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June 22, 2009

Heavy rain does little damage

Basements, streets flood in Minnesota Lake

By Mark Fischenich

MINNESOTA LAKE — Father’s Day night brought funnel clouds and a deluge to the Blue Earth-Faribault County line. But the twisters stayed in the clouds and the water was receding by Monday afternoon.

“We had one person come by and ask if their taxes are going up because now we’re lakeshore property,” said Sharon Grunzke, city clerk in Minnesota Lake.

The town of about 680 people had a few wet basements and some streets that were flooded during the night. It was about what would be expected, Grunzke said, “when you get 5 inches of rain in two hours.”

About 4 inches of that fell in an hour, said John Hawker, who serves on the Minnesota Lake Fire Department and as the city public works supervisor. The firefighters worked as weather spotters until about 2 a.m., and some of the men saw several funnels and swirling clouds, along with some small hail.

After that Hawker was focused on municipal duties. The sanitary sewer began to back up from the torrent but was dealt with quickly. The city parks and some streets were under water.

“We flooded out big time,” Hawker said.

By Monday morning, they were clearing storm sewers of debris and dropping off Dumpsters to city residents who were emptying soggy basements, he said.

It easily could have been worse. Not only did the funnels avoid touching down, there was virtually no wind damage. Hawker hadn’t heard of any major hail damage either.

Even the heavy rain was isolated to a fairly narrow strip along the county line. Hawker said he heard that one resident of the Delavan area, about a dozen miles to the southwest, had received just two-tenths of an inch of rain. Another resident living fewer than five miles north of Minnesota Lake had recorded a half-inch.

Dean Youngblom at the WFS grain elevator in Delavan said reports ranged from less than an inch of rain to more than 3 inches. Both Youngblom and Harold Schnoor, manager of the WFS elevator in Minnesota Lake, said they didn’t expect any replanting to be needed other than in a few low-lying spots.

“There will be some that will drown out, but probably not a lot,” Schnoor said.

And farmers appeared to have largely dodged any wind and hail damage.

“Just a lot of rain,” Schnoor said.

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