Communities along Fox River in Kenosha County still underwater, state's damage assessments continue

SALEM LAKES, Wis. (CBS 58) -- Representatives for Wisconsin Emergency Management say the state is not yet ready to move forward with an aid request to help with recovery efforts from the April storms.

Damage assessors are still collecting data, and flooded areas could cause some delays.

Several neighborhoods along the Fox River near Salem Lakes in Kenosha County are still coping with flooding.

The Fox River is still well above its banks, over roadways that are preventing people from returning to their flooded homes.

Damage assessors want to see those areas before they're able to submit their plans for federal aid.

The usually quiet neighborhoods are now awash in activity.

Samuel Semke of Salem Lakes was driving around in an ATV to look at the floodwater. He told us, “Almost all the houses on the river are up to the windows. They're totally destroyed.”

Up and down the Fox River, dozens of homes are putting up a fight against the floodwater.

Heavy-duty pumps help clear basements; sandbags create a wall.

But in the lowest lying areas, the battle was lost long ago.

Semke pointed to some homes and said, “At least three feet, three and a half feet right there. And probably deeper so I think that house is probably six to eight feet.”

Surrounded homes are empty as people can only wait for the water to recede before looking at what’s been lost.

Local damage assessors are still compiling data but cannot access some of the hardest hit areas.

Hanging in the balance is a request for FEMA assessments, and the possibility of federal aid.

Elsewhere, the water has receded enough to end the scare.

Neighbors say they're used to the flooding. The river rises every year; they all say 2017 was the worst.

Gil Thorsen lives in the last dry house on his street and says he wasn’t worried this time around. “I know this river. And I know the rain. I think I do. I'm not sure.”

But the worst areas have taken a beating over the years, and many people have left the most flood prone homes.

“They took down so many houses down there that used to be summer homes,” Thorsen said.

But others stay are try to live with it.

“But they make it," Thorsen said. "They just have to take a boat to the house.”