The lake that is no more

photo courtesy of The Chicago Tribune

In one of the more amazing recent events, Lake Delton in southern Wisconsin has "left the premises".

That's the Lake Delton that forms the heart of the famed Wisconsin Dells tourist area and a great deal of the economic activity of the region. From The Chicago Tribune:

The apparent loss of Lake Delton for the summer—the signature landscape for the tourism-heavy Wisconsin Dells—figures to deal an economic blow to the season just as it was getting started. Along the lake, boat renters, hotel owners, tour operators and bait shop owners are bracing for losses.
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The severe damage in central Wisconsin is only part of a broad and still evolving Midwestern flood and storm system that has broken levees, closed or wiped out bridges, and led to the evacuation of towns and cities in at least two states.

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Against a backdrop of stunning video images of an empty Lake Delton, tourism officials scrambled Tuesday to assure the public that the damage was not widespread and that the Dells "are open for business."

The Wisconsin Dells have grown into a major regional tourist magnet, attracting an estimated 3 million visitors a year and generating $1 billion in tourist expenditures—most from indoor and outdoor water parks not on the lake.Still, there were reports of tourists canceling vacation reservations, many because the resorts along the lake saw their shores wiped out.

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The amphibious vehicles of the Original Wisconsin Ducks tour company were jammed, ferrying tourists over land through woods destroyed by the raging waters. The Ducks plied the Wisconsin River, where
debris bobbed in the headwaters.

But at Tommy Bartlett's—the self-proclaimed Greatest Show on H2O—owner Tom Diehl said his renowned troupe has already felt the pinch. He lost five days of shows to the storm—about $200,000 in revenue—and is trying to find jobs for 22 water-skiers who no longer have a lake to ski on.

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So what happened? And what can be done? James Janega, also of the Chicago Tribune, explored that aspect. :

Wisconsin officials said they had no idea Tuesday how they might stanch the flow of water still pouring from what had been Lake Delton, and they weren't even sure precisely how the giant leak started.

But they agreed that something must be done quickly to help the tourism industry that is built around the Wisconsin Dells' popular lake. Some have written off the idea of restoring the lake by summer's end."It's hard to describe the force of water when it wants to move in one direction,"

Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle said. "It isn't that it broke through a dam. It pushed aside about 250 yards of earth, maybe 15 feet deep and 50 yards across. It pushed the edge of the lake until it fell into the Wisconsin River."Civil engineering experts and geologists blame prodigious downpours that in recent weeks soaked and softened the low point between Lake Delton and the river.

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The result reminded University of Wisconsin-Madison sedimentary geologist Shanan Peters of a glacial lake draining, which is exactly what exposed the Dells millenniums ago. A finger of water found its way through loose soil and the soft sandstone, and then a torrent followed it.