Gov. Tim Walz, U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar survey southern Minnesota flood damage from air

Alex Derosier, Pioneer Press
Updated ·5 min read
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As southern Minnesota got a reprieve from significant rainfall Tuesday, Gov. Tim Walz and U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar took to the skies to survey damage from widespread flooding in the region.

What National Weather Service forecasters have described as “impressive” rainfall triggered severe flooding across the state this month — more than 40 of Minnesota’s 87 counties have been affected.

Flooding this past week in southern Minnesota swamped homes and businesses, turned farm fields into lakes, closed roads, triggered evacuations and pushed an aging dam to its breaking point.

To assess the situation, Walz, Klobuchar and state cabinet leaders took a 90-minute ride aboard a Minnesota Army National Guard Black Hawk helicopter from Holman Field in downtown St. Paul about 70 miles southeast to the Mankato area, which has seen what Walz has called “unprecedented flooding.”

“The scope of it strikes you much more,” Walz told reporters after returning to St. Paul. “You can listen to the number of acres and hear these things, but I think each of us was talking about the amount of standing water that’s out there.”

Rising waters

Since June 18, rising waters have damaged infrastructure and property, ruined crops and led to evacuations in the city of Waterville and surrounding areas in Le Sueur County.

Walz had already visited northern Minnesota to survey damage last week and over the weekend declared a peacetime emergency, activating the National Guard to assist with disaster relief.

On Tuesday, Maj. Gen. Shawn Manke said about 40 soldiers are deployed in Waterville to assist with sandbagging and water-pumping to hold back the city’s overflowing twin lakes, and the Guard is opening its armory in nearby Faribault as an emergency shelter for those displaced by flooding. Faribault is also dealing with flooding of the Cannon River.

Minnesota is largely getting a break from the rain this week, but it’s possible wet weather will continue, according to Daniel Hawblitzel, meteorologist in charge at the National Weather Service in the Twin Cities.

At a Monday briefing, Hawblitzel said many areas have seen rainfall amounts of 8 to 9 inches above normal in the month of June alone, and some parts of southern Minnesota have seen as much as 10 to 12 inches of rain in the past week.

That’s led to major flooding on parts of the Cannon, Cottonwood, Crow, Des Moines and Minnesota rivers, and some continue to rise, according to the weather service. In Windom, the Des Moines River on Monday eclipsed the record level set in April 1969, but predictions for an even higher crest Wednesday were scaled back. The river is now expected to hold steady before beginning to gradually ebb.

Federal disaster aid

Minnesota will likely seek federal disaster aid to help repair damage across wide swaths of the state, and Klobuchar said it was evident from Tuesday’s aerial survey the state would qualify.

“I am not an engineer but looking at that dam and seeing the severe damage there as well as washed-out roads in Minnesota, I believe we could well be into our $10.5 million — that is the level at which federal aid would kick in for public infrastructure,” she said.

The state also has its own disaster relief fund with about $26 million, and about $50 million will get added to the fund in September.

Damage assessments are already underway in northern Minnesota, said Minnesota Public Safety Commissioner Bob Jacobson, who said his agency is already working with officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

St. Paul, Stillwater

In St. Paul, the Mississippi River on Tuesday was at 17 feet. It is expected to crest at nearly 21 feet on Saturday, some 4 feet above major flood stage and the highest crest since 2001. However, little public or private damage is expected in the floodproofed city.

In Stillwater, the St. Croix River was at 685.7 feet above sea level Tuesday. That river is set to crest on Saturday at 688 feet, just under moderate flood stage, according to the National Weather Service.

Dam update

South of Mankato on the Blue Earth River, the rate of water flow going around the Rapidan Dam has lessened slightly and an embankment near a riverside store and restaurant seems to have stopped eroding for now, but officials are still concerned about whether the sandstone the dam is built on is being washed away, which could jeopardize the structure.

Downriver at the confluence with the Minnesota River in Mankato, the Minnesota was near its predicted crest at 29.5 feet. Mankato city crews continue to patrol the levee and flood-control system on a 24-hour basis. The levee system is built to handle a river level of 39.5 feet.

When an electric substation at the dam washed away early Monday morning, about 600 people in the area lost power. Xcel Energy brought in an army of workers and all power was restored by early Tuesday morning.

Blue Earth County Engineer Ryan Thilges said at a Tuesday morning news conference that the event at the dam was “a partial failure of the west embankment,” not an actual breach of the 1910 concrete dam, which hasn’t produced hydroelectric power in five years following damage from flooding at that time.

County and city officials had to spend a good amount of time Tuesday combating false statements made on Facebook and other social media that said the dam had collapsed and a wall of water was headed toward Mankato.

Thilges said they have no way to immediately know whether the highly erodible sandstone bedrock the dam is built on is being scoured away, which could still cause the dam itself to fail.

But Thilges said that even if the dam gave way, there is no concern about water causing serious flooding downstream or at Mankato-North Mankato. He noted that all the water that reaches dam has always moved downstream anyway, and that not a lot more volume would be added if the dam broke.

This report includes information from the Free Press of Mankato.

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