Community Corner
Cannon River Continues to Recede, City Says
The U.S. Geological Survey's equipment near the Second Street Bridge was damaged in Saturday's flooding.
The Cannon River continues to recede following Saturday's flooding in and around Northfield, but plenty of standing water remains.
The City of Northfield's public work department issued an update Tuesday morning on the aftermath of the flood. The update was posted on the department's Facebook page.
Here is the text of the update:
The river continues to recede from its Saturday morning levels, however the rate has slowed significantly. Based on information and comments from colleagues and co-workers - there is still plenty of water flowing in ditches, fields and small creeks/streams that lead to the Cannon River between the County 29 gage and Northfield. This would account for the CTY 29 gage showing significant downward trends and the slower rate on the gages in Northfield. I would expect that this event will continue for several more days as the runoff continues and "storage" areas begin to empty. The current level of the river is very close to what we saw in mid-June and mid-May following those events.
As stated previously, the USGS has reported damage to the gage at the 2nd Street bridge. If one is looking at the graph, there appears to be a lot of small ups and downs - the graph line is not smooth as it was before Saturday. The gage is still functional and this "noise" is the result of the damage. When water returns to safe levels for USGS personnel to work in the river, the gage will be repaired.
Concerns at this time will be what happens Thursday when showers and thunderstorms are in the forecast. The question is how much rain falls locally as well as across the Cannon and/or Straight River watersheds to the south. Prior to Saturday's event, the river was approaching its most recent low point, allowing for plenty of room to handle the rain. In addition, "storage" areas along the Cannon River and its tributaries were for the most part dry or very low. This is no longer the case. At this point the new precipitation amount estimates for Thursday and Thursday night are .1 to .25 inches of rain, higher amounts can occur around thunderstorms.
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