Deadly Flooding Swamps Midwest, Stresses Aging Dams

Devastating flooding in the Midwestern states of Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota and Minnesota killed at least two people this week, as more rain and storms were predicted in the region.

AccuWeather meteorologists said stormy weather will continue until the end of June, slowing down the receding of floodwaters.

“So much rain has fallen in a zone from southwestern Minnesota to northeastern Nebraska, including northwestern Iowa and southeastern South Dakota, that multiple rivers are on the rampage,” said Alex Sosnowski, AccuWeather senior meteorologist.

Flood waters have begun to recede in some rivers in areas of Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and South Dakota, reported USA Today. But more storms will continue to heighten river levels for at least the next couple of weeks. Forecasters said the storms will move east to southeast, following the edge of a heat dome in the South.

Brandon Buckingham, AccuWeather meteorologist, said severe thunderstorms with possible tornadoes would pop up from North Dakota to New Mexico, with parts of Montana, Colorado and North Dakota expected to experience “numerous severe thunderstorms, with some packing wind gusts of 60-70 mph, large hail and perhaps a few tornadoes.”

Amidst the raging floodwaters in Minnesota, one white frame house barely holding onto the edge of a riverbank collapsed into the Blue Earth River near the Rapidan Dam earlier this week, The Associated Press reported.

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After the dam’s west abutment failed on Monday, the river was sent rushing around it, eroding the bank. The family had already evacuated before it collapsed.

“It’s been a very scary and hard situation,” Jenny Barnes, whose family has run the Dam Store for decades and owned the house, told KARE-TV, as reported by The Associated Press. “That’s our life, as well. That’s our business; that’s our livelihood. It’s everything to us.”

“There’s no stopping it. It’s going to go where it wants to go. It’s going to take what it wants to take,” Barnes said.

As flood waters began to slow, the main portion of the dam was still intact.

“The Rapidan Dam, we think, is going to continue to hold up,” said Bob Jacobson, Minnesota Department of Public Safety commissioner, late Tuesday afternoon, as The New York Times reported. “But there are going to be more assessments in the future.”

According to experts, the damage and continuing future risk highlighted the country’s deteriorating dams and the potential dangers they pose when faced with extreme conditions.

The average age of a dam in the United states is nearly 60, so issues concerning these aging structures are predicted to multiply as the climate crisis wears on.

“This, again, was an unprecedented amount of rainfall that came in a very short period of time,” said South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, as reported by The New York Times. “Many of these communities, I don’t know how they could have prepared for what they saw.”