By MaryHelen Swanson

Not since 1974 has Rush City seen as much water as it has in the past 24 hours. At least thatís what city officials were saying as they stood dripping wet while working on flood control last night.

Torrential and steady rain Tuesday, Oct. 4, filled the streets, yards and even many basements of the residents. Many residents were reporting 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.

Rush City Fire Chief Bob Carlson set up an incident command post at the fire hall.

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 cityí 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.

It was not possible to make any damage assessment in the night but city staff were going out Wednesday morning to try to get some idea of the damage.

There were no injuries reported.

It was reported that five families were displaced from an apartment building near the elementary school.

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

During the night, school district staff was keeping 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 rerouted freeway traffic had to drive through deep water on Forest Boulevard south of town Wednesday morning.

At the command post during the night, duties were assigned and notations were posted to keep an eye on locations where the elderly and other residents that might need to be evacuated were living.

Around 11 p.m. Tuesday, crews made up of fire fighters from Rush City and surrounding departments, city maintenance, citizens and other volunteers began sandbagging around homes along 2nd Street and later moved on to sand bag at least one residentís home near the river.

Mayor Mike Skalsky was working closely with maintenance staff throughout the afternoon and evening.
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.

With a relentless rain still dousing the city, the tired sandbagging crew assembled at the fire hall where they were profusely thanked by the mayor, fire chief and Halstrom.

A couple more waves of rain are expected today. Since the children are out of school, parents may want to be sure the kids do not go near the raging creek or other flooded areas. Many who had thought to enjoy a walk in the flooded areas Tuesday found the water to be very cold and deeper than they had expected.

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