"There's only one hard and fast rule in running: sometimes you have to run one hard and fast."








Monday, September 27, 2010

Flood update

The latest news I can get out of Zumbro Falls: there's been no injuries or loss of life and the housepets have been rescued. The town is still evacuated; electricity has been restored for the crews there, but water and sewage will be more than a week.

Crews have gone in to assess damage and 60 of the 90 houses are structurally unsound. There had only been 15 minutes of notice before the evacuation, so most people have lost everything. It will be long enough before people are allowed back that mold will be a problem.

Downstream, Hammond is about as bad; there were worries that, as most of Hammond uses propane for heating that there'd be fires, but that hasn't happened. Further downstream, Millville is on higher ground and missed the brunt of the damage. No reports from the village of Theilman (pronounced "Theelman", not "Tileman"), which is near where the Zumbro 100 Mile race is held, but it's probably very bad.

It's too early for volunteers. It's not going to be a matter of throwing out carpets and spraying the basement walls with bleach. It looks like it'll take at least a year.

Perhaps the Zumbro 100 should become a fundraising event next year.

Best photos so far are here. The photos were not taken at crest. The crest was 6 feet above the previous record, making this something like a once in 500 year flood.

5 comments:

Glaven Q. Heisenberg said...

Those poor people!

What a disaster!

Jean said...

My Dad's side of the family is from this general area, and we have been getting updates and photos from people still in his hometown. Southeastern MN has had a ridiculous amount of unbelievably bad storms (both summer and winter) in recent years. How awful!

Anonymous said...

Not too early for volunteers! Contact Maria, she's helping to organize people to help Larry and Colleen this week and weekend.

Londell said...

I am trying to get out of my Tennis assignment for the weekend to head to Larry's. I grew up in the Red River Valley where we had flooded a basement about once every 10 years (3 times before they built a dike.)

Glaven Q. Heisenberg said...

Gotta assume at this point you're already up there helping out your people.

Best of luck to you and to all of them!