Heavy rains flood homes, washout roads

Ken Johnston

By Ken Johnston
Editor
While many people have been wishing for rain, several inches of rain did more than just dampen people’s spirits Sunday and Monday.
Rainy River received about five inches of rain from early Sunday to Monday morning. That saw many people’s basements flood, especially when the power went out around midnight Sunday. It stayed off until about 4 a.m. It did go off again in the afternoon but only for about 30 minutes.
However, the rain also continued throughout the morning hours dropping about another inch of rain by 10:30 a.m. At that time reports of roads washing out in the country started to come in and it was decided to send the country kids home from Riverview School.
Highway 11 west of Baudette near Roosevelt, Minnesota was also closed in the morning and travel throughout the area was not recommended as many road beds began to give way.
Flash-flood warnings were put in effect early Monday morning and remained in effect until mid-afternoon. Both Warroad and Rainy River had water backed up beyond their pump station’s capacities and urged people to get things up off the floor of their basements.
By 6 p.m. another 2.75 inches had fallen and Hwy. 11 at LaVallee, Ont. was closed.
Overnight another 3.5 inches fell. Roads, including Hwy. 11 at LaVallee and the Nestor Falls Hwy. remained closed. Only Hwy. 602 remained open between Emo and Fort Frances.
Tuesday the rain is supposed to let up but showers are forcasted for Wednesday and Thursday.