By MaryHelen Swanson

Not since 1974 has Rush City seen as much water as it did in a 24-hour period last week. At least thatís what city officials were saying as they stood dripping wet while working on flood control Tuesday night, Oct. 4.

Torrential and steady rain filled the streets, yards and even several basements of the residents in town. Many residents in and around the city reported over 9 inches of rain.

The situation turned to emergency status about 7 p.m. Tuesday when an official disaster was called and the Chisago County Emergency Management department was brought in.

It was then that Rush City Fire Chief Bob Carlson set up an incident command post at the fire hall and Chisago County Emergency Management Director Jim Halstrom arrived and began assessing the situation.

While many streets were flooded, some 10-15 homes had water right up to the house. Some peopleís basements were filling fast, while others worked frantically to keep ahead of leaking basement walls and windows.

The cityís maintenance crew had been out all afternoon Tuesday trying to clear storm sewers and doing what they could to try to control the flooding. But the rain continued to fall making the situation worse by the hour.

There were no reported injuries.

Five families were displaced from an apartment building near the elementary school when water poured into their lower level apartments. On thursday, owners Dick and Mary Nelson were busy ripping out carpeting and making note of wall board that had to be replaced due to water damage. Many of the renters lost furniture and belongings. By Thursday, all had removed what they could salvage and were staying elsewhere.

It was also learned this week that several townhomes in South Field Estates saw extensive flooding. In fact, one elderly woman had to be taken out of her home by boat Tuesday night.

Late Tuesday afternoon, the Minnesota Department of Transportation closed the southbound lane of I-35 from Rock Creek to Harris so traffic was re-routed through Rush City on Forest Boulevard.

According to the mayor, school district staff kept watch on the school buildings. Harte Avenue near Jacobson Elementary was completed flooded and remained so Wednesday morning, which was part of the reason school was cancelled. Other roads in the area, especially south of town were underwater also. Even the re-routed freeway traffic had to drive through water on Forest Boulevard south of town Wednesday morning.

Command Post

At the command post Tuesday night, duties were assigned and memos were posted on large sheets of paper taped to the side of one of the fire rigs. They included such things as locations where the elderly, and other residents who might need to be evacuated, were living.

The weather station was on, on the wall-mounted television and Halstrom was keeping an eye on another round of heavy rain heading for the area.

Around 10 p.m., a crew made up of fire fighters from Rush City and surrounding departments, city maintenance workers and citizen volunteers began sandbagging around homes along 2nd Street. They later moved on to sandbag at least one residentís home near the river.

Mayor Mike Skalsky worked closely with maintenance staff throughout the afternoon and evening. At the fire hall that night he said the pumps were going crazy at the lift station. ìThey just canít keep up.î

But he noted that the cityís water towers were full, and that the wastewater treatment plant was operating properly so residents had safe drinking water.

About 1:30 a.m., with a relentless rain still dousing the city, the soggy sandbagging crew assembled at the fire hall where they downed a couple dozen pizzas and were profusely thanked by the mayor, fire chief and Halstrom for their coordinated efforts.

Most of the area roadways were dry by the end of the week although many fields in the Rush City area and sod fields near North Branch were still looking like small lakes. Lake, creek and pond levels have gone up and remain so this week.

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