1 Year After Historic Rainfall, Small Minnesota Town Still Recovering
BLAKELEY, Minn. (WCCO) -- A year after historic rainfall devastated a small Minnesota town, the recovery still isn't complete. And now, the town is losing one of its last remaining businesses.
Torrential rains washed away the roads leading into Blakeley Township in Scott County last June. For more than a week after last summer's storms, Blakeley was basically cut off.
No way in or out for residents like Arlene Albrecht.
"Scott County 60 fell in and Scott County 1 fell in," she said, "so everything was closed."
A year later, a mile-long section of County Road 60 is still closed, but it will be rebuilt and rerouted next year through an area that's unlikely to flood: An area where Albrecht's house has been for 40 years.
For Albrecht, that means getting ready for her home to be demolished and shutting down the nearby antique business she's had for nearly 50 years.
"More memories than you can imagine," she said.
She and her late husband, Dave, were both collectors and pack rats with an interesting background.
"My husband and I were both born and raised in the circus," she said. "My dad was a clown. We (traveled with the circus) in the summer, and then in the fall and winter, we sold antiques."
Their collection includes everything from plates and posters to carousel horses, hand-carved by Dave Albrecht.
Everything in the shop, including some old circus memorabilia, will go up for auction in early August.
It was one of the last businesses in town, a town that got smaller when the floods caused more people to move away.
"Amazing what happened in one day that changed our valley," Albrecht said. "Really did a number."
The project manager of the County Road 60 project, Jake Balk, said 100 years ago when crews first built the road, they put it between two ravines which made it very vulnerable with the mudslides.
He said the new location will make it virtually flood proof.
