Sheriff: 70-Year-Old Motorist Dies After Van Loses Control On Flooded Highway Near Baldwin, Wis.
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Flash flooding turned fatal in western Wisconsin Monday morning, after over nine inches of rain fell overnight. The town of Baldwin was one of the hardest hit areas.
According to the St. Croix County Sheriff's Office, deputies responded at around 5:15 a.m. to a crash on Highway E near Highway 63, just north of Baldwin, Wisconsin.
The sheriff's office says the motorist, identified as 70-year-old Gary Parent of Emerald, Wisconsin, was traveling westbound on Highway E when he drove into water that was flooding the roadway. The van then lost control, entered the north ditch and became fully submerged in water.
Parent was rescued from the vehicle by emergency responders, but was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.
RELATED: 'Extremely Dangerous': Flooding In Western Wisconsin Makes Some Roads Impassable
"We have had multiple swift water rescues throughout the county along with people trapped in their cars that had driven where the roads were no longer passable. They were either washed off the road or their car became submerged," said Scott Kundson the Sheriff of St. Croix County.
Some residents woke up to over five feet of water in their homes this morning. Dan Lehman's daughter had to be rescued from her home at 2:30 this morning.
"About 2:30 in the morning a neighbor came and knocked on the door woke up my son and law and my daughter called 911. She was in a wheel chair so the pay loader came it had a cage on it they put her in the pay loader and she was safe there were 2 firemen there with her in the pay loader and then they took her to the community center," Lehman said.
More rain is possible this evening, but it looks like the heaviest rainfall should miss this hardest hit area to the north.
