Northland flooding: The people affected
In the Fond du Lac neighborhood, Selma and Jeff Stephenson took their canoe for a trip down West Fifth Street near their home, which had a flooded front yard.
Workers for Krenzen Auto in Hermantown began moving the dealer’s vehicles at 1:30 a.m.
The lot this morning showed a few vehicles submerged in deep water, “but we got the majority of them up to higher ground,” said owner Scott Krenzen.
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In the Fond du Lac neighborhood, Selma and Jeff Stephenson took their canoe for a trip down West Fifth Street near their home, which had a flooded front yard.
The water on the street was at least 2 feet deep, said the couple, who hadn’t been asked to evacuate yet, though others in the area had.
“We’re fine, we have power. We don’t have a basement,” Selma Stephenson said. “But we have waterfront property now.”
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Darrin Berg stood on the street in front of his home this morning at 105 S. 59th Ave. W., surrounded by the flood waters of Keene Creek. The water had reached his first-floor windows and front door.
Berg said he looked outside at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday to see how Keene Creek was doing, and it was running high but wasn’t ominous. “A half-hour later I looked out, and my yard was gone,” he said.
“Unbelievable. You expect blizzards in Duluth,” Berg said. “You don’t expect floods.”
Berg said his two kids and grandchild were home and safe. The family was able to move its cars to safety, and they moved their electronics and valuables to the second floor. Everything in the basement is ruined, he said, and water is seeping into the first floor.
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Josh Ard of Perham, Minn., was staying in a motor home at the Fond du Lac Campground with his girlfriend and four kids when they were evacuated.
“They knocked on the door, and by 11:30 we were heading up the hill,” Ard said. “It was rising fast.”
Ard moved the motor home to higher ground in what he was told was a safe spot. This morning, they found themselves surrounded by rising water and were evacuated by Duluth firefighters in a fire truck.
They were waiting about 6:30 a.m. in a safe zone in Fond du Lac for a Duluth Transit Authority bus and planned to stay in a hotel tonight.
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At the south entrance of Morgan Park, a crowd was gathered this morning, looking at the flood waters.
“I’ve never seen this in my entire life; not in 27 years,” Courtney Hatland said. “It’s pretty crazy, insane.”
Ashley Peterson has lived in Morgan Park for 17 years. “It’s never done this,” she said.
Trisha Giernett said, “I hate feeling trapped with a sick kid.”
Tags: news, weather, updates, flood
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