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Friday, December 13, 2024
HomeNewsDevastating Damage After Major Flooding: County Declares State of Emergency 

Devastating Damage After Major Flooding: County Declares State of Emergency 

North Shore residents and busi­nesses had a rude awakening Wednesday morning following an evening of relentless rains that amounted to over 7 inches in some places in less than 24 hours across the Arrowhead region. The recent storm has left homes damaged, people stranded, roads, bridges and trails washed out and closed.

The Lake County Board of Com­missioners has signed a Local Emer­gency Declaration at their weekly board meeting on Tuesday, June 25, 2024. The Declaration allows addi­tional funding sources and resourc­es from State and Federal assets, should they become available.

On Friday afternoon, rescue crews were able to extract vacationers from the Finland area after bridges and roads made the area inaccessi­ble. Three people located on Correll Road off Hwy 1 found themselves in a unique predicament when they awoke Wednesday morning, having two bridges wash away overnight left them, quite literally, on an is­land.

“There was no other way to get to these folks. There was no good location to land a helicopter. We looked into getting an extending ladder truck from Two Harbors to get over the river and that wasn’t long enough. There was just no good way to get to these individu­als. The only other way was to take a parallel path and try to intersect Correll Road, and that’s what we ended up doing,” commented Jessie Walters, a member of the Lake County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue squad.

Finland Search and Rescue took old hunting and logging trails that no one’s been on for over a decade to reach the trapped individuals. “It was a lot of bushwhacking to get up there,” said Jessie. Thankfully, no one was injured and made it out healthy and unharmed.

(Lake County Search and Rescue is looking for more volunteers to join and train. If you are interested, please visit the Lake County Sher­iff’s Office Search and Rescue on Facebook to find out more.)

Breezy Lane off the Hefflefin­ger Road and the intersection of Hefflefinger and Hwy 1 have been called “ground zero” of the flood in Crystal Bay Township. Bob Buus, owner of Our Place restaurant in Finland, was down by the river around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday evening and said the river had not yet breached the retaining wall. He thought maybe with the rain the water would get up to the steps of the cabins, but not inside the cabins. Unfortunately, he was wrong and the water continued to rise into the early morning. 80 percent of the re­taining wall has since washed down the river.

At around 3:00-4:00 a.m., the Baptism River swelled and flooded the restaurant’s rental cabins with over 18 inches of water, and the estab­lishment’s basement with 28 inches of water. The basement is where the business keeps all the mechanicals for freezers, coolers, ice makers, water heaters, etc.

“We’ve had water up to the cab­ins, but never in them. It’s a disaster. There’s no other word for it. I don’t know what we’re going to do. I believe we sustained at least $250,000 worth of damage, and I can’t take that out of my back pocket. We are assessing things, it depends on what help we are able to get. We already had one dumpster full of losses, the second one’s here, and I know I’ll fill that one shortly,” Buus stated.

“We had one resident stuck in his cabin that couldn’t get out because his 10×20 deck was gone. He went to crawl out the back window, but couldn’t get out because the wa­ter was rushing around all sides of his home…” A large tree that was downed in the storm crashed into the bridge on Hwy 1. “That shook the whole neighborhood.” The res­ident who was stuck in his cabin during the flood said he heard and felt that tree when it hit the bridge.

The newly remodeled cabins will now most likely have to be gutted. “The main thing is that nobody got hurt or killed and that’s a god sent,” commented Buss, Our Place owner.

Community members have really come together to support each other in the ways they are able. Lots of helping hands, but there’s only so much that can be done with man­power and limited resources/funds.

It’s been one hard year after an­other for local small businesses on the North Shore. Not only this last devastating storm, but this past win­ter without adequate snow to cover snowmobile trails, business was down 80 percent for many. There was flooding the spring before last which damaged trails and business, and before that it was COVID!

If you would like to donate to Our Place go fund me for help with recovery costs, visit: https://www.gofundme.com/f/100yrs-of-history-at-our-place-in-finland-mn  

The Crystal Bay Township Clerk and Road Maintenance went out and took pictures of everything throughout the last several days since the storm. They are evaluating both township and citizen damages.

Their first step: Assess immedi­ate impact. Once the water recedes, assess impact again, document ev­erything and turn it into the county who will then turn the documentation in to the state.

The threshold per county is $44,000 of damages before they can qualify to be categorized as a disaster. At the time of this arti­cle being written, Crystal Bay Township has estimated $110,000 just in gravel alone for road repairs. The DNR estimates $262,000 in damages have been sustained just in Lake County. “We are definite­ly way over the threshold for a di­saster declaration just with Crystal Bay Township and the DNR esti­mates of damages to public roads and trails,” says Matt Pollmann, the Lake County Emergency Manage­ment Director.

Matt Pollman is the person who writes the disaster plans for Lake County and will now oversee the FEMA (Federal Emergency Man­agement Agency) process. He will make sure all the Townships have their questions answered and will submit the Townships’ preliminary damage assessments to the state.

A declaration of emergency has been claimed by the state, which frees up some money, and if it is de­clared a disaster federally, Pollman will go through the process with the federal government as well. “If it’s federally declared that will free up more money to help too. The state will pay 25 percent and FEMA will pay 75 percent so there should be no cost to the county,” he reports in a recent interview.

One of the biggest questions weighing on people’s minds is how to cover private property and small business damages. “To my knowledge Lake county has never received individual assistance from FEMA for private home owners. Unfortunately, there’s no money from the state or from the local gov­ernment to help with private roads, private bridges, and private homes. That’s just not how we’re set up or how the Federal Government is set up. In the best case scenario, FEMA will do an IA (Individual Assistance), although it doesn’t happen very of­ten. There’s a lot of thresholds you have to hit and it’s very unlikely any privately owned property damages from the recent flooding is going to qualify under individual assistance with FEMA,” commented Pollman.

Pollmann will continue to collect the reports from townships or local areas that have information about homes being destroyed. He encour­ages homeowners and businesses to give him a call and he can add their damages to a report, but also says unfortunately, it’s unlikely they will see much assistance by way of the Federal Government.

“I really wish there was some­thing we had that could help indi­viduals.” If you would like to send your private property damage doc­umentation into Matt Pollman, he can be reached at (218) 220-6277 or by email at: matt.pollmann@co.lake.mn.us.

Lake County Sheriff’s Office has put out all the resources that they have on their end on their Facebook page. Homeowners can call FEMA and report their damage and apply for a small business loan that has a low interest rate that you pay over­time. But it is by no means “free money”. The Red Cross can help with certain things like short term food, clothing, and sometimes lodg­ing. But there is currently no pot of money to help homeowners repair their homes.

Flooding insurance is commonly not offered or covered under home insurance plans in our local areas because we are technically not a flood zone. This may be a conver­sation to have with the state and FEMA to try and change insurance entities.

As far as timeline: It will be state driven. The state/federal govern­ments coordinate with themselves and then they ask the counties after they put dates together what works for them best. There will be a pre­liminary meeting first, and then representatives will come down and have a meeting with local gov­ernments after that. “It could take awhile for anyone to see some mon­ey back, but that’s not to say that repairs can’t go ahead right now. FEMA doesn’t want us to wait until they can get down here and we can show them the damage… we have been documenting all the damage,” Pollman commented.

The labor for repairs will come from contractors the local govern­ment uses and that labor will be re­imbursable.

In a nutshell, the declaration has been made, the county and town­ships will be able to start working with contractors to restore their roads, it’s all being documented, and state and (hopefully) federal funding will reimburse the Town­ships/Counties.

“Communities and residents across the Northland are facing an emergency situation with roads and bridges washed out, power outages, and ongoing flooding,” said Sen. Hauschild. “I appreciate the swift activation of the state emergen­cy response, and am grateful for Governor Walz and his administra­tion’s quick action in this situation. I have also spoken with Senator Klobuchar and Senator Smith, who pledged their support in navigating federal assistance,” stated a recent press release from Senator Haus­childs office after he and Governor Waltz surveyed damages from the recent storm.

Throughout the week, Sen. Haus­child has been in communication with local officials, communi­ty members, and first responders while working with state officials to help coordinate ongoing relief ef­forts. While praising the resiliency of residents of the Northland, Sen. Hauschild also pushed for urgent and immediate state aid.

“Throughout this week, I have been in constant communication with local officials, communi­ty members, and first responders who are working around the clock during these difficult circumstanc­es,” said Sen. Hauschild. “They are doing incredible work, but the state needs to move quickly to support these efforts and make sure that our area has the assistance necessary to weather this storm.”

A reminder to sign up for Lake County Emergency Alerts by going to the county website www.co.lake.mn.us. Road closures and openings will be updated on the sheriff’s Facebook page, as well as guidance for homeowners seeking assistance and information following floods at https://www.facebook.com/LCSOMN/.

Thoughts and prayers go out to those individuals most affected by this terrible disaster.

Katee Rose
Katee Rose
Katee Rose grew up on the Great Lakes in upstate New York. She left home on a bicycle and embarked on a cross country trip to California following her graduation from college. This trip was the beginning of many more that eventually landed her in countries across Europe, Canada, Mexico and Central America. Learning the cultures, cuisines, history and traditions from the communities she’s spent time in around the world. Katee is passionate about community and social justice movements. As well as engaging with many forms of art and music. For the past 5 years she has called the North Shore home and has been enjoying homesteading a small slice of land in the Northwoods. She is involved in many community efforts around local food, building capacity for a more sustainable future and supporting the elders in the area.
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