Resources available Monday for residents to address flooding

Published 11:57 am Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Freeborn County residents with flooding damage from heavy rain last month will be able to look for resources to help with cleanup on Monday.

A multi-agency resource center will be in place from 4 to 8 p.m. at United Methodist Church in Albert Lea.

Freeborn County Emergency Management Director Rich Hall discussed the planned resource center and provided a flood update Tuesday to the Freeborn County Board of Commissioners.

He said the center will allow individuals to find resources to address flood damage and help volunteer agencies as they seek to provide resources. It will give the agencies a more definitive number of essential items damaged, such as water heaters, washers and dryers.

A list of agencies who will be at the resource center is not available.

Damage in Freeborn County from flooding is now estimated at more than $1.7 million, and westbound lanes on East Main Street and 190th Street, near Alden, remain closed.

The Pearl Street and Elizabeth Avenue intersection is expected to reopen tomorrow.

Hall said he has has been holding a daily phone call with volunteer agencies to coordinate cleanup efforts.

He discussed the Minnesota Department of Public Safety’s Homeland Security and Emergency Management Division’s request Monday for the Federal Emergency Management Agency to conduct preliminary damage estimates in 10 Minnesota counties — including Freeborn County.

Board Chairman Jim Nelson said the flooding was the worst he has ever seen in the region.

“I’ve never, out of the whole time I have lived here, and that’s been my whole life … have seen the river that high,” he said.

Gov. Mark Dayton declared a peacetime state of emergency last week, and the state emergency operations center has been partially activated to work with local officials since the rains began.