Guardsmen, prisoners help sandbagging at Berlin Dale Manthei shovels debris away from a sump pump draining water from behind the sandbag barricade protecting his house from a flooding Fox River in Omro, Wis., Thursday, June 17, 2004. (AP Photo/ The Post-Cresent, Kirk Wagner) Associated Press BERLIN, Wis. - National Guardsmen and prison work crews joined sandbagging efforts, as east central Wisconsin fought flooding that surrounded homes with water and forced a ban on boating on popular lakes and waterways. Although no major rains were in the forecast for the weekend, the Fox River was running at a record level and not expected to crest until Sunday at Berlin, and days later downstream at Omro. In Berlin, Lill Osterberg said she watched in disbelief when another storm poured more rain on her house, surrounded all week by flood waters of the Fox with fish swimming in her front yard. "It was scary," she said Thursday. "It was coming down so hard. ... I got my bags packed. They are sitting in the bedroom ready to go in case they say get out." The storm dumped 1.5 inches of rain within 30 minutes Wednesday night, inundating areas never before hit by flooding. "We had streets that never, ever have been flooded," Green Lake County Emergency Management Director Gary Podoll said. "It was a deluge. It was bad." Osterberg said a storm sewer in her neighborhood had water gushing out 3 feet high. "It was just boiling out of there." The rainfall came hours after Gov. Jim Doyle asked President Bush to declare 12 counties disaster areas because of flooding in recent weeks. One of those counties is Green Lake. Federal inspectors documented more than $9 million in damage to roads, dams and other public structures. The Fox River at Berlin stood at 16.18 feet Thursday _ more than 3 feet above flood stage _ and was expected to crest at 16.4 feet Sunday, Podoll said. Only three families had voluntarily left their homes because of high water, he said. Osterberg, 70, said she had not left her home since Sunday because she would have to wade through about 2 feet of water to find higher ground, but sandbags around her house and a sump pump had kept her basement dry. "The sandbagging that we have done has really helped out a lot," Podoll said. "It has been in the right places. The city is open and working." The effort was aided Thursday by members of the Army National Guard and two work crews from a state prison at Redgranite. Inmates and Guardsmen armed with more than 75,000 sandbags worked with local teens and other volunteers at the city garage, filling the bags with sand. "We want these sandbags ready when people need them. People have been coming and getting them by the truckful," Podoll said. At Omro, prisoners from the Winnebago Correctional Center helped fill sandbags. The governor declared a state of emergency for Winnebago County, where Omro is located, and Sheriff Michael Brooks officially restricted recreational and commercial boat traffic on the Wolf River, Lake Butte des Morts and parts of the Fox River west of Oshkosh. The restriction prohibits all recreational activities including boating, rafting, canoeing, swimming and other water activities. David Albrecht, chairman of the Winnebago County Board, said residents complained that with the high water, wakes from passing boats were causing damage. "We've never really seen this happen to us before," Albrecht said. "If it saves somebody, it will be worth it." An emergency meeting of the board was scheduled Friday on a resolution allowing Brooks to close the waterways for 30 days, although the restriction could be lifted earlier as the waters recede. ___ On the Net: Wisconsin Emergency Management: http://emergencymanagement.wi.gov