Up She comes!

This should get some ice to start moving a little. High water with all this ice left could be tough on boat docks and shorelines.

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Its gonna get crazy real quick. I just check the LaX gauge and it jumped almost 3 feet

Looks like some of the state and local authorities are getting ready for the high water. I’m glad to see they aren’t waiting too long. This could be a tough spring. This is off the MN DOT St Croix Crossing website:

In anticipation of spring rains, melting snow and flooding, construction crews are removing equipment and materials from the Stillwater Lift Bridge and Chestnut St. Once the bridge has been cleared, we will raise the lift span and lock it into place to float larger flood debris through and allow boat traffic to move up and down the St. Croix River.

The city of Stillwater will begin building a flood wall next week to keep the St. Croix River out of downtown Stillwater. Information about the city’s flooding efforts will be available at ci.stillwater.mn.us or on the city’s Facebook page.

Once flood waters recede, equipment and materials will be moved back onto the bridge and work will resume on the lift bridge. However, due to flooding and any possible flood damage repairs, completion of the work is not expected until early fall.

Steve KNOWS!

Hi Turk – I plan on following you around during this spring’s high water. If anybody can find fish in high water I figure its you. 20 seasons pro guiding – congrats.

LOL! I have some pictures of a few people that have been around a while that I’ll be sharing next week.

Steve, I heard this guy on the radio this morning that said “It could be one of the top 5 floods of Stillwater”.

Have there been times where the Corps, or anyone for that matter used dynamite to blow up the ice/debris to get the flow going or does that not really make any difference?
I live North of St Cloud near the Mississippi and shortly after we moved there they dynamited around some of the islands because the ice was blocked and it was holding back the water and the dam in Little Falls was in danger. They actually had floating LP tanks, HUGE tanks.

CaptainMusky wrote:

blow up the ice/debris to get the flow going

yes

They used dynamite in Hutchinson in 1965 to break up the ice.

Didn’t do much good and the dam broke as well.

Here is today’s forecast. Looks like it is about a steady rise of about 0.53 feet per day. The big question always is – “What will it crest at?”. The highest historic crest was on April 18, 1965 at 694.1 feet.

Here is a list of the top 5 St Croix crests:
Historic Crests
(1) 94.10 ft on 04/18/1965
(2) 92.30 ft on 04/27/2001
(3) 92.20 ft on 04/16/1969
(4) 91.10 ft on 04/16/2001
(5) 90.45 ft on 04/12/1997

You can see they crested between 12 to 27 April so that should give us an idea of a possible timeline. Looks like the next month could be interesting.

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Roller gates just went up on lock 5A. The main channel just broke up in front of my house. Quite the site too see. Some huge pieces of ice and trees and root balls on their way south.

Coming up fast here.

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Slow no wake until the 4th of July?????

steveo – Guess what – you might be right. St Croix to No Wake by March 24th. I sure hope it doesn’t hold on until the 4th of July. Here is the next seven day forecast:

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Down here were in real trouble. Looking at 1993 again. That silted in a lot of our backwaters. Our River down here may be doomed.

hoping we get a little wind after tomorrow’s high of 67° and clear off the river so I can get my boat out and get trained in on my new Terrova iPilot Link and Helix this weekend. I was surprised to see that they had the dock in at Prescott this morning

BoatsHateMe wrote:

I was surprised to see that they had the dock in at Prescott this morning

Lol.

The dock is pulled up alongside the parking lot same place it has been since December.

Water came up.

UI hope the Mississippi settles down as the downstream pools are already having issues. This is causing problems that are compounding the the Missouri River and then we here are caught in the middle gentlemen!

Des Moines River at our dam @ Saylorville has risen to 879.6 that is within 10.4 feet from total flood and heading over everything that we can withhold! We are within a few feet of raising our extra flood gate bellows now.

At the “Ville” when the elevation reaches 890, We can’t stop it.

I guess what I’m asking is,
Is there anything that can be done to help hold back your waters somewhere to help those way down stream from you like the mid America and Southern states to cope with their flooding?

SW Iowa and those that are boarding the MO river are already screwed! As far as the USACE goes, they are the ones that seem to control the flooding! Humm,,,,

Denny O wrote:

I guess what I’m asking is,
Is there anything that can be done to help hold back your waters somewhere to help those way down stream from you like the mid America and Southern states to cope with their flooding?

SW Iowa and those that are boarding the MO river are already screwed! As far as the USACE goes, they are the ones that seem to control the flooding! Humm,,,,

That’s a funny observation, thank you for your input

We couldn’t hold back anything, without flooding everything up here. We’re full with the gates open.

FishBlood&RiverMud wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>BoatsHateMe wrote:</div>
I was surprised to see that they had the dock in at Prescott this morning

Lol.

The dock is pulled up alongside the parking lot same place it has been since December.

Water came up.

LOL Now that you mention it you’re right. Pretty soon the big dock will be in too.

Was that you coming in off the river at dusk last night? (Tuesday) I was gonna ask if you were havin any luck

BoatsHateMe wrote:

Was that you coming in off the river at dusk last night?

Maybe

As far as the USACE goes, they are the ones that seem to control the flooding!

Denny, you used the term “flood gates”. Take the “flood” out the flood gates and it will be more accurate.

The corp does not control flooding. The only thing they are charged with and can control is keeping the 9′ channel open. Holding back water in the summer (dry months) is how they do that.

Trying to hold back water now would certainly damage the dams.

I often thought that letting the draw down in the late winter would prevent (some) flooding. Not the case. If the Corp could do that legally, it would still flood as much as it is now not to mention the ice fishermen on dangerous ice.

Flooding is one thing I can’t blame the Corps for.