Preparation key to flood mitigation

MANKATO, Minn. (KEYC) - The Minnesota River watershed is full of snow melt. But area cities are in a good place, thanks to flood preparations.

“This year’s been different because we don’t have any interior water meaning rain, snow, run off is all gone already the ground soaked up a lot of that. We got very lucky on how cold it got at night. Nice during the day it melted. Night, then it got cold. So it really it was perfect. You couldn’t ask for better,” said Tony Talamantez, superintendent of infrastructure with the city of Mankato.

There isn’t much water on the inside of Mankato’s levies, thanks to drier conditions over the past few weeks. The Minnesota River in Mankato crested over the weekend at 20.8 Feet-- two feet below flood stage.

“You can’t make a mistake in flood control. There is no making a mistake. Everything has to work. Everything has to be ready to go,” said Talamantez.

Now those in Henderson are dealing with their water a bit differently. They’ve had to open and close both highway 19 and 93 multiple times over the past few weeks.

“It’ll probably crest tomorrow and start dropping down so it really hasn’t had the impact we’ve had in the past,” said Henderson mayor Keith Swenson.

But when the roads do close, businesses must wait out the storm.

“It costs us thousands of dollars a day and it costs the commuters literally thousands of dollars a day,” Swenson added.

Now this may all change with just a little bit of water.

“This has been a really easy one. And hopefully it stays an easy one, and we don’t get big thunderstorms in May,” added Swenson.

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