O’Lydia’s Bar & Grill in Milwaukee’s Walker’s Point neighborhood was the backdrop for a Wednesday press conference as city officials addressed the impact of recent flooding on local businesses.
Here’s Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson:
“The city is so committed — we’re so committed — to recovery efforts and helping to make sure our city is able to get back on track,” he said.
The bar’s basement flooded during last weekend’s storms, causing thousands of dollars’ worth of damage. But the bar is open again — something that not all businesses that were affected can say.
O’Lydia’s personnel acted on their own initially to clean up after the floods, but also worked with the Milwaukee Health Department.
Carly Hegarty, the Health Department’s director of consumer environmental health, wants home and business owners to think about food safety and sanitation as they start to clean up.
“We really emphasize that businesses need to go through wash, rinse and sanitizing any equipment that is in their space that is salvageable, right? There may very well be things that lost power, are no longer working — you just have to discard those,” Hegarty said.
“We also, of course, know that there’s product leftover; maybe it’s in cardboard boxes, maybe it’s in plastic and you think it’s still safe. We want to talk through that process with you. In a lot of cases, it probably needs to be discarded,” she added.
Hegarty said businesses can contact the Milwaukee Health Department at 414-286-8327.
The commissioner of the Milwaukee Health Department, Mike Totoraitis, said the department is monitoring diseases closely in the wake of flooding.
“So, we’re really concerned about enteric and waterborne illnesses, so we’ve been tracking that since the start of the flooding on Sunday night and haven’t seen any additional upticks in cases. Right now, we’re also monitoring people presenting to the emergency departments for GI issues or foodborne illness-related issues,” Totoraitis said. He said those are the most common diseases that tend to increase after flooding events.
The Health Department is also monitoring for West Nile virus, and the Department of Water Works is monitoring water quality, but there are no concerns to date.
Totoraitis said people should assume that any standing water in a basement or around a manhole is contaminated with sewage, so if you try to drain it, be sure to wear boots and gloves and wash your hands to minimize your risk of getting sick.
City officials encouraged residents to continue calling 211 to get connected to resources and make damage reports. The 211 data will help make the case for the region to get federal assistance.
Wednesday evening, Gov. Tony Evers officially requested support from FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The final decision on whether Wisconsin will get FEMA support lies with President Donald Trump.
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