Star Tribune
How bad will spring flooding be in Minnesota? Five key questions answered — and a silver lining
Rivers will rise across Minnesota next week as the snowpack piled up from one of the state’s snowiest winters begins to melt in force.
By Tuesday, temperatures are expected to climb into the 70s in parts of the state. The warm-up, so soon after a late winter storm dumped more than a foot of heavy, wet snow, raises the likelihood of flooding in cities along just about every major river in Minnesota.
St. Paul preemptively declared an emergency as it plans for road and park closures along the Mississippi River; Stillwater has built a wall of sand that’s 2,000 feet long and 6 feet high to keep its downtown safe from the St. Croix River; and Fargo, Moorhead, Grand Forks and other cities in the Red River Valley have started to plan sandbagging operations.
Here are some things to keep in mind about the flood risk this spring.
Why is the risk so high?
The short answer: snow.
This was one of the state’s 10 snowiest winters on record, with high amounts of it in every river basin. The snow was particularly wet, too, holding an usual amount of moisture, especially in northern Minnesota. The cold spring kept it on the ground longer than normal, raising the risk that it would melt all at once.
The predicted warmup on Tuesday will hit the entire state at the same time, sending water into every river basin, said Craig Schmidt, hydrologist with the National Weather Service. That makes the risk particularly high in the state’s biggest rivers, as more and more water from high tributaries feeds into them.
When is flooding expected to start?
The Weather Service still expects most rivers to crest in mid-April, but that could change depending on rainfall. The warm weather next week could also speed things up, Schmidt said. Smaller rivers will likely hit their peak as soon as the end of the week, while larger ones, such as the Mississippi River in the St. Paul area, may keep rising until late in the month.
What should we watch for?
Rain. Rivers will almost certainly be high, but adding any more precipitation over the next two weeks will compound the problem.
“We know we’re going to have warm temperatures and we know we’re going to have snowmelt that will put us in this flood threat,” Schmidt said. “What would make it a really really bad flood would be adding rain to it at the wrong time.”
The Weather Service expects skies across the state to be mostly clear over the next week, with chances of rain Wednesday in Duluth, Thursday in Minneapolis and Friday in Fargo.
Is anything working in our favor?
One of the few positives of the drought that lingered in Minnesota over the past two years is that most of the state has dry, thirsty soil ready to soak up quite a lot of water.
The heavy snowpack also kept the ground insulated from freezing temperatures. That’s important because if the soil is frozen, it can’t accept water. The thawed dry ground could help alleviate some of the worst of the flooding.
Is there a silver lining to this?
For the first time in two years, no parts of Minnesota are in severe drought. All the snow and water that’s been raising the risk of floods has essentially erased one of the state’s driest spells since the 1980s. The much-needed water will help alleviate stressed aquifers and trees, lakes and trout streams across the state.
Twin Amur tigers born at Como Zoo in August now have names — Marisa and Maks.
Two long-time volunteers who have worked with zookeepers to care for and teach the public about the zoo’s big cats came up with the names, the first to be born at the St. Paul zoo in more than 40 years.
Marisa, a name that the volunteers found to mean “spirited and tenacious,” call that a perfect reflection of her personality. The name also carries special significance for the Como Zoo community, as it honors a retired zookeeper of the same name who was instrumental in the care of large cats during her 43 years at the zoo, Como Zoo and Conservatory Director Michelle Furrer said.
The male cub has been named Maks, which is associated with meanings like “the greatest” or “strength and leadership.” The volunteers felt this was an apt description of the male cub’s confident demeanor and growing sense of leadership, Furrer said.
“Marisa and Maks aren’t just names; they’re a fun reminder of the passion and care that keep us committed to protecting wildlife every day,” Furrer said.
The newborns and their first-time mother, 7-year-old Bernadette, remain off view to allow for more bonding time, zoo officials said. The cubs’ father, 11-year-old Tsar, has been a Como resident since February 2019 and remains on view.
Fewer than 500 Amur tigers — also known as Siberian tigers — remain in the wild as they face critical threats from habitat loss, poaching and human-wildlife conflict, the zoo said.
Much of the wood waste in the metro area is sent to a processing site near Pig’s Eye Lake in St. Paul, where it is stored before being burned to produce energy at the St. Paul Cogeneration plant downtown.
Cogeneration provides power to about half of downtown and was originally built to manage elm-tree waste in response to Dutch elm disease. The plant burns approximately 240,000 tons of wood each year, according to Michael Auger, senior vice president of District Energy in St. Paul.
Jim Calkins, a certified landscape horticulturalist who has been involved in discussions about the problem, said he thinks using wood for energy is the most logical solution.
“The issue is, we don’t have enough facilities to be able to handle that, at least in the Twin Cities,” Calkins said. “So there has to be dollars to support transportation to get the wood to those places, or in some cases, to upgrade some of those facilities such that they are able to burn wood.”
Plans are in place to convert Koda Energy in Shakopee to burn ash wood, which could potentially handle around 40,000 tons of wood waste, but that would take around two years to establish, according to Klapperich.
In some areas of the state, cities have resorted to burning excess wood waste because they felt they had no other option. Open burning wood releases a lot of carbon into the air, Klapperich said.
Weary from the rat race nature of practicing commercial law, Danielle Miller had long dreamed of starting a new professional life as a bookstore owner. When the Lincoln, Neb., resident saw a space at St. Paul’s Union Depot, she moved to make her dream a reality. She and her husband now call the Macalester-Groveland neighborhood home.
Eye On St. Paul recently visited with Miller in her sun-drenched store, Story Line Books, to talk about what spurred her to leave the law behind and lose herself in shelves of books. This interview was edited for length.
Q: So, you’ve opened a bookstore, in Lowertown. Are you a little crazy?
A: That’s been the reaction. There’s been a lot of “Really? Lowertown?” There’s been a lot of that. It’s a little unnerving.
Q: Why decide to just up and move to St. Paul?
A: We travel a lot; we travel all over the world. And we go to bookstores. We were here visiting [my husband’s] parents in Woodbury, and we drove down Randolph because we like to eat at Due Focacceria. And we saw this building that had “For Sale” on it. It was a 900-square-foot retail spot on the bottom and an apartment above. And I was like, that is the European bookstore dream, right? I looked it up online, but it got scooped up. A week later, I was looking again and this [Union Depot space] was the first post.
I was immediately in love. The next time we were up here, we made arrangements to come and see it. And I told my husband, “You should probably get a job in St Paul.”
Q: Back up a few steps. Why this compulsion to open a bookstore when you were a working attorney?
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