No help for public infrastructure one year after ‘the floods’

In August 2025, more than 10 inches of rain fell in Wisconsin in less than a day, triggering widespread flooding and causing more than $240 million in damage to private and public property in the Milwaukee area. This storm set Wisconsin’s all-time record for most rain in a 24-hour period, causing flooding to homes, streets, businesses, and schools.

Federal disaster assistance has since provided approximately $210 million in aid to help individuals rebuild. However, no funding was provided to local governments for damages to public infrastructure and buildings.

This comes as Milwaukee County, Milwaukee Public Schools, the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District, the city of Milwaukee and the 18 other municipal governments in Milwaukee County sustained at least $34.7 million in combined damages to their buildings and infrastructure.

This outcome is notable both because it is rare and has a significant impact on local governments. Since 2000, among 3,178 named disasters nationwide (excluding the COVID-19 disaster), only 87 or 2.7% have had individual assistance approved but aid to governments denied.

Wisconsin has seen 23 declared disasters since 2000, and the 2025 flood was the only time that public assistance was not approved. This federal decision has meant that local governments affected by the 2025 floods have not received the kinds of assistance offered by the program in the past.

For example, in 2008, after severe storms caused flooding in the Milwaukee area, $4.5 million in federal assistance helped governments in the county rebuild. When storms and flooding occurred again in 2010, FEMA provided $10.3 million to cover a portion of the cleanup and rebuilding costs.

Wisconsin dedicates some state tax revenue to helping local governments rebuild after disasters if federal funds are not available. In 2025, this appropriation needed to cover $16.9 million in total damage claims – the highest annual amount in records going back to 2000. This was due both to the extent of the flooding in August 2025 and the denial of federal funding that potentially could have covered at least some of these costs.

Disaster recovery can impose massive hardships on local communities and their finances. Projections suggest the Milwaukee area and the state as a whole will continue to see more frequent and more severe rainstorms as the climate warms, as evidenced by the record number of storm warnings in April 2026 and record rainfall in Green Bay in June 2026.

As the availability of federal disaster relief has become more difficult to predict, if state leaders are concerned about the uncertainty of federal funds covering local government costs, they could authorize additional funding to pay for disaster relief using state tax revenue. State and local leaders could also make additional investments in flood control infrastructure and flood mitigation efforts.

Ultimately however, the scale of these disasters often makes it difficult for local and even state governments to bear the primary responsibility for recovery and rebuilding.

This information is a service of the Wisconsin Policy Forum, the state’s leading resource for nonpartisan state and local government research and civic education. Learn more at wispolicyforum.org.