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A 37-year-old man was missing Sunday night in Winona County and hundreds throughout the region were evacuated from their homes after as much as a foot of rain fell through the day Saturday. Houston County authorities reported two dead.
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Anthony Krenzke finds his son's "Cars" pillow in the wreckage of his mother's house near Brownsville, MN. A mudslide destroyed the house early Sunday morning.
Erik Daily |
A husband and wife died when their vehicle was swept away near Stockton, said Winona County Sheriff Dave Brand. Another couple died near Witoka after the road gave way and their vehicle plunged into the water, Brand and witnesses said.
The names of the victims were not released Sunday afternoon.
Witnesses described people screaming for help from a rooftop as water swept their house hundreds of yards onto a set of railroad tracks. Others listened from their roofs as their homes collapsed under them.
Some told of narrow escapes from vehicles as waters surged around them and roads turned to gullies. Eight people in Brownsville, Minn., survived as their houses tumbled down the bluff in an avalanche of mud.
Emergency responders knocked on doors throughout the region Sunday, double-checking areas hit hardest by the flash floods. They used boats and scuba gear to rescue those stranded, authorities said.
The cities of Houston and Rushford were flooded and inaccessible. Houston County residents were evacuated to Caledonia. Stockton, Elba, St. Charles, Hokah and Minnesota City also were hit.
Roads, bridges and railroad tracks were washed out, and a train derailed in Vernon County, Wis., as a result of the floods. Many areas were without power and telephone service.
The Red Cross housed hundreds of evacuees at emergency shelters set up throughout the region.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty surveyed the damage and declared six counties, including Winona, Houston and Fillmore, as disaster areas. In Wisconsin, Gov. Jim Doyle did the same for Vernon, and Crawford counties and will visit the area today.
Pawlenty ordered National Guard troops to the area to help with rescue efforts. Two helicopters were called in but could not get to Stockton because of low cloud cover Sunday morning. One helicopter later helped with a rescue on the Whitewater River.
Officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency were headed to the area, Pawlenty said, to determine if damaged areas will qualify for federal assistance.
With more rain forecast Sunday night, authorities feared additional floods and urged those remaining in affected areas to evacuate.
“With the saturation of the ground, it’s not going to take a lot … for the water to start running again,” said Winona Police Department Chief Frank Pomeroy.
Many said the rising water caught them by surprise.
At a Red Cross shelter at Saint Mary’s University, Steve Runkle had a cell phone, the jeans he was wearing and a borrowed Pink Floyd T-shirt.
His Minnesota City house was gone.
“This is it,” he said. “This is everything I got in the world.”
But he was grateful to be alive.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
