by April Scheinoha
Reporter
The Thief River Falls City Council has declared a state of emergency in the city. The declaration was approved at the council meeting Tuesday, May 3.
The declaration was made due to an April 13 snowstorm, and rain and flooding 10 days later. Public property and several city roadways were impacted. One major issue, according to Mayor Brian Holmer, is the sloughing of the Red Lake River bank upstream from Hartz Park. Some homes and public infrastructure are being infringed upon at that location.
Holmer said the city’s sanitary sewer was also overloaded since residents were unable to extricate their sump pumps. As a result, a lift station was down for a time.
Shortly after the April 23 incident, Pennington County Emergency Management Director Erik Beitel told The Times that the Red Lake River dam was at a critical point in Thief River Falls and had since calmed. At one point, all of the gates were fully open and the water flow was high. Thief River Falls Electric Superintendent Dale Narlock said it was one of the highest flows he had ever seen in his 45 years of working for the city.
The Pennington County Board declared a state of emergency in the county on Tuesday, April 26. Widespread overland, river and tributary flooding was reported in the county. As of that day, more than 4,000 sandbags had been distributed in Pennington County, and flooding impacted about 60 public sites with half being the responsibility of the county and half the responsibility of the respective township in which the public property is located. Roadways and crossings have been washed out in some instances. At least one drop structure failed.
By declaring states of emergency, the city and county are able to recoup some, if not all, of their costs related to flooding.