Cambridge cleans up after flash flooding, strong winds cause damage
By Allen Henry
CAMBRIDGE, Minn. (WCCO) - The sound of chainsaws filled neighborhoods across Cambridge on Thursday.
City officials say two hours of rain Wednesday night caused damage that will likely days to cleanup.
"We experienced about five inches of rain over that period of time, which overwhelmed the storm systems and led to some pretty severe flooding throughout the city," said Evan Vogel, Cambridge city administrator. "Right now, we're just working on cleanup and damage assessment. So we still have several crews throughout the city, and we're just trying to get a full understanding of the problem and figure out what we can do to fix it."
Vogel wasn't sure when the city would have an idea of how many homes, businesses and city properties were damaged.
"We know, we have made contact with 12 homeowners who had water damage in their basements and that ranged anything from small amounts of standing water to up to three feet in their basements. So some homeowners had quite a bit," Vogel said. "Business owners, we know of several businesses that were effected, but we don't have a total understanding of that yet."
On top of the flooding, strong winds knocked down limbs and even entire trees in some neighborhoods.
Kayla Anderson was one of the city crews working cleanup efforts across the city on Thursday.
"So all of our storm drains, at least in the city here, they all flow to one spot, so that's what made it hard with all the flooding," Anderson said. "So we're also trying to clear out those drains because I know we're expecting more rain here so, trying to get all the loose branches that kinda fell to clog up the drains ... to clear them out a little more so we can get water to flow down there."
Meg Schwanke said she was watching the storm from her home Wednesday night when it made a literal impact.
"I had looked out the window, I went and sat down and I heard a thud and I thought it was thunder. It was not thunder. Probably 15 minutes later, I noticed there were limbs, there were branches I could see through the picture window and I came outside and saw this," she said, gesturing to the tree that had landed on the rood of her home.
Crews had already begun the effort of removing the tree Thursday afternoon, using a bulldozer and chainsaws to cut and clear it.
As the cleanup efforts continue, how quickly the damage was caused still stunned the city.
"I'm surprised that the pine tree went down. I didn't think it would. The winds definitely were violent," Schwanke said. " It's a new experience for me and just trusting the different processes that work together - between insurance, the tree company and the roofer."
"I have staff who have been on for 32 years with the city," Vogel said. "They said they've never seen anything like this and so five inches of rain in two hours is a lot to overwhelm any system, unfortunately."