Flooding in Northfield

<p>The Cannon River is at or near record flood levels.
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Carleton</a> College: Carleton News: News: Flood Update: Traffic Diverted, Volleyball Match Moved, Inauguration a Go</p>

<p>Talked to ds yesterday but had no idea it was that bad. Thanks for the link.</p>

<p>Update: West Field (by West Gym) is now West Lake. The soccer goals are so far submerged that only the crossbars are visible. Similarly, the basketball hoops are about 2/3 way submerged. Also, my prof canceled class today so we could go help sandbag in the river to stop the flooding.</p>

<p>Thats cool! You got out of classes! You should go get a canoe or a sail boat.</p>

<p>Wow. The video is really something. Did any of the Northfield businesses next to the river get flooding?</p>

<p>I actually saw footage of the Carleton flooding on my local news today. Prettty amazing. I know Froggy Bottoms had water. Owner said he was trying to keep it to less than 2’. There’s video on northfieldnews.com.</p>

<p>Wednesday to Thursday - in 24 hours we had 6.75 inches of rain.</p>

<p>The river did not crest last night as anticipated. Chance of more rain today. Down river it has already rained.</p>

<p>The west of of the downtown businesses has been hardest hit. Think of the Foggy Bottoms, Erberts&Gerberts shop stretch of the river. THe fire station/police station is practically surrounded. I haven’t heard yet about The Contented Cow on the east side. As of last night the Archer House was in good shape. Power to several buildings was off starting Friday morning as transformer boxes were being inundated. Just Foods has sandbags across their parking lots to hold back the river.</p>

<p>The National Guard has arrived to help out the police. There are too many people coming into town to view and photograph the flood. Lots of people and students were helping out by filling and placing sand bags.</p>

<p>The Northfield News is doing a good job with updates -northfieldnews.com. Here is a link to the most recent information. [Now</a>, we wait on Northfield News](<a href=“Northfield News”>Northfield News)</p>

<p>All of the bridges into town are closed. To get across town you need to drive south to Woodley Street. Hwy 3 is shut just south of Dundas (Menards). The road is flooded where it is near the river.</p>

<p>Here is a news segment from Friday about the flooding at Carleton.
[Fields</a> Flooded, Dorm Rooms Evacuated at Carleton College | KSTP TV - Minneapolis and St. Paul](<a href=“http://kstp.com/news/stories/S1760519.shtml?cat=1]Fields”>http://kstp.com/news/stories/S1760519.shtml?cat=1)</p>

<p>I wouldn’t go anywhere near that water! The sewer treatment system in Faribault is flooded and not functioning. All the sewage is going straight into the river.</p>

<p>The Northfield area was not the hardest hit. The areas near Owatonna had 8-10 inches of rain in 24 hours.</p>

<p>Last I heard, Froggy Bottoms was under 5’ of water. They were actually turning away volunteers because so many people turned up to help.</p>

<p>When they say “dorm rooms were evacuated,” they mean that they decided to evacuate a few of the campus interest houses that were closest to the water. None of the actual dorm buildings are anywhere near the river.</p>

<p>By way of introduction, I’m a Northfield Townie, with a child who may be one of the small number of Northfielders attending Carleton next fall.</p>

<p>I helped out sandbagging yesterday afternoon. Early in the afternoon, a large contingent of Carls converged on the river and did a lot of hard word bagging. Believe me, we townies were impressed and grateful.</p>

<p>There is a local blog, locallygrownnorthfield.org, that links to probably every source of photos, videos etc. The local radio station, kymn.net usually streams live, but they are close to the river and their power has been on and off. Presently their streaming is down, but they are up and running on the am airwaves. Their website has great photos and videos up.</p>

<p>I’d be interested to know if any parents see their children in the photos or videos.</p>

<p>[Let</a> the sandbagging begin: heavy rains saturate the area « Locally Grown Northfield](<a href=“http://locallygrownnorthfield.org/post/19066/]Let”>Let the sandbagging begin: heavy rains saturate the area – Locally Grown (LoGro) Northfield)</p>

<p>kymnradio.net</p>

<p>northfieldnews.com</p>

<p>Now…back to work.</p>

<p>the 4th floor of evans (or much of it) had to be evacuated as well because of water damage from the leaking roof, but all the dorms are alright other than that. i think 3 off-campus houses had to be cleared out though.</p>

<p>I’m not in any of the photos (that I saw), but a few of my friends are! Thanks for the link.</p>

<p>Here’s a link to some arial photos of downtown Northfield and Carleton’s stadium:
<a href=“http://kymnradio.net/2010/09/27/amazing-aerial-view-of-northfield-flooding/#more-11276[/url]”>http://kymnradio.net/2010/09/27/amazing-aerial-view-of-northfield-flooding/#more-11276&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Thanks for the links, mwdad. I didn’t see my ds in any of them, but he said he was helping Friday.</p>

<p>Fortunately, power’s already back on in those low lying areas of Northfield that were affected and only one bridge remains closed. This was apparently the highest level ever reached by the Cannon River, 1.5 feet above the level estimated for a 100 year flood. Overall, I’d say the town was lucky.</p>

<p>Carleton’s low lying areas (i.e. the athletic complex et al) are still drying out and some athletic events were moved off campus. In a Saturday video of President Poskanzer on the Bald Spot you were hard pressed to notice it had been raining at all. </p>

<p>This photo (a Carl photo if ever I’ve seen one) leaves little question that something was amiss:</p>

<p>[Carleton</a> College: Carleton News: # Photo Gallery: West Gym/Laird Stadium Flooding, 9/27/10: Another causality](<a href=“Photo Gallery: West Gym/Laird Stadium Flooding, 9/27/10 | Carleton Now | Carleton College”>Photo Gallery: West Gym/Laird Stadium Flooding, 9/27/10 | Carleton Now | Carleton College)</p>

<p>If nothing else, at least the storm cleared out a few invasive specimens that local fishermen will be happy to see gone. :)</p>

<p>[GALLERY:</a> Capturing the carp on Northfield News](<a href=“Northfield News”>Northfield News)</p>

<p>We were there for a visit on Friday and did not even realize all this was going on until we got there (flew in from Oregon, landed at MSP and drove to Northfield on Friday). We saw the barricades and police first, wondered what was happening, and THEN we saw the river. We went around another way and made it on campus and had a nice tour. Some of the buildings were closed due to power outage, but otherwise on campus we would not have known anything serious was going on. We left there about 5:30 p.m. on Friday and saw the field and parks under water on our way out. Sounds like the flooding got much worse after that.</p>

<p>My D loved the campus! I did too.</p>