St. Clair recovering from flooding

ST. CLAIR, Minn. (KMSP) - It’s been a long weekend fighting back the flood waters in southern Minnesota, especially in the town of St. Clair just southeast of Mankato.

On Friday, the rising Le Sueur River flooded out a number of homes including the post office in St. Clair. Residents told Fox 9 it was much worse than the flood in the spring of 2010.

St. Clair resident Alana Flugum, a resident for 12 years, said she wasn’t expecting this much water.

“This is not a flood zone, so we were not prepared for water,” she said.

However, Savannah Flugum said she’s grateful that the levels didn’t get too high.

“It got super close, but it never got all the way to the house, so we were super lucky,” she said.

Luckily by Sunday, the river level began dropping, and the sand bags walls began coming down.

Though river water is slowly receding around containment berms, it’s not enough to life the ban on using city water and sewers.

City worker Deb McCollum said an engineer will inspect the waste water treatment plant on Monday to see how much damage was done. In the meantime, there are still portable toilets set up around the city.

Additionally, Highway 83 coming into town is still closed a few miles where it crosses the Le Sueur River.