Yesterday, Anne talked about some her experiences with floods and why that encouraged her to become not only a geologist, but more specifically a hydrogeologist. I’m not a hydrogeologist. Its not my thing. I like rocks. But currently, I’m living in SE MN and there’s quite a bit of flooding along the Minnesota River, so I’ll take a moment and don my hydro-interest hat.
I drove yesterday (Friday) from Mankato to St. Peter along Highway 169.
GoogleEarth image of Rt 169
The Minnesota River is over its banks and flooding the surround fields, parks, and boat launch sites, but its not as high as when I was here visiting last spring (that closed bridges like 99 at the north end of St. Peter). However, the water in the floodplain has driven a number of the local deer up into 169, which meant that I drove (and tried to avoid) five dead deer yesterday on the 10-mile drive between Mankato and St. Peter.
I’ll post all of my shots on Flickr (note to self: stopping on 169 is not a great idea since the average driver is doing >65 mph), but two of my favorites:
boat launch on Rt 169
Just south of St. Peter on 169
Elli Goeke
Thanks for the photos! I always love pictures of submerged boat launches. It’s interesting that you say it is not as high as last spring – the big rivers like the Mississippi and Minnesota will probably continue to rise for the next few days, so I wonder if that will hold true when they top out.
Indeed, the Mississippi in Winona is up 5 feet since the 23rd and still rising. The Minnesota at Mankato is up 15 feet (!), over flood stage by a couple, and still rising (http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?05325000). But the smaller rivers have definitely crested, peaking late in the day yesterday.
(I am a giant flood geek!)
[...] of the woods, planelight has posted pictures of flooding of the Minnesota River around St. Peter: http://lifeinplanelight.wordpress.com/2010/09/25/flooding-of-the-minnesota-river-around-st-peter/ [My inspection of the USGS gage records at ~10 pm Saturday evening suggests that smaller streams [...]