Family that lost home to flooded river vows to keep store open as floodwaters devastate Midwest

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A family that watched their home collapse into a flooded river near an at risk Minnesota dam is vowing to reopen their nearby store to sell its homemade pie and burgers as soon as its safe to do so.

The Rapidan Dam Store remained standing Wednesday, but after the house where its owners, Jenny Barnes and brother David Hruska, grew up toppled into the Blue Earth River near Mankato the day before, they aren’t entirely sure what’s next.

“We don’t know what will happen,” a post on the store’s Facebook page said Wednesday night, adding that it’s been a hard experience. “The Dam Store has not sold its last burger or sold its last slice of pie.”

That home’s disappearance into the river and the hundreds of flood-damaged or destroyed homes elsewhere in the upper Midwest are among the first property casualties of extreme weather gripping the region as floodwaters move south.

A swath through Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota and Minnesota has been under siege from flooding because of torrential rains since last week, while also suffering through a stifling heat wave. Up to 18 inches (46 centimeters) of rain have fallen in some areas, pushing some rivers to record levels. Hundreds of people have been rescued and at least two people have died after driving in flooded areas.

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In Iowa, more towns were bracing for floodwaters. The west fork of the Des Moines River was expected to crest at nearly 17 feet (5.1 meters) in Humboldt overnight into Thursday. About 200 homes and 60 businesses in Humboldt could be affected, officials said.

In the coming days, Nebraska and northwestern Missouri are expected to start to see the downstream effects of the flooding. Many streams and rivers may not crest until later this week. The Missouri River will crest at Omaha on Thursday, said Kevin Low, a National Weather Service hydrologist.

Some of the most stunning images have been of the floodwaters surging around the Minnesota dam.

Jessica Keech and her 11-year-old son watched part of the house near the dam fall into the river Tuesday night. They had often visited the area to see the dam and enjoy the pie from the Dam Store.

“It just kind of sucked it into the water. Just literally disappeared,” said Keech, of nearby New Ulm.

Blue Earth County officials said Wednesday that the river had cut more widely and deeply into the bank, and they were concerned about the integrity of a nearby bridge over the river. After the flooding subsides, the county must decide whether to make repairs to the dam or possibly remove it — with both options costing millions of dollars.

President Joe Biden spoke by phone with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to discuss the impacts to the Rapidan dam and the Federal Emergency Management Agency had arrived in Minnesota, White House officials said.

Preliminary information from the National Weather Service shows the recent flooding brought record-high river levels at more than a dozen locations in South Dakota and Iowa, surpassing previous crests by an average of about 3.5 feet (1 meter).

In southeastern South Dakota, residents of Canton were cleaning up after getting 18 to 20 inches (46 to 51 centimeters) of rain in just 36 hours last week. A creek beside the 20 acres (8 hectares) owned by Lori Lems and her husband flooded the playground they’d built in their backyard for their grandchildren.

Lems, a 62-year-old former convenience store and wedding venue owner, said she’s lived in the town of 3,200 people all her life and never saw rain as intense as last week’s.

“We felt that we were in a hurricane-type of rain,” she said. “It was just unbelievable.”

Farther south, in North Sioux City, South Dakota, flooding collapsed utility poles and trees, and some homes were washed off their foundations. There was no water, sewer, gas or electrical service in that area, Union County Emergency Management said Tuesday in a Facebook post.

In the Sioux City, Iowa, area, water spilled over the Big Sioux River levee, damaging hundreds of homes, officials estimated. And the local wastewater treatment plant has been so overwhelmed by the floodwaters that officials say they’re having to dump about a million gallons (3.8 million liters) of untreated sewage per day into the Missouri River.

Numerous roads were closed because of the flooding, including Interstates 29 and 680 in Iowa near the Nebraska line.

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Collins reported from Hartford, Connecticut. Associated Press journalists Summer Ballentine in Jefferson City, Missouri, John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas, and Lisa Baumann in Bellingham, Washington, contributed to this report.