Christopher Branski's Blog (3)

There's 10 of us up here on the 12th floor, overlooking what used to be Dayton Street and the rear entrance to the HQ of the Madison Fire Department. The trucks just sit there while papers blow by in the wind. Cars sit there, from that day they thought they could make it somewhere safer, anywhere.

They said people would be safe at the Dane County Coliseum by the Beltline Highway, that there would be madical help, food, a place to sleep. That too was overrun.

I…

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At some point WMTV-TV just stopped broadcasting anything but helicopter views of the Milwaukee area burning, cars stalled on the highways, looters smashing windows, society there basically taking a shit. I tried phoning my mother when I saw a bird's eye view of Brookfield Square Mall with the roof aflame and people running out carrying Coach handbags necessary for the upcoming zombie apocalypse. ( Milwaukee was always like Wisconsin's version of the Balkan States or South Africa in that no one… Continue

That first day, when this whole shitstorm hit home, I remember it well. I woke up for class, plodded over to the coffee pot, and turned the radio on to WTDY-AM for the morning news, which is usually a mix of grisly farm accidents, wrecks caused by drunken drivers, and gang shootings in Milwaukee (the latter for the benefit of all the ex-Milwaukeeans living in Madison, to validate our decisions to leave). The first news item was out of Milwaukee, and it was unbelievable at…

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