INTERNATIONAL FALLS — Gov. Mark Dayton traveled to the International Falls area of northern Minnesota on Tuesday to meet with local officials who’ve been hard at work for days to hold back the slowly rising Rainy River and Rainy Lake.

Volunteers and government crews have placed over 80,000 sandbags to try to protect homes, cabins, resorts and other buildings in the region along the Minnesota-Ontario border. Dayton’s stops included a fire station west of International Falls in the tiny town of Loman, where the governor had to be ferried by truck across about 200 yards of 2-feet-deep water, International Falls Mayor Bob Anderson said. The fire station, which sits in a low spot, is surrounded by a sandbag dike about 4 feet high.

Dayton planned to travel in the opposite direction Friday to discuss flood damage in Minnesota’s far southwestern corner, where roads have been blocked and low-lying farm fields have been covered with standing water from storms since last weekend.

Rainy Lake has risen nearly 2 feet over the last few weeks, while the Rainy River has risen around 10 feet since the start of this month, surpassing a record that had stood since the 1950s. The rise started with the late melting of an unusually heavy winter snowpack, aggravated by all the recent rain.

“I’ve lived on the river for 25 years, and I’ve never seen it this high. I’ve got about 8 1/2 feet of water in my backyard, but my home is still up a couple more feet so I’m still OK,” Anderson said.

Days of heavy rains in southern Minnesota caused tens of thousands of power outages. Xcel Energy crews worked through the early hours Tuesday restoring electricity to some 50,000 who experienced outages or disruptions Monday night.

The threat of storms remained in southern part of the state through the week and into the weekend, according to the National Weather Service. Northern Minnesota caught a break Tuesday, but thunderstorms were forecast for Thursday with a chance of showers and thunderstorms through the weekend.

The Minnesota State Patrol said a state trooper plucked a woman from her car Monday night after rapidly rising water flooded Interstate 90 and stranded her car near the South Dakota border. The water was over the driver’s seat when she called 911 around 9:15 p.m. Trooper Brian Beuning helped her out through the rear passenger window before her car floated away. Firefighters in rescue suits waded out to tie a rope around the soaked trooper and driver and helped them walk to safety.

The Luverne Fire Department participated in that rescue and two others. Fire Chief David Van Batavia told the Star Tribune that one man, a farmer, had to be rescued twice.

The farmer and his son were checking on cattle Monday near Kenneth when they climbed a tree to stay above advancing water. Rescuers used a boat to bring them to safety. But the farmer needed another rescue hours later after he drove his tractor off a road. It remained upright in water that came over the hood. His wife was along for the ride. They weren’t in danger, so Van Batavia left it to firefighters from Edgerton, who waited until conditions were safe enough to rescue them early Tuesday.

If the damage gets close to $7.3 million statewide, state officials can start the process of requesting a presidential disaster declaration, said Kris Eide, the state’s emergency management director.