MPR’s Bill Wareham reports that local officials expect cleanup from the July 1st storm to last weeks, as several of the city's schools sustained heavy damage. One of the most damaged was Edison High School in Northeast community of Minneapolis.
On the afternoon of July 1, 1997, a complex of severe thunderstorms moved out of South Dakota, intensified, and caused significant damage from tornadoes, straight-line winds, and excessive rainfall— from western and central Minnesota through the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area.
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BILL WAREHAM: Compared to the flooding in the Red River Valley, Tuesday's storms may seem insignificant, but the events have one thing in common. They're unusual enough, according to Minneapolis Public Works Director Dave Sonnenberg, that they're virtually impossible to plan for.
DAVE SONNENBERG: Our engineering department did some calculations. They estimated this as a 200 year storm. We don't design anything to handle a 200 year storm, nobody does. Typical design standards are for a 10 year storm. So this was quite a large event. We feel very fortunate the damage wasn't more widespread than it is.
BILL WAREHAM: The statistical significance may be cold comfort to homeowners bailing out the water the sewer system couldn't handle. They're more likely to welcome the city's offer of free pumping service for people who still have water in their basements. That was part of a plan approved by the city council's Public Works Committee.
The package also includes no charge removal of tree limbs and brush residents leave on the Boulevard for the next week or so, and removal of damaged furniture, appliances, and other goods with the regular garbage pickup. Council member Walt Dziedzic says he's prepared to ask the legislature for help with the cleanup when state lawmakers convene for a special session on flood relief legislation next month.
Dziedzic suggests the request might include more than just the cost of a few extra garbage pickups, though. He says he's getting reports that Edison High School in his district sustained heavy damage.
WALT DZEIDZIC: Much of the structure is, especially the basement has been undermined by water from a lot of different angles, and the estimate there is $3 million to fix that. They also had an $8 million improvement project that was to start Tuesday. That's been put on hold, and they're assessing the situation there from what I could see. I would be in favor of building a new school.
BILL WAREHAM: Minneapolis schools communication director Mary Paddock says it's too early to say whether the district will need to replace Edison or any other school. She says Tuesday's storms damaged many of the district's buildings, but the extent of the damage won't be known until next week at the earliest.
MARY PADDOCK: We know there's a whole range of damage. There's a lot of carpeting damage, there's probably some electronic damage, there's damage to ceilings, boiler rooms, coal rooms, you name it. After all, we have 75 to 100 buildings out there and about 33 of them we know already sustained damage.
BILL WAREHAM: Paddock says insurance should cover most of the cost of necessary repairs, replacing a school that might be repairable could be a different story, however. A new high school would cost about $40 million. I'm Bill Wareham, Minnesota Public Radio.