MKE Closed
 

Possibly due to the fact that there was 5.22 inches (and counting) of rain today, the airport is closed (again). Tomorrow should be fun.

edit:

MKE closed until at least 8:00 AM CST (July 23) - flooded runways according to WTMJ radio.

Current phone wait time to reach call center to reschedule: 125 minutes.

MKE now closed until at least 12 noon today.

You know how bad conditions have been at MKE, if the Brewers' charter had to be diverted to ORD in the wee hours of the morning.

faa.gov says the airport is expected to be closed until 5:59pm tomorrow night. Hopefully this is a incorrect information!

Flight aware is showing the same thing.
WISN is reporting that the baggage area is flooded. They showed the E gates, and there was a small river running through the taxiway.

We got a lot of rain the Fox Valley, but what my friends in Milwaukee are saying, this was absolutely crazy amounts of rain.

I now present to you, Lake Mitchell International Airport! To encourage more air transportation we now accept sea planes.

http://img844.imageshack.us/img844/2...nternation.gif

I was in Philadelphia when the August 1997 MKE flooding happened, and flew home the next day. When I landed in MKE the runways and taxiways were the only thing you saw – everythign else was water right up to the edge of runways and taxiways. It was amazing…like landing on water in all directions. Baggage was flooded out, and rampers drove bags out to the sidewalk and unloaded on the curb.

I really hope MKE can reopen soon. This kind of event can easily cost Republic and AirTran millions each with all the diversions, cancelations, overtime, passenger reaccommodation, and the like.

I drove past Mitchell a little while ago and saw at least ten parked FL planes; could not get a good view of Concourse D to see how many F9 planes were parked at MKE.

Weather disruption info from Frontier:

MKE conditions - more photos
 

From Frontier:

http://yfrog.com/70a6kj


From bpz:

http://twitpic.com/27x490

Announcements at the airport this morning said likely would not open before 6:00pm. We just canceled and left as it was a pleasure trip. Priceline refunded my hotel.

Latest estimate now 2:00 PM. Take your choice as to which you want to believe.

MKE has bumped the time out to at least 2:00pm. But rolling delays are the norm, it seems.

FAA changed to 5:59pm today instead of 5:59pm tomorrow...I'm guessing that was a typo.

Just heard on the news that MKE had over 7 inches of rain yesterday. That's Nuts!!! What MKE received in a day represents nearly half of Denver's annual moisture total.

I heard that the FAA needs to do an inspection, before MKE will be allowed to reopen.