RAPIDAN TOWNSHIP, Minn. — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will visit the site of a disastrous flood in southern Minnesota on Tuesday that partially damaged a dam and destroyed at least two historic buildings.
Rough waters caused a landfall of the 114 year old Rapidan Dam to partially fail on June 24. An iconic house standing on a nearby bank was swallowed up in the Blue Earth Riverand the beloved Rapidan Dam Store was bought and demolished by local officials to prevent her from suffering the same fate.
Mark Vancleave / AP
Walz plans to visit the dam Tuesday afternoon to “provide updates on flood conditions and recovery efforts.” He will be accompanied by state and local officials.
The Rapidan Dam Store, which WCCO profiled in a 2022 episode of “Finding Minnesota“, has been in existence for over 100 years and for half of that time it was run by Jim Hruska and his family.
“My family is going to lose their home, they’re going to lose their business, their livelihood, and their land is going to be gone,” said Shannon Whittet, Hruska’s niece. “This isn’t just a situation where something happened and we’re going to rebuild. The land is going to be the last thing. And it’s going to be gone.”
The dam is located on the Blue Earth River in Rapidan Township—about 14 miles south of Mankato. opened in 1910The National Inventory of Dams assessed the dam as being in poor condition in April 2023 and classified the potential hazard as “significant.”
Please note: The above video originally aired on June 30, 2024.
