4 die in Minnesota flooding

[rodeodance]

Source: ap



4 die in Minnesota flooding

By SCOTT BAUER, Associated Press Writer 4 minutes ago

WINONA, Minn. - Severe storms deluged parts of the upper Midwest during the night with as much as a foot of rain, causing flooding that washed away bridges and roads and killed at least four people, authorities said Sunday.

Part of Winona and smaller towns in southeastern Minnesota and southwestern Wisconsin were evacuated, officials reported.
........

National Guard Capt. Paul Rickert of the National Guard says 88 soldiers and two helicopters were sent to Winona to help with security around the small cities of Elba, Stockton, and Pickwick. Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty visited the area Sunday and declared a state of emergency in six counties.

Across the Mississippi in Wisconsin, up to 12 inches of rain triggered a mudslide that pushed a house onto state Highway 35 in Vernon County, said Wisconsin Emergency Management spokeswoman Lori Getter. No injuries were reported.


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070819/ap_on_re_us/flooding;_ylt=AusR_esyyjHwVsPyhHM4gU6s0NUE

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I have never heard of so much rainfall in WI-----esp. this time of the year.

[Rick Myers]

1. And it is STILL RAINING up here

At least as bad as yesterday! The ground it to baked to absorb the rain! Hope everyone to the south of the Cities is ok!!!

[RL3AO]

2. Six dead.

http://wcco.com/topstories/local_story_231080417.html

[rodeodance]

11. and chilly

[Myrina]

3. no such thing as global warming ...

... just ask those folks over in the UK how lovely their climate's been ...

[Retired AF Dem]

4. "no such thing as global warming ..."

Starting to sound like such a canned response. We, those of us that live in the U.S.A have always had the worse weather. Hell in a normal year we have 10,000 thunderstorms, 1000 tornados and at least six named hurricanes, along with countless snow and ice storms, and all of this has been going long before global warming and during the global cooling period.

[BadgerLaw2010]

5. Got five inches of rain yesterday here in Madison.

Only good news is that the drought and aquifer levels across the southern 2/3's of the state are fixed pretty damn well.

[madrchsod]

6. ya- there`s actually water in the rock river in august

it does`t smell like dead fish but it`s getting to where it may start flooding down here..in august?

yes keep sending that aquifer water down here!

[rodeodance]

9. thats what i was referring to my IP----rain in this amount in AUG. in WI is very

unusual.

I know the rock river.

[madrchsod]

7. just checked the radar....

looks like there`s more headed your way...that last storm that hit texas is flowing up this way and there is still a front going across northern wisconsin

[rodeodance]

10. its been raining and drizzing most of the day

[emmadoggy]

8. Yep, it's bad.

Here at our home in NE Iowa - we had 3 1/2 inches on tues. night, another inch on wed. night and 5 inches from early sat. morning through this morning. So about 9 1/2 inches in about 5 days. That's a lot, but just north of us they had that much and more just in the 24 hours from sat. am to sun. am. Witoka, MN has had 17.00 inches, and other towns have had 15, 14, 12 inches. Many roads closed, washed out, flooded. Lots of mudslides along the bluffs. Just heard on our local news that the town of Houston, MN is under mandatory evacuation (pop. around 1,000). Stockton, MN was evacuated last night.

We had plans to take our kids to the Children's Museum in LaCrosse, WI today as a last fun family day before school starts on tuesday, but had to cancel since we discovered water in our sump pit. (Long story, but our house is five years old. They installed a sump pit and we bought a sump pump, but for some reason it was never installed. My husband mentioned a few times that we should just return the pump and I kept saying, no, we should just get it installed, "just in case" we ever need it! Of course, now we had to scramble to get it going this morning. Had no sump hose, got a retro-fit from our plumber this morning so we could use regular garden hose, but that wasn't outputting the water fast enough. Miracle of miracles, we caught the owner of our local farm and home store, totally by chance at the store and he had sump hose available, so hubby raced to get some. It helped, we are now at least keeping up with the water coming in. FOR NOW.) So we had to not only handle our water situation, but our neighbor told us that all three of the highways that we could take to get us to LaCrosse are closed at some point between here and there. Plus, I would have been too worried about running into flooded roads or mudslides (we drive all along the Mississippi river bluffs to get to LaCrosse.)

More rain is on the way. NWS is saying another 1-3 inches could fall this afternoon and tonight and there are more chances for rain through the first half of the week. Ugh. 6 deaths already reported. Thankfully, we live on high ground with no streams or rivers nearby. My thoughts are with all the folks around here (and there are many) who live near water or in low lying areas.

It's weird too, that there were vast swaths of both MN and WI that have been experiencing drought (though not eastern Iowa or southern WI). Now some of those areas are getting this. :-(


Edited to add link to CNN article..... http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/08/19/flooding.ap/index.html

[CatholicEdHead]

12. Four dead, more missing in flash floods in Winona County, Minnesota

Source: Winona Daily News

.
Trout streams turned to raging rivers Saturday night, sweeping away homes and killing at least four people in Winona County and two in Houston County.

Brand said a husband and wife are confirmed dead after their vehicle was swept away on County Road 23 a mile out of Stockton. Another husband and wife are confirmed dead after their vehicle was trapped in the flooding on County Road 17 at Witoka. Their names were not released.

Up to four people were missing Sunday morning and hundreds were evacuated from their homes after streams and creeks flooded areas of southeastern Minnesota Saturday night.

Much of Stockton was under water, and the National Guard mobilized 75 troops and two helicopters to assist with rescue efforts, but as of 11:45 a.m. the helicopters were unable to reach Stockton because of poor flying conditions.

Read more: http://www.winonadailynews.com/articles/2007/08/19/breakingnews/00adead1stwritethru.txt

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There are also two more people dead in Houston County, MN (just south). There is only one way into the city of Winona, MN. Entire small towns have been flooded out and heavy rain is expected to continue through the week to only make things worse.

[MadMaddie]

13. This is bad....MN and OK is getting hammered

how many reserve units are in Iraq..?

Curious to see how FEMA will respond to this.....lets see how much * will pledge that he and the government will provide all the money that is needed and then the state will receive piddly....

I hope that there are no more fatalities and hope that the rest of the citizens are safe...

[CatholicEdHead]

15. More rain expected all this week

As if 10-12in is not enough, there could be up to 8in+ through Friday on the MN/IA/WI border region. Things will only get worse.

[Bluzmann57]

14. Oh man...

Good luck to all our fellow citizens in Minnesota. First a big time bridge collapses, now this. Damn. Good luck to you all.

[Bitwit1234]

16. The CBS Station out of Alexandria

has full coverage of the flooding waters. Weather channel had something. But I did not see anything on the cable news. They mentioned OK and Texas and Jamaica but not MN.