Community Corner

St. Michael-Albertville Digging Out ... Again

The latest blast from Mother Nature was quick, cruel and is finally clearing.

Before you contact your local Realtor, the forecast next week calls for 50s to return to the St. Michael area. 

Residents here went to bed with rain just starting to change to snow, and woke up to announcements of school closings, a treacherous commute to work and yet another shot of winter. 

This, despite the arrival of spring two days ago. And with it, rising rivers across Wright County.

Find out what's happening in St. Michaelwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"It's the worst scenario we could have had," said City Engineer Steve Bot. "We had a pretty good handle on things after the week of melting we had last week. They were saying 1965 [an historic flood year] levels, but we were short of that thanks to the temperatures last week. Now, we're right on track again."

The 1965 flood did wipe out some roads and low-lying areas in St. Michael, as the North Crow River left its banks. However, most construction in the city occurred well after that flood, and most homes should be safe. 

Find out what's happening in St. Michaelwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Still, St. Michael and Albertville public works employees shifted gears from spring  cleanup and flood control (Regal Creek was sprawling east of County Road 19 yesterday) and into snow removal road, after the third large storm of this winter. 

"Never a dull moment," said City Administrator Bob Derus. "That's winter in Minnesota." 

Bot reported in February that the winter budget still looked good, despite snow removal days that were on weekends. Gas prices will hurt a bit worse now than they did, say, with the Dec. 10 and 11 storm, when diesel fuel was about 60 cents per gallon cheaper. 

Students enjoyed a rare day off, as the other two large weather systems that hit St. Michael-Albertville this year came on Dec. 11 (a Saturday) and Feb. 21 (President's Day), both days kids didn't have school in the first place. 

According to the National Weather Service, trackers in Buffalo reported about 5 inches of snow Wednesday morning, after nearly an inch of rain fell on the area Tuesday and Tuesday night. The rain switched to snow about 9 p.m. Tuesday night, first laying down a coat of ice. 

That's what encouraged local school officials to cancel school, as driving was treacherous all over the metro with icy roads and blowing snow. 

 


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