Mary Annette Pember
ICT
Ezra Leoso rose early Sunday morning to set up his family’s food truck, The Frybread Shack, at the Red Magic Art Festival in Milwaukee.
Barely awake, Leoso gazed out the 12th floor window of his room at the Potawatomi Casino Hotel at the river flowing by the front of the property. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he realized something wasn’t right.
“Wait now,” he thought. “There’s not a river in front of this building.”
Leoso, a citizen of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, had driven with family members to Milwaukee, where they stayed in the Potawatomi Casino Hotel located on Forest Potawatomi tribal lands.
Unknown to Leoso, however, severe storms had moved through the nation’s midsection, including eastern Wisconsin, beginning late Saturday evening on Aug. 9. Among the worst hit was the Milwaukee area, where up to 14 inches of rain had fallen by Sunday, according to the National Weather Service.
Sarah Marquardt, a National Weather Service meteorologist noted that four rivers in the Milwaukee area hit record-high levels over the weekend. Unofficial two-day rain totals were in the 10- to 12-inch range, with one reading exceeding more than 14 inches in northwestern Milwaukee County. Those levels would set record highs for the state once they are verified over the coming weeks, Marquardt said.
The current state record is 11.72 inches set in 1946.
Jay Saunders, senior public relations manager for the Potawatomi Casino Hotel, said the casino property is on Canal Street which runs parallel to the Menominee River.
“This was a historic flooding event,” Saunders told ICT on Tuesday, Aug. 12. “We currently have no access to the ground floor entrance of the building, but a skywalk connects to our parking structure so guests and team members can still enter the building.”
It could have been a lot worse, he said. No one was injured.
“The only issues we have are at our parking structures,” he said. “Hotel, restaurants and the gaming floor have all operated as scheduled. We consider ourselves very fortunate. Our hearts go out to our neighbors in the community.”
The center of the Forest Potawatomi Community reservation is in Crandon, about 200 miles north of Milwaukee, and was not impacted by the flooding. Most other tribal communities in Wisconsin are located north and west of Milwaukee, and likewise avoided the worst of the bad weather.
Up to the axles
Back at the casino, however, Leoso woke his mother, Essie Leoso, who was sleeping in a room next door, and they quickly descended to the hotel’s main floor to check on their food truck.
“There was a river between the front door and the parking structure,” he said. “I had to go upstairs to a third floor skywalk to get over to where the Frybread Shack was parked.”
The Shack’s truck and trailer were standing in water above the vehicles’ axles. The family promptly canceled their booking at the Red Magic Art Festival, an arts and culture event celebrating Native arts, culture and community, but the event was on higher ground and appeared to have proceeded without incident, according to its Facebook page.
Leoso was eager to investigate the damage to the truck and trailer, but members of the casino security cautioned Leoso and other patrons to stay out of the flood waters, noting they could be dangerously polluted.
“All I could do was wait,” Leoso said.
The flash flooding led to the cancellation of the final day of the Wisconsin State Fair in West Allis outside of Milwaukee on Sunday, as well as USA Triathlon’s Sprint and Paratriathlon National Championships in Milwaukee. Thousands of athletes from around the country were expected to participate in that event.
State of emergency
As casino and city workers pumped flood waters from the street and parking lot, Leoso saw that the area around his vehicles resembled the bottom of a pond that had been drained.
“There was mud and rocks all around,” he said. “Water got inside the truck and trailer, likely ruining small equipment we had inside.”
After getting a company to power wash down the Frybread Shack vehicles and equipment, Leoso remembered that he’d had the hotel valet park his brand new Dodge Durango the night before.
“I checked with the front desk, showing them my parking ticket. The clerk said, ‘I’m sorry, your car was parked underneath the parking structure,’” Leoso said. “The clerk said the water was almost up to the ceiling down there.”
Leoso realized that the hundreds of dollars of non-perishable supplies he’d purchased Saturday and left in the Durango were also a loss.
Although disappointed over the loss of his vehicle and supplies, Leoso was grateful that none of his family or others in the area were hurt. “That’s the best news,” he said.
Milwaukee area residents couldn’t believe what they saw as rains pounded the area Saturday night. Cars and homes were flooded, and residents scrambled to escape the rising waters.
Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson said he’s heard stories from residents across the city, including his own uncle, who had water all the way up to the top of his basement.
Some motorists left their stranded cars on the roadways.
A teenager clinging to a tree branch and standing on a submerged log was rescued by firefighters in an inflatable boat on Sunday afternoon after getting swept away as the Root River flooded a road in Franklin, about 15 miles southwest of Milwaukee. He was rescued unharmed about 100 yards downstream from where he entered, the Franklin Fire Department said.
Overall, firefighters responded to more than 600 calls, including reports of gas leaks, flooded basements, electrical outages and water rescues, according to the Milwaukee Fire Department.
The city of Milwaukee was still assessing the extent of the damage Monday as flood waters receded, said the city’s public works director, Jerrel Kruschke.
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers declared a state of emergency after touring some of the damage in suburban Wauwatosa on Monday, and called the flooding “unprecedented.”
No fatalities had been reported as of Monday morning from the storms, which began Saturday night and stretched into Sunday. Road closures were more isolated Monday as flood warnings continued in Milwaukee, Waukesha and Ozaukee counties. About 2,000 homes in the area remained without power as of Monday afternoon.
Frybread Shack lives on
Leoso spoke to ICT as he drove the Frybread Shack food truck and trailer back to Bad River on Tuesday, Aug. 12. He was overjoyed when the truck’s engine started.
“People told me later, though, that a lot of smoke was coming out of the truck at first,” he said.
After a thorough professional cleaning and sanitizing, the Shack will be up and running at the 44th annual Bad River Manoomin Powwow, which runs Aug. 15-17. Bad River is home for the Shack, where the family has honed their popular recipes and menu items.
The Leoso family began the business about four years ago with a few informal pop-up stands.
“We got good reviews from Natives and non-Natives who had never tried frybread,” Leoso said.
The family struggled to secure financing but eventually purchased a used food truck and trailer. After securing commercial insurance, sellers, health and state permits, the Leosos launched their business.
“I scraped more money together and got a detailed wrap with our name and logo, and people started to recognize us,” Leoso said.
Since then, the Frybread Shack has risen in popularity.
“We’ve been invited to big festivals and powwows, but our biggest event was the NFL draft in Green Bay in April,” he said.
The Shack was one of only four food trucks invited to the event at Lambeau Field. “They [organizers] thought the Native culture would be a good fit here in Wisconsin,” he said.
Indeed, the Frybread Shack is known for its traditional frybread presented in innovative ways.
“We introduced the Taco Crunch, a frybread taco topped with Hot Cheetos and sour cream,” he said. Other menu items include fresh strawberries or other fresh fruit made into a filling for frybread and covered with whipped cream and chocolate.
And of course, plain frybread is also available.
“Non-Natives who’ve never tasted frybread tell us they really like it,” he said. “And Native people that show up say, ‘Hey, I’m not saying this just because you’re Native, but we haven’t tasted bread this good in a long time.’”
See more Frybread Shack menu items here.
The Associated Press contributed to this article