Sheboygan’s flood of 1998: 10.84 inches of rain fell in a 24-hour span. Here's a look back.

SHEBOYGAN – 1998 was a relatively dry summer — until August rolled around.

It started innocently enough, with rain showers on Monday, Aug. 3.

Rain kept coming that Tuesday and Wednesday.

Then on Thursday, a one-two punch dropped 10.84 inches of rain in a 24-hour span.

No one was killed or seriously injured, but the waters that rose from the intense rain caused millions of dollars of damage.

Nearly every part of the city was affected by the storm, a clipping from Sheboygan Press files shows. Basements filled with water from sewer backups and, in many cases, water from the outside poured into basements, damaging foundations.

In the days following the immense rainfall, the true spirit of Sheboygan came out to help as neighbor after neighbor helped pull damaged items out of flooded basements.

Damaged and discarded items lined the streets throughout the city for garbage pickup.

Jim Schramm, the city's mayor at the time, said, "It doesn't take much to make a car float."

Streets were flooded with many inches of floodwater and, as a result, Schramm sought help from state and federal governments.

Tommy Thompson, then Wisconsin governor, toured Sheboygan the day after the rains, declaring a state of emergency and inviting the National Guard — and even some prison inmates — to help with the massive cleanup.

When Thompson toured the mayhem, he saw the anguish of the people harmed by the floods, offering hugs and assurances that the state would do what it could to help.

RELATED: 'I don't think anyone escaped it': Sheboygan’s 1998 flood left scars, triggered changes

Officials from the local fire department and U.S. Coast Guard station helped evacuate about 100 people from the apartments.

Photographs from the time showed cars in the housing complex’s parking lot up to their hoods in water, while nearby evacuees were taken away in boats.

An entire neighborhood of homes eventually had to be torn down as it was determined the homes on Camelot Boulevard were in a flood-prone area.

To pay for the damage, federal, state and local funds — including about $1.3 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency — was used to buy and then demolish them.

Today, that area is a park where you will see people walking their dogs.

The heavy rains turned out to be a wakeup call for the city to more closely examine its storm runoff capacities. Department of Public Works Director Dave Biebel estimated that Sheboygan has spent about $20 million to mitigate flooding risks since 1998, and could spend even more in the future.

RELATED: J.J. Koepsell was a plumbing wholesaler for years on Sheboygan's riverfront. Today, its former site is home to a future apartment complex.

According to the Press files, the city spent an estimated $7.3 million on sewer and pond systems designed to handle water runoff in various parts of the city.

Many in the city today still fear epic rains could someday return, causing scars that will last another generation.

City officials said a few years ago the new systems that were installed could possibly not be enough for an identical storm, but the odds of the massive flooding seen in 1998 have been reduced as a result of the steps that were taken following the flood of a century.

Gary C. Klein can be reached at 920-453-5149 or gklein@gannett.com . Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @leicaman99 . Check out his other work at www.sheboyganpress.com/staff/4383066002/gary-c-klein/ .

This article originally appeared on Sheboygan Press: Sheboygan’s flood of 1998: 10.84 inches of rain fell in a 24-hour span. Here's a look back.