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One year ago this week, parts of southern Minnesota were almost underwater, as torrential downpours dropped nearly 10 inches of rain over several days, causing historic flooding. Stunning videos of the partial failure of the Rapidan Dam and a house falling into the Blue Earth River captured national attention.
State and local authorities reported that the flood waters caused millions of dollars worth of damage in the region, including in the city of Mankato. Today, some small businesses are still recovering and some flood-damaged areas still haven’t been cleared and fixed up.
Those who own businesses on Riverfront Drive in downtown Mankato remember when the roadway wasn’t a drive — it was a river itself, including Jenna Odegard, 37, who owns the shops, Bumbelou and Hazelkin & Co., in Old Town Mankato.
“It was wild,” Odegard said. “All of a sudden all of this rain came in, and when I looked out my windows, like the front door of the store, we had a small passageway for customers to still access our front doors. And then it was a river that filled the street.”
Downpour after downpour completely saturated the ground, while the Minnesota and Blue Earth Rivers rose to near record high levels. Downtown Mankato flooded as the city’s overwhelmed stormwater sewers backed water up into the streets, basements and parking ramps.
As Odegard opened her store last Friday morning, she said the timing of the flood couldn’t have been worse. Business had already slowed significantly because of road construction on Riverfront Drive. The flooding kept even more customers away.
Sales plummeted by almost 50 percent, and Odegard told MPR News she had to lay off half her staff and reduce store hours. One of Odegard’s businesses qualified for some disaster relief assistance — and that helped a little, and she says sales now are finally recovering.
“But you never really regain what you lost,” Odegard said. “You think about the [compounding] effect of money, and when you take a loss like that, you don’t ever really get it back.”
There are other business owners who didn’t qualify for any assistance. Christy Steinbach, 50, of Christy’s Crystals, says the construction on Riverfront Drive followed by the flood, prevented customers from entering her business for months.
“There were days when nobody was in here,” Steinbach said. “I had to take out a loan against my investments in order to keep the shop afloat because there were days when nobody was in here, or we’d make like $200. It was awful. So that’s how I was able to stay in business, by taking out a loan against my investments.”
Several businesses reported that water flooded their basements. Steinbach said Federal Emergency Management Agency employees went door to door to assess damages, but very few actually qualified for federal aid. Some were able to repair and rebuild. But some weren’t as fortunate and closed up shop.
“All of us on Riverfront [Drive] were put in a really bad situation — on top of the construction, then there’s the flooding, which is nobody’s fault in an act of God,” Steinbach said. “However, during that hardship, to find out there were no funds for us [to help recover] really hurt.”
Could it have been worse?
City officials say the flood damage actually could have been much worse. Flood mitigation infrastructure, including a dike and levee at the confluence of the Minnesota and Blue Earth Rivers, prevented those waterways from overtopping their banks, which would’ve sent even more water into downtown Mankato.
The city of Mankato also spent about $180,000 on flood response efforts during those stormy days last June 21 through July 1, 2024 to help keep flood waters at bay. That included flood station operations, emergency clean-up, public works overtime and administrative costs.
The total damages reported to public property in Mankato topped $2,000,000. Figures for private property losses in Mankato were not available but are believed to be substantial.
One city park sustained heavy flood damage, but the federal aid only covers part of the restoration work, while a ravine stabilization flood control project that is needed didn’t qualify for any federal aid.
Susan Arntz is the city administrator of Mankato. She says as more severe rain storms become more frequent, the city is looking to invest in more stormwater and flood control infrastructure.
“We’re working now within our stormwater fund and in our general fund to try and prioritize how we're going to handle that,” Arntz said. “We do, of course, always look for whether there are grants that can help support completing work, and so we continue to work through that.”
However, as climate change makes rain storms more severe and more common, not all cities, towns and counties can afford to upgrade their aging infrastructure to prepare for that new normal. The partial failure of the 115-year old Rapidan Dam is a case in point.
That footage of the rising Blue Earth River carving a path around it, forcing the house to plunge into the raging waters, made national news, catching the eye of Chicago-based civil engineer Patrick Lach. He says most Americans take their stormwater infrastructure for granted.
“It really is only when we start to see these failures occurring that it really starts to hit home,” Lach said. “When you see a house falling into a river or stream, or a road collapsing because of flooding, or you have extreme weather events causing millions, if not billions worth of damages in areas that may not have been ready for them.”
A shifting future
Lach’s expertise is in flood control and stormwater management and he’s part of the American Society of Civil Engineers committee that evaluates and grades the nation’s flood infrastructure. And he says cities, counties, states and the federal government all have not invested enough in projects that will prevent these kinds of devastating floods in the future.
That’s also on the mind of Mankato shop owner Jenna Odegard, who worries about whether Riverfront Drive will flood again.
“We literally just sit so low, compared to the area around that when we get massive amounts of rain, that's why we've seen feet of water in the basement in the past, and that had to do with city infrastructure is why things were backing up,” Odegard said. “And I don’t feel super confident though I'm not going to start using my basement.”
Still, Odegard tries to see the bright side of things — her businesses are slowly recovering, while Mankato city officials take what they learned from last summer’s extreme storms and work to prepare for the next one.
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