St. Croix River Flooding Hudson's Lakefront Park, Marina

With the St. Croix river at 85.91 feet the water is about a foot above elevation. The water is projected to crest around 86.3 feet on Saturday morning, which is one foot below the 87-foot flood stage. At that time it is expected to stay level for about a day and then will slowly start receding depending on the amount of precipitation the area receives.

“The river came up quite fast, but it’s pretty minor at this point,” said community development director, Denny Darnold. “But we hope and will keep our fingers crossed that in a day or two the water will start receding.”

Last year had a lot of snow melt and according to the forecast Hudson was expecting for the river to rise as much as record elevations. At that time precautionary considerations such as sandbagging were put in place. There has not been any record flooding since the 1960’s.

“I’ve been here for 26 years and I have only seen 5 or 6 situations where the water has been higher than this,” Darnold said. “Our staff is very experienced in addressing the issues and getting out in front of the issue, we have an action plan for when the water rises.”

The no-wake is in effect for the whole river, and the launching docks in Hudson are inaccessible, which has been affecting potential business at the St. Croix Marina.

“As of last week, it’s been pretty dramatic. It has been a bad week in terms of there is no transit business,” said the general manager of St. Croix Marina, Jeff Holmes. “And about half of our boaters don’t have access to their respected docks. So it’s had a pretty big impact this week.”

Due to the flooding, four of the St. Croix Marina docks are inaccessible for boat owners.

“There have been disappointed customers, especially now that the weather is nice but the river is too high. They are frustrated and disappointed,” Holmes said.  “But I absolutely would encourage people to hold their breath for a few more days and come out next week, and we could have a great summer.”