MPR’s Rich Dietman interviews local sheriff about flash flooding after rain event. The water threatened small town of Elba and campers at Whitewater state park.
A long and narrow swath of heavy rains and flooding ran parallel to the Mississippi River in southeastern Minnesota on June 30, 1978.
DAN LAFEE: Approximately 1 o'clock, due to the flash flood warnings that was put out by the National Weather Service in Rochester, we received word from the Elba Police Department that they were getting considerable amount of flooding in the Elba and Whitewater Valley area.
At approximately 1 o'clock, evacuation was started of the Whitewater State Park. All the campers that were in the state park were evacuated to higher ground in Saint Charles, where the Saint Charles Police Department opened up the county fairgrounds for all the campers to go to.
Shortly after the park was evacuated, it was deemed necessary to evacuate the village of Elba, which has approximately 100 people in the town. There's a dike surrounding the village that usually tries to keep out the Whitewater River, when we do have high water. And due to the tremendous amount of flooding, the water was raising above the dike. In fact, it came within just a matter of a couple inches of going over the dike. That's when we decided to evacuate the village.
Fortunately, we haven't had any injuries or anything of that nature.
RICH DIETMAN: Were there a lot of campers in Whitewater?
DAN LAFEE: There were quite a few. I don't have even an estimate right now, but from the word I got, there were quite a few campers in the Whitewater campground.
RICH DIETMAN: And is it still closed now?
DAN LAFEE: At this time, it is still closed, yes. In fact, part of highway 74 that does go through the Whitewater Valley has been eroded due to the currents going through. The road down to the park is impassable at this time.
RICH DIETMAN: Do you have any feeling at all, Sheriff LaFee, for the kind of damage that was done to homes in Elba or Saint Charles?
DAN LAFEE: Well, at this time, we really don't know the extent of any damage in Elba. The only water that did reach the town was from the rain itself and some seepage through the dike.
Any actual river water never reached the village itself. Like I say, it came within just a few inches of the top of the dike.
Views and opinions expressed in the content do not represent the opinions of APMG. APMG is not responsible for objectionable content and language represented on the site. Please use the "Contact Us" button if you'd like to report a piece of content. Thank you.
Transcriptions provided are machine generated, and while APMG makes the best effort for accuracy, mistakes will happen. Please excuse these errors and use the "Contact Us" button if you'd like to report an error. Thank you.