River cities seeing rapid recession of St. Croix River since it crested a week ago
STILLWATER, Minn. -- It's been one week since the St. Croix River reached its peak. Since then, the people living along it have seen some big changes.
"The worst has passed," said Dan Sullivan, who works at The Dock Café in downtown Stillwater.
Their restaurant is right on the river and the staff there are ready for their busy season to begin.
Despite the rising river over the last month, their building and patio didn't get any water damage.
"We have no basement to worry about flooding and we're up on strong support here," said Sullivan.
Employees at The Dock Cafe have been watching the water drop since it crested a week ago.
"The measuring the device we used to chart how high the water was coming, and when it began to drop, and how quickly, was this parking sign down here," said Sullivan, as he pointed to a three-hour parking sign next to their patio.
At its highest, the parking sign was nearly entirely underwater. Now, the entire sign can be sign, along with most of the post.
"It's almost been miraculous how quickly the water has receded here," said Sullivan.
The berm is still up along the Stillwater riverfront and the bike and walking trail is still closed. However, Stillwater Public Works tells WCCO they plan to remove the berm on May 15.
Across state lines in Hudson, Wisconsin, it looks like the riverfront is still pretty flooded, but it's actually made a lot of improvement from last week, where the benches were all underwater, and you couldn't see underneath the pier.
"It's unbelievable how fast it's receding now, just last week we couldn't even get through the road down there where they built a new boat landing," said Mike Amidon, who was out on a walk with his wife Joanne on Thursday afternoon.
The couple have been able to access more and more areas along the riverfront on their daily walks. The pier just opened back up this week.
"They've taken away all the barriers and it's pretty easy to get through and you can just see it dropping each day," said Amidon.
They're hoping this area dries up quickly for the busy summer schedule ahead.
"They do some Thursday evening concerts and they do a lot of community activities where it gets really crowded," said Amidon.