Milwaukee County Executive David
Crowley declared his own
state of emergency on Sunday,
as the scope of the flooding was
immediately evident.
At week's end, David Crowly
joins us for what's happening now
and what's next.
And thanks very much for being here.
Thank you for having me, Frederico.
Always a pleasure.
So now, just under a week since
these torrential rains and
flooding, what is happening in
Milwaukee right now in the
aftermath?
Well, we've had an opportunity to
talk to many different neighbors and
businesses and a lot of them are
facing a lot of devastation and
really heartbroken as far as what
this severe weather has done to
them and so right now we are
in the recovery mode and so we
have damage assessment teams working
in conjunction with not only our
local official but as well as the
Wisconsin emergency management and
our job is to make sure we do this
analysis report that damage
hopefully we'll be getting that
preliminary data done today.
We'll be then turning that over to
the Wisconsin emergency management
system to see if we
can get a FEMA declaration.
I've heard that they may be coming
as soon as next week.
More to hear on that.
But when they're here, that gives
an opportunity to do an analysis of
our damage report and
for them to actually to see the
damage themselves before making a
declaration.
What is the scope of the damage?
Do you know yet?
Do have kind of a ballpark
dollar damage figure?
When we think about a thousand year
flood, it could create a lot of lot
of damage, right?
Thousand year range storm coming
into our community.
And so far we've had the opportunity
to to actually assess over
2900 different levels of
properties. And we see a lot more
properties who have either major
damage or completely destroyed.
And s,o we know that when
it comes down to our public
infrastructure, it exceeds $23
million today at this
moment. And So as we continue to do
these damage assessments, We're just
asking for the public's patience
to contact 2-1-1 as much as
possible to report that damage so we
can give an accurate assessment.
What was worst?
You know, I don't think, you know,
when you talk about Milwaukee
County, I would say what was worst
hit is our pride.
You know this is something that we
never really understood was coming
our way.
But when you see what has happened
in Greenfield, what has happen in
West Alice, a city of Milwaukee,
including Wauwatosa, there's a lot
of damage. And we've also heard
about other communities outside
of Milwaukee County who've also
faced a certain level of damage
and so it is our hope.
That we will be able to receive some
level of FEMA assistance
compared to what we've
seen out there with my own eyes, I
do think that we've reached that
threshold for a presidential
declaration.
How are residents coping?
You know, residents are doing
everything that they can.
Many are heartbroken, but I've also
seen many folks whose spirits
are still high.
And I'm glad to see folks helping
out, been going to different
neighborhoods, seeing neighbors
helping neighbors, businesses really
stepping up.
But what this community really needs
is for their neighbors, folks from
all across this state to really come
down and assist with the cleanup,
helping us to get to those recovery
efforts, get into that place of
normal as much as
we can and as quickly as possible.
I want folks to know that our
spirits aren't broken.
We are a strong and resilient
Milwaukee County and we're gonna do
everything that we can to not only
recover but to rebuild the best way
possible.
You're kind of putting a call out
for people to come to help.
Is there enough help on the ground?
You know, when you're talking about
the level of devastation, and
not just the physical damage,
but the psychological damage that
this can have, you know, we need as
much help as possible, right?
I mean, there are so many seniors,
people with disabilities, who still
haven't been able to clean out their
basements and still have, you know
severe damage in their
basemats. But you also have
individuals who have lost.
You know, their foundation
completely and you know have close
to three feet of mud and water still
in their basements and needing the
help to clean those things up.
And so we do need as
much help as possible.
We're asking folks to to not
only contact the Red Cross to
provide some level of assistance,
but we do have our website
county dot Milwaukee dot gov
slash 2025 flood resources
where individuals can sign up
to to create their own volunteer
teams to go out and help
individuals.
Are you optimistic that
FEMA will deliver federal disaster
aid here?
You know, I am hopeful that
they will be able to give us that
federal declaration.
When you think about the level of
damage again, $23 million in public
infrastructure alone and seeing
homes who are already being quoted
$100,000 in
order to rebuild to
the to the magnitude that they feel
comfortable with.
I mean, that's quite extreme and we
know that, you know, insurance isn't
going to cover everything for
individuals.
And so if we want to bring back
individual assistance and be able
to rebuild the best way possible,
that declaration is going to be
extremely key moving forward.
And so I'm grateful for
Governor Evers and making the state
declaration.
And so hopefully we'll be seeing
that at the federal level soon.
Milwaukee County Executive David
Crowley, thanks very much and good
luck.
Thank you so much for having me.
Thank you.
Thank you, I appreciate you all
giving us a chance to tell our story
and put out a call for help.
Of course.
Of course, all right.
Thank you. We will be, you
know, of course watching and
covering, so thanks.
Have a good one.