'A horrible night': Floodwaters carried death and destruction through Winona County | Local

Employees at We-no-nah Canoe are used to working on boats. They don’t usually have to use them to get to work.

The morning of Aug. 19, 2007, We-no-nah Canoe workers had to paddle to the Bundy Boulevard facility. The canoe finishing area and warehouse were underwater.

So was much of Winona County.

The floods claimed seven lives in Winona and Houston counties and damaged thousands of homes in the region. Dozens of roads and bridges were impassable as a result of high water, downed trees and mudslides. Starting late Saturday night, Winona County authorities began evacuating residents from Stockton, Elba, and campgrounds near Whitewater State Park. Areas of St. Charles, Goodview and Minnesota City were evacuated as rainwater rushed out of the bluffs and hills, turning creeks into torrents that washed away whatever was in their paths.

Winona County Assessor Steve Hacken’s office reported to the state in October 2007 that Winona County’s flood-related property losses totaled $28.4 million and involved about 700 properties, about 575 of which were homesteads. Properties included on that list suffered damage estimated at $10,000 or more. In Fillmore County, in Rushford alone, building damages were estimated at $23.5 million.

But property could be cleaned up, rebuilt, replaced.

Not so the lives that were lost.

While they were able to evacuate residents from Stockton, Elba, Minnesota City and Goodview, rescuers could not save everyone. In all, five people died in Winona County, including Jered Lorenz, who was swept into Rush Creek, and John and Shirley Micheel, whose car was overtaken by Garvin Brook near Stockton.

And in the wee hours of Sunday morning, a hole in Winona County Road 17 swallowed two cars, killing two people when Victor and Joyce Gensmer’s Jeep fell about 30 feet down the embankment.

Just as the rain that fell Saturday and Sunday overwhelmed the ditches and creeks that drain the bluffs of southeastern Minnesota, the ensuing chaos swamped emergency responders further hindered by blocked roads and destruction that continued to unfold throughout the night.

“We definitely did everything we could,” Brand said. “It was a horrible night.”

The Winona County 911 dispatch center was so inundated with calls they didn’t have time to log them all on their computers, said then-Sheriff Dave Brand.

Meanwhile, rescuers scrambled to respond to a flood of calls and navigate impassible roads during a record rainfall that flooded communities throughout the county.

Even with the help of other counties and the National Guard, they could not be everywhere.

Brand said road conditions forced officers at times to detour 40 to 50 miles to get to places just a mile away.

Around 10 p.m. Saturday, the Winona County Dive/Rescue team was paged after being alerted to rapidly rising water in Stockton. When the team arrived on scene, water already covered Hwy. 14 and residents were being roused as flooding spread throughout the village, trapping residents in their homes as propane tanks floated free of their moorings and trees, homes and vehicles were carried along by the swirling flood.

The flooding that began in Stockton swiftly spread to the east — into the Gunderson district, the edge of Minnesota City, the Saehler-Anderson district, Sunny Acres and finally into Goodview Lake and Goodview.

As the flood arrived on the outskirts of Minnesota City, it followed Garvin Brook.

For a while.

When the water was blocked under the Minnesota City bridge by floating debris, the brook swelled from 10-feet wide and 3-feet deep to more than 30 feet wide.

The water began to carve new paths.

One went past the post office on Mill Street. More, now blocked form its normal path, flowed southeast along the railroad tracks and into Sunny Acres.

About 50 houses were deluged on 6th Street and 6th Place.

By 4:30 a.m. the north side of Minnesota City was being evacuated.

After rushing through Sunny Acres, the water rushed into Goodview Lake, where it raised the lake level by 12- to 15-feet.

The water flooded about 78 Lakeside Manor apartments, a number of homes and in LaCanne Park rose to the pavilion’s roof.

It would not leave for a week, not until officials figured out a plan to drain the lake.

The floodwaters destroyed the Minnesota City bridge, damaged more than 300 homes in Goodview, left 3 to 4 feet of mud on roads, and raised Goodview Lake as much as 15 feet above normal.

In Goodview, which suffered an estimated $7.7 million in damages, about 2,000 tons — 100 semi loads — of waste was collected the first week alone.

To the west, in St. Charles, floodwaters crept toward the St. Charles Assisted Living facility, forcing residents to be evacuated at about 4 a.m. when an estimated 18 inches of cold, muddy water climbed the walls of the complex after more than 6 inches of rain fell in a few hours.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Renee Ingersoll, a St. Charles police officer and assistant director for the ambulance service, said the day after. “When we evacuated them, the place was underwater. The water was up to the window.”

Some residents walked to a waiting ambulance and school bus, while the water level forced others into a boat. They were transported to St. Charles High School, the site of Sunday’s American Red Cross headquarters, where other evacuated residents gathered.

County roads and the St. Charles golf course flooded, 30 homes in a mobile home park on the city’s north side had significant damage, and officials reported Whitewater State Park was “washed out.”

The Middle Branch of the Whitewater River, which runs through the park, roared out of its banks Sunday morning, wiping out three bridges and damaging campgrounds, restrooms, a group dining hall and the septic and water systems.

About 500 campers were evacuated Saturday night, but a dozen campers were stranded at a primitive campsite overnight. They were evacuated the next morning.

“Luckily, our flood alarm system was activated, and no one was hurt,” said Chuck Kartak, deputy director of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Parks and Recreation. “But significant damage was done to the infrastructure, and the damage will be over $1 million, for sure.”

A little before 3 a.m. Sunday, the 19 years of work Mark Thoreson had put into the Lazy D Campground just south of Elba was washed away in minutes.

When the flood warnings were first broadcast Saturday night, the campground was immediately evacuated. The office remained open to turn away any late arrivals that night.

The sunlight of the next morning put Thoreson’s nightmare into perspective. But the only option he had was to accept Mother Nature’s fury.

“It was as bad as you can get,” he said. “The entire valley was under water. It was unbelievable how deep the water was.”

The campground was submerged, and after the floodwaters receded what was left of the grounds was covered in mud and sand high enough to bury some cars up to the windows. Several camper units had washed downriver, a walking bridge no longer fit its purpose, tents and tables were wrapped around trees, large logs floated in the swimming pool, and one cabin was entirely washed off its foundation.

Thoreson did the only thing he knew how to — he got right to work.

There was never any doubt in his mind he would rebuild — it was only a question of how fast.

“A lot of people didn’t think we would ever reopen,” he said. “The rumors had to be shut down.”

Before cleanup could begin, nearly 100 loads of sand and rock were hauled out so another 100 loads of black dirt could be brought back in to reseed the grounds that fall.

His goal was to open by April 2008, the beginning of the season — and he made it.