Flash Flood — Fillmore, Minnesota

2007-08-18 to 2007-08-19 · near Rushford, Fillmore, Minnesota

Event narrative

Heavy rain that was centered north of the county caused Rush Creek to flash flood on historic levels. In addition to Rush Creek, every other creek that leads into Rushford had tremendous accumulation that led to flood waters raging into town. The water backed up against the levees normally used to keep flood waters out from the nearby Root River and ended up flooding most of the town, including the entire downtown area.

In Rushford specifically, two thirds of the town was under water at some point. About 300 people had to be rescued. 490 of the 766 homes were flooded or had damage (79 were declared structurally unsound). 58 of the 70 businesses in town were damaged impacting nearly 500 of the 600 jobs in town. A total of 4 churches and 40 apartment buildings were also impacted.

Damage was widespread across the county, especially the northeast parts. Infrastructure was hit hard with numerous road closures and bridge damage. Numerous mud slides were reported. At least 704 homes applied for FEMA assistance.

Wider weather episode

A warm front lifting northward into Iowa triggered round after round of thunderstorms with excessive rainfall across southeast Minnesota during the evening and overnight hours of August 18-19. This was after rain had fallen earlier in the day. Total rainfall amounts of 10 to 15 inches were common, which produced widespread and significant flash flooding. An official rainfall total of 15.1 inches near Hokah (Houston County) established an all-time 24 hour rainfall record for the state of Minnesota. Other rainfall totals, which were unofficial readings, included 17.00 and 14.00 inches respectively in Witoka and Utica (Winona County). Numerous roads and bridges were washed out, houses collapsed due to mudslides and hundreds of homes had flooded basements. Law enforcement and fire department officials reported rescuing people from their vehicles, as well as from house tops. There were seven fatalities reported, five in Winona County and two in Houston County. Damage attributed to the heavy rainfall and subsequent flooding was estimated to be in the millions of dollars. Fillmore, Houston, Olmsted, Wabasha and Winona counties were declared federal disaster areas.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (43.8200, -91.7700)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 55120. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.