Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Wisconsin 169 in Gurney was completely washed away by a roaring Vaughn Creek during Monday night's storms. The guard rail remained over the creek and was dangling in the wind Wednesday afternoon.
HURLEY - Iron County officials held a brief press conference Wednesday to provide an update on road closures in the county and the aftermath of Monday's storm.
According to county officials:
- While there are no U.S. 2 closures in Iron County, the closures in Ashland County continue to prevent thru traffic. The official route for travel west on U.S. 2 is from U.S. 2 to southbound U.S. 51, westbound Wisconsin 77, southbound Wisconsin 13, westbound Wisconsin 77, southbound Wisconsin 63 and northbound Wisconsin 53.
Both Wisconsin 13 and Wisconsin 63 have washouts that necessitate the longer route. Officials estimated travel time on the route between Hurley and Ashland to be approximately three to four hours.
- Harbor Road, Curry Road and County B are open to local traffic only. The county highway department continues to work to make County B a two-lane road again. Access to the town of Gurney has been restored through Curry Road.
- While Wisconsin 122 is open south of U.S. 2, it remains closed north of the highway.
- Wisconsin 169 is closed in Iron County.
- County A remains closed and is expected to be closed for "an extensive duration of time."
Those with questions about road closures can visit the Wisconsin Department of Transportation's website, 511wi.gov or can call 511. Residents are discouraged from contacting the Sheriff's Department for questions about road closures.
"I think our dispatch center is overwhelmed with phone calls," said County Board Chair Joe Pinardi. "Even the county clerk's office and the city clerk's office are getting phone calls and they don't have answers."
Officials are also asking people to stay off the roads unless necessary.
"Basically, right now, we'd like to keep it to local traffic only, official use and emergency services," Iron County Emergency Management Director Stacy Ofstad said.
Regarding Saxon Harbor, the Coast Guard has arrived and is formulating a game plan and assessing the situation, according to Forest and Parks Administrator Eric Peterson.
Peterson said seven boats remain unaccounted for and are believed to either to have sunk or be out on Lake Superior somewhere.
The damage to the harbor is estimated to be a minimum of $10 million. While the county is unsure of how much of that will be covered by its insurance, the insurance payment isn't expected to be near the total cost.
Other estimates of damage include roughly $200,000 to $250,000 in road damage in Gurney and another approximately $300,000 in road damage in Saxon, according to Ofstad.
County officials continue to collect information on total damages to send to Madison to be compiled along with the other counties impacted by the storm. The final numbers will be sent to the Federal Emergency Management Agency in a bid to get federal assistance with the response. Peterson said Coast Guard officials are "pretty optimistic" about the chance for federal assistance based on preliminary reports of the damage, but stressed it was still early in the process.
