News and Pictures From Austin, MN

What a day.

My first warning was when I woke up and turned on the tv.Lot’s of school closings and late starts due to the heavy storms last night.

“Wow”, I thought, ” I remember it starting just before I went to bed, must have been bad?”.

Off to work.

My next warning came at 10 o’clock this morning.

My night baker calls me in tears and in a panic.

” Terry, I can’t make it in today, they are evacuating my apartment and the river is only about 20 feet away right now and rising”.

After telling her to take the day off, I told my staff I needed to go take a look at this because at this point none of us had any idea what was in store for us today.

The first picture is of a ,normally, 10 foot trickle of water called the Cedar River as it passes just south of I90 next to my bakers apartment.

I next tried to drive farther east towards downtown and was greeted by the first of many closed roads today. I took me about 30 minutes to drive the 6 blocks back to work because of all the people trying to get the hell out of the area.

I got back to work just in time for my assistant manager to call me, in tears, to tell me that her basement was starting to fill with water and that she would not be able to come in tonight, ( she lives right next to the river, two blocks from me).

I decided that work didn’t really need me for awhile , so I drove home and changed clothes to help with the sandbagging.

The following pics are not great as they were all shot with a camera phone, but this is only a small part of what today was like.

After today, my prayers are doubled for the folks faced with the hurricane in the south.

Next

next one

Oops….try again, next one.

Again, this is normally a 30 foot wide, 2 foot deep section of the Cedar just below the damn next to the Hormel plant.

Two days ago I walked and fished a 1/4 mile section of this river and only got my pockets wet once.

Sandbagging, six hours later this area is under 6 feet of water. If you saw a news report on this, this is right next to the Salvation Army building one block away from the river.

another one..the next few are from 6pm this evening

bad street to be parked on…..

Oakland Ave, looks like a canal

It’s been an interesting day

Half a block away at 6:00. There are about 12 pumps like this around this building.

Wish I could’ve got them all in one pic.

This building was the only one I found close that was holding out,Immediatly across the street, his neighbors were submerged under a few feet.

Amazing what a couple of feet of elevation and several pumps will do for you.

These guys were holding out well.

Terry in this pic the building in the background there are two or three of them that are identical, my uncle lives in one of those buildings. Do you know if the water made it to all of those buildings? I tried calling him on both his home phone and cell today but got his voice mail on both phones.

Steve,

Both of those buildings are safe, the one in the forefront currently has water across 90% of it’s parking lot. They are located about 20 feet above the river and I passed by both of them taking the 6:00 pictures.

Local phone service has been sporadic today, and I am sure that is why you are reaching their voicemail. Try again tomorrow and you will probably get through.

Many senior citizens were out and about talking about the day. Rest assured, uncle, ( I think), is safe.

That stuff is hard to look at. I have had the unfortunate experience of dealing with water and I can say, this stinks for a lot of people! Those are some very memorable pics you have there. I’d save them as historical data.

Thank you Terry!

What is the status right now, Thur morning? Is the water still rising or is it falling?

I spoke with my wife this morning and she scared the heck out of me by saying that the local news was saying the crest was yet to come.

I figured I would walk outside to be greeted with waves.

However, after driving around and talking with some workers who were up all night, I was told the waters started to recede at about 5 am or so.

Here are the latest shots from this morning.

These guys have been on the job since 7 am yesterday. Yuck, a 24 hour shift.

Just in back of the Hormel plant.

At least the Cedar is a rocky river and not a muddy one here. Silt deposits seem minimal.

And on one good note, I now have a years supply of these!

This place had the right idea, they are right on the bank of the river, yet still stayed dry.

Another shot of the same place.

Just got a call from my uncle, they were out of town yesterday, they got back around 2:30 yesterday and had a heck of a time getting into town with all the detours.
Thanks again for the info Terry and all the great pics!

You’re very welcome, Steve.

Great news on your family!

I am actually surprised by how the pics turned out. They look like crap when viewing them on the phone, but on the comp they show up just fine. Go figure.

Amazing pictures! Thanks for sharing. I sure hope they can get rid of some of that water here in the next few days.