Powerful storms keep pummeling Minnesota

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Powerful storms keep pummeling Minnesota
Security and emergency teams head out once again to assess the damage.
By Jennifer Brooks Star Tribune

Minnesota was still cleaning up after the July storms when the first major storm front of August rolled in.

More than 8 inches of rain sluiced down on Minnesota on Wednesday night and Thursday morning, flooding basements and fields and leaving some Willmar residents hip-deep in floodwater. It was the latest in a string of powerful storms that have pummeled the state all summer and as the skies cleared, teams from the office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management headed out to assess the damage.

Rain fell at the rate of 2 inches an hour in some areas, according to the National Weather Service. Scattered thunderstorms continued to push lakes and creeks over their banks through Friday, and the weather service reported that some areas have seen a month’s worth of rainfall in the span of three days.

The state declared a local emergency in Renville County, around the town of Olivia, where flash flooding caused an estimated $28,000 in damage to local roads and drainage systems. Despite the widespread flooding in Willmar, Kandiyohi County reported storm damage mainly on private properties, not on public roads and bridges.

Even before the storm hit, state damage assessment teams were working in at least a dozen counties and tribal nations, tallying damage from storms that hit July 16 and 21. Before that, they had just wrapped up the damage assessments from the July 9-11 storms.

Gov. Mark Dayton this week authorized state disaster aid to help Itasca County and the Leech Lake Reservation recover from a July 5 storm that caused an estimated $30,000 in damage to the county’s public infrastructure and an estimated $83,000 damage in Leech Lake. The funds will help the governments recover the cost of debris removal and repair wind damage on public property. The state set up the disaster fund to help communities rebuild after natural disasters that do not meet the threshold for federal disaster assistance.

“I have determined that damage in certain areas of Itasca County and Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, resulting from severe thunderstorms and high winds on July 5, 2016, is of sufficient severity and magnitude to warrant the use of the State Public Disaster Assistance Fund,” the governor wrote in his authorization letter Tuesday, one day before the next storm hit.

The July 9-11 storms spawned tornadoes and floods in Meeker County and caused flooding and wind damage in Aitkin, Benton, Carlton, Crow Wing, Kanabec, Meeker, Mille Lacs, Morrison and Traverse counties.

The National Weather Service sees scattered thunderstorms in the forecast ahead, but no severe storms — yet.