{"id":1211,"date":"2019-04-29T23:16:20","date_gmt":"2019-04-30T04:16:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/?p=1211"},"modified":"2019-04-29T23:16:20","modified_gmt":"2019-04-30T04:16:20","slug":"levee-system-protects-winona-from-flooding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/blog\/2019\/04\/29\/levee-system-protects-winona-from-flooding\/","title":{"rendered":"Levee System Protects Winona from Flooding"},"content":{"rendered":"

The late snowfall that struck and made a temporary home in Winona earlier this year, including a large chunk of the country, is now causing what the National Weather Service is deeming record-breaking flooding.<\/p>\n

Since the beginning of April, the Winona Daily News, via their various social media accounts, has reported more than 40 river flood warnings and that number continues to grow.<\/p>\n

One example of severe flooding is the Levee Road on the north side of town, which is home to Winona State University\u2019s boat, the Cal Fremling, and the dock that tethers it, as well as the Boat House restaurant situated just above the flood waters.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The raised-dock to Winona State University’s boat, the Cal Fremling, sits in the flooded Levee Road<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While normally a road through which motorists can drive and pedestrians use to fish, the street is submerged underwater, with the only indication of something man-made existing underneath being light poles that rise above the water and submerged walkways.<\/p>\n

Speaking at a flood briefing in mid-March, meteorologist Dan Luna said Minnesota is going through what is considered one of the wettest decades ever.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe won\u2019t be out of the woods for quite a while,\u201d Luna said. \u201cWe have the potential for significant flooding all the way into May.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Courtesy of the National Weather Service\u2019s Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service, the water elevation in Winona is expected to stay consistent through late April<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Roughly a month later, Luna\u2019s prediction appears to be becoming more true by the day.<\/p>\n

Winona Director of Public Works Keith Nelson echoed Luna\u2019s prediction and discussed how the city deals with flooding.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been up above 13 feet, which is the historic flood elevation, for a couple of weeks,\u201d Nelson said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s anticipated that it will be up there for another three weeks or so.\u201d<\/p>\n

https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/04\/DeLaRosa_Flooding-article-Keith-Nelson-interview-Clip-1.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n

According to Nelson, the flooding is the worst at the Prairie Island campgrounds on the northwest edge of town.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole campground is underwater,\u201d Nelson said. \u201cBeyond that, everything is protected by the levee, so we don\u2019t really get any flooding in Winona itself. It all stays on the river-side of the levee \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Nelson said there are various deterrents in place to keep the Mississippi from flooding into Winona.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Levee Road gets covered at nine feet,\u201d Nelson said. \u201cAt 20 feet, there\u2019s the concrete wall that is actually the flood-control structure.\u201d<\/p>\n

https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/04\/DeLaRosa_Flooding-article-Keith-Nelson-interview-Clip-2.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n

At 20 feet above from where the water normally sits, a wall is in place to protect the town from 24 feet of water-elevation.<\/p>\n

Nelson said in 2001 the river elevated to 20.07 feet, suggesting the wall is more than capable of handling this type of flooding.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe wall is designed for 22 feet of elevation and then we have two feet of free-board over and above that,\u201d Nelson said. \u201cWhich is protection from waves, erosion, \u2018oops\u2019 factors, those kind of things \u2026 We\u2019re right around 16 feet this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nelson said there are five flood pumps that siphon water from in town back into the river whenever it gets too high.<\/p>\n

The levee system appears to be the main deterrent against flooding, though, which Nelson said has done well to keep the city safe from the Mississippi River.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe levee system is 10 miles of either sand levee or concrete walls that (were) put in in the 60s and the 80s to protect the city,\u201d Nelson said. \u201cSo the city is well-protected, but it\u2019s by this massive flood-control project that we have to monitor and operate every year. Because of that, we don\u2019t see any damage here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nelson said without the levee system, with where the water is currently at, which is 13 feet, roughly a fourth of the community would be underwater.<\/p>\n

With Winona free of the risk of flooding over, this doesn\u2019t rule out occasional leakage into homes.<\/p>\n

Nelson said a reason for this is because Winona is a sandbar.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re basically in the river sitting on top of a sandbar,\u201d Nelson said. \u201cSo the water is always creeping this direction, and it\u2019s rising underneath us \u2026 Because of that, you\u2019ll see water in homes.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an effort to remove any doubt of the precautions the city has in place to keep Winona safe from flooding, Nelson is adamant the river won\u2019t come into town.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not an option,\u201d Nelson said. \u201cIf it ever comes into town, that means the levee is starting to erode and break, and we can\u2019t afford that to happen. We\u2019d have billions of dollars of damage and people would die.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The late snowfall that struck and made a temporary home in Winona earlier this year, including a large chunk of the country, is now causing what the National Weather Service is deeming record-breaking flooding. Since the beginning of April, the Winona Daily News, via their various social media accounts, has reported more than 40 river … Continue reading Levee System Protects Winona from Flooding<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":283,"featured_media":1218,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[340,3,18,302],"tags":[501,503,502,17,504],"class_list":["post-1211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","category-outdoors","category-safety","tag-flooding","tag-levee-road","tag-levee-system","tag-mississippi-river","tag-public-works"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/04\/Levee-Flooded-.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/283"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1211"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1211\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1223,"href":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1211\/revisions\/1223"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educate.winona.edu\/winona360\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}