Minnesota declares state of emergency over floods

June 22, 2012 – MINNESOTA – Gov. Mark Dayton has declared a state of emergency and authorized the National Guard to help Duluth cope with its flood damage. The governor issued the executive order Wednesday afternoon, a few hours after promising Duluth Mayor Don Ness that the state would provide all possible assistance. Dayton plans to travel to Duluth on Thursday morning to discuss further how the state can help. Dayton also asks people who live in or were planning to travel in the Duluth area to follow the requests of local authorities to stay off of affected roads and highways so emergency crews can do their work. In Carlton, several residents have been evacuated. Some residents in Thomson Township in Carlton County were urged to leave after the Thompson Reservoir overflowed. Residents of Duluth’s Fond du Lac neighborhood had also urged to evacuate. The Red Cross has set up a shelter at First United Methodist Church in Duluth, also known as the “Copper Top Church.” Minnesota Power says its dams along the St. Louis River leading into Duluth and Superior, Wis., are holding well. Utility spokeswoman Amy Rutledge tells the Duluth News Tribune there are no problems with any of the four dams along the lower river – including the Fond du Lac, Thomson, Scanlon and Knife Falls dams. She adds, “the system is designed to handle this kind of flood and more.” She says the stream flow at the Fond du Lac Dam has rocketed tenfold from the usual 2,000 to 5,000 cubic feet per second to 47,000. The utility has opened dam gates to prevent floods upstream. That caused the river to rise rapidly in the Fond du Lac neighborhood, as it often has in the past, and inundate riverfront areas there. The city of Superior, Wisconsin is also flooded. –Kare 11

contribution by Emanni

6 Responses to Minnesota declares state of emergency over floods

jeremy says:

June 22, 2012 at 1:58 am

i live here in cushing mn. and i havent seen that much rain in so little time since i lived on the east coast and went through hurricain isabel it was nuts

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Suzan says:

June 22, 2012 at 3:12 am

Many animals at the zoo were hurt in the flood. I feel for them.

DULUTH, Minn. (AP) – The polar bear and seals that escaped their exhibits at the flooded Lake Superior Zoo have been moved to a St. Paul zoo. Animal care experts say the move to Como Park Zoo is in the best interest of the animals while zookeepers in Duluth deal with flood issues. Four Como zookeepers drove to Duluth late Wednesday to retrieve the two harbor seals and polar bear.
About a dozen animals in the barnyard exhibit died when flood waters engulfed the zoo early Wednesday. After Feisty the seal was found on a city street, zoo employees were called in and began searching for animals in the dark. Berlin the polar bear was found on a rock wall that encloses her exhibit. Another escaped seal was found on a walking path.

http://www.wqow.com/story/18843661/polar-bear-seals-moved-to-st-paul-zoo?Call=Email&Format=HTML

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carisa camarillo says:

June 22, 2012 at 5:04 am

I live in willow river mn pine county and we were evacuated today, there was really no plan in place as to where we were to go and since we were evacuated by boats we had no vehicle to get around. my mothers house has been standing for over 100 years. what i wanna know is if there will be any financial or physical help to fix the damage done by the flooding? if anyone could let me know if there is a plan for pine county i would appreciate it. people like us have no where else to go. we sure could use all the help we could get.

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luisport says:

June 22, 2012 at 7:25 am

URGENT SEVERE WEATHER WARNING FOR THE U.K OVER THE NEXT 48HRS. AMBER ALERT HIGHEST LEVEL:

AREAS EFFECTED ARE AS FOLLOW’S

Regions affected:
North West England, Wales, East Midlands, Yorkshire & Humber, North East England, West Midlands, Grampian, Central, Tayside & Fife, Northern Ireland, SW Scotland, Lothian Borders, Strathclyde. http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/ http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/weather/warnings/

[color=red][b]SEVERE FLOODING EXPECTED.

WEATHER MET OFFICE QUOTING MONSOON LEVEL EVENT.[/b][/color]

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- Ellen Truax says:
  
  June 23, 2012 at 6:32 am
  
  @ luisport, Thank You so much for the warning, I’ve passed on the links to family and friend’s who are in the line of fire ( so to speak ).. God Bless ~ 🙂
  
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ready or not... says:

June 22, 2012 at 12:12 pm

the poor zoo lost a lot of animals in all this. very sad !!

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