UPDATED 5:25 p.m. Crashing waves draw onlookers

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BY JOHN KREROWICZ

jkrerowicz@kenoshanews.com

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The oddity of hurricane-inspired weather striking the Lake Michigan shoreline here today drew dozens of the curious and camera-laden.

“How often do you see something like this on a lake?” asked John Teofilo, who had to hold the shoulders of his wife, Mary Ann Mullen Teofilo — they are a retired couple from Mundelein, Ill. — to steady her in high winds as she photographed waves crashing into boulders protecting the shoreline south of the Kenosha harbor channel.

“When was the last time you heard about a hurricane coming through the Midwest?” wondered Ken Hazell as he and wife Terry, from Pleasant Prairie, were awed by swells easily covering the breakwater east of the channel.

“I was in Florida during Hurricane Hugo in the 1980s, and I don’t remember those waves being anywhere near as big as these.”

Hurricane effect

High waves had been expected as offshoots from Hurricane Sandy, headed west through Pennsylvania this afternoon.

The National Weather Service issued a wind advisory on Monday through 7 p.m. Wednesday for the lakeshore between Sheboygan and Kenosha counties, with the worst hitting near the Illinois border. The weather service had predicted possible gusts up to 45 mph, causing waves as high as 18 feet.

Pleasant Prairie officials on Monday had encouraged some Carol Beach residents to leave their homes because of possible flooding and property damage from high winds and waves. The village changed that stance about 11 this morning because waves were smaller than anticipated.

A flood advisory was canceled shortly before 5 p.m. based on National Weather Service information indicating the peak wave period has passed.

The forecast is wave and wind action to continue to decrease, with wind speed of about 10 mph expected Wednesday night.

Harbor taking a beating

Waves at the Kenosha harbor channel spread into a shape like a monster scallop’s shell as they hit the boulders along the lakefront. That and the wind’s strength apparently didn’t scare several people who dared to cross Kenosha Police Department safety barricades intended to keep the public from walking on the north and south piers.

Kenosha resident Tom Tatroe stood close to the action on the rocks south of the piers, taking photos for a West Virginia cousin who always treks by the lake when he visits here.

“I think it’s relaxing and peaceful,” he said of the weather action. “It reminds me of one of those paintings of the East Coast.”

Help for residents

The Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department Emergency Operations Center was opened at 6 this morning to assist with citizens’ difficulties from the storm. It was to remain open until the storm threat or community need ended.

Pleasant Prairie workers on Monday also had distributed leaflets to area residents with emergency contact phone numbers.

But John Steinbrink Jr., village public works director, said there were no reports of flooding and no requests for evacuation help. Steinbrink said there were 8- to 10-foot waves along the shore between 122nd and 125 streets at one point hitting the seawall but not splashing over.

There also were some minor erosion issues east of Lakeshore Drive for properties facing the lake, mostly for homes without shore protection.

Steinbrink said about 3,500 sandbags prepared between 6 p.m. Monday and this afternoon were picked up by residents from a site north of 90th Street on Fifth Avenue. Another 600 were at the site as of mid-afternoon and offered to residents through 6 p.m.

The bags were a precaution more than a necessity. “If we get 18-foot waves, it will cause structural damage,” he said. “It’s hard to predict how bad a storm would be, and we’d want to err on the side of caution to protect property.”

Steinbrink said residents who took sandbags will be asked to stack them at the end of their driveways or at the location that the bags were deposited originally for home owners to pick up. The village then would retrieve the bags. Residents who want to keep the bags for a while should contact the public works department when they want them removed, he said.

Eight public works employees, eight county work crew members and 25 volunteers, including friends of village residents and some area businesses’ employees, helped with the sandbag project.

Larry Kreuser was one of the Carol Beach area residents who picked up some of the sandbags. Kreuser, who lives on Third Avenue, distributed the bags around his attached garage in case of flooding.

He and other residents said they also stocked up on groceries and bottled water just in case.

Kreuser was surprised that the eastern shore of Lake Michigan would be affected by a storm so far away.

“It’s amazing that it’s coming this far,” he said.

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