The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” represents a sweeping overhaul of U.S. energy policy, aimed at reshaping the federal government’s role in energy markets and reversing key provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act. With a clear emphasis on fossil fuel production and energy independence, the legislation mandates new oil and gas lease sales across federal lands and offshore areas, revives tax advantages for producers, and loosens regulatory burdens that had previously constrained the industry. These changes signal a strategic pivot away from the Biden-era approach. The bill reflects a renewed focus on maximizing domestic energy output and scaling back federal support for clean energy technologies — all under the banner of strengthening U.S. economic and energy security. We examine how the legislation reshapes oil and gas production policy and the broader implications for energy markets and environmental goals.”

https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/regulation/summary-of-key-provisions-in-the-one-big-beautiful-bill-act/

This is on our street. Apparently in the middle of the storm there was so much rain in the sewer it pushed the manhole cover up and to the side.