With More Rain On The Way, Minnesota River Valley Flooding Concerns Rise
ST. PAUL, Minn. (WCCO) -- The sudden spring has rivers and streams rising fast. Already, a number of rivers are up five feet from where they were last week, and they continue to rise.
With the warm weather we have seen this week, it's easy to forget all of that snow we saw in April. That's having an impact in St. Paul, where the Mississippi River is at 10 feet, up about three feet since Thursday.
That's the case in many other parts of the state, including southwest of the cities in Henderson. While the bigger rivers can handle extra water, many fields and creeks cannot.
Highway 93 was closed for a short time between Highway 169 and Henderson because the Rush River was flowing over the road. Minnesota Department of Transportation bridge crews wanted to launch boats so they could inspect for potential washouts, but even the launch area was flooded, so they had to bring in a crane to get the boats in the water.
"There's more snow melt to the west, so we're going to get a few more feet," said Henderson city administrator, Lon Berberich. "We've already had one road closure with Rush River, and so there will probably be some minor irritations, I would guess, coming up in the next few days."
Farmers are probably at least a week away from getting in their fields. There's still frost in the ground and more snow that needs to melt.
The last time the Mississippi River reached the levels we are expecting was back in 2014. It crested just over 20 feet back then, which is still about five feet higher than what's forecast for next week.