But signs of the flood still remain, and its effects will be felt long after the river slips into its traditional banks. Pettibone Park, across from downtown La Crosse on Barron Island, will likely be closed for another two or three weeks while city crews clean it up, said Bob Berg, La Crosse Parks and Recreation director. It's typical of what you see when you have high water there. During the flood of 1993, the park was closed nearly all summer, Berg said. I got a close-up look at what the flood left behind last week.
Flooding means mud - and plenty of it.
There are still areas of standing water in the park and various stages of mud. Where only a few inches of water covered the road, the mud dried into a chalk-like substance that covers everything. The asphalt road could pass for a lunar landscape, with numerous potholes and washouts looking like craters. White rings encircle the trunks of majestic maples and other trees, leaving marks 4 feet or higher to show where the water reached. The river leaves behind what it carried from long distances upstream.