Back-To-Back Floods Submerge Northfield Farmland
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The heartache for Scott and Faith Bergemann began last Thursday night. They came home to find 3 feet of water in their basement, and spent all of the next day hauling out what little they could salvage.
But Mother Nature threw the Bergemanns another curveball. Just 72 hours after the first blood, Sunday night was just as big.
"It filled up again, just like it did before," Scott said. "We have a 200-acre farm here, and probably 100 acres of it was completely under water."
And that's a problem for the family, because Scott's business is based on the corn.
He believes the culvert forced the creek near his property to flood out -- into his home and into his field.
"They told me it was built for a 100-year flood," Scott said. "And I said, well, I don't know how many 100-year floods I can have this decade."
Farmsteads that normally have to worry about flooded fields, suddenly had to worry about flooded basements.
Water hit the Bergemann's neighbors more than a mile away. But for Scott, it's not about the damage to his home, but the damage to his heart.
Seeing his kids' pictures destroyed, and a family piano that dates back generations under water, has been the worst damage of all.
"A lot of things just look like junk to other people," he said. "But we had a lot of sentimental things down there."
And with more rain in the forecast, the Bergemanns are worried they could go through this a third time, especially with the ground already saturated.
They also learned that flood insurance didn't cover everything in their basement, like the piano and the furniture.
