MPR’s Bob Kelleher reports that sixteen exhausted negotiators gave up their efforts Thursday to settle the most contentious management issue in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. In twenty-two meetings over eight months, the panel managed to find consensus on minor disputes over the use of the federal wilderness area, but there was no agreement on the one issue that led to their convening.
SPEAKER 1: The city of Montevideo on the Minnesota River is now preparing for floodwaters to crest a foot higher and even sooner than previously expected. The National Weather Service says a record crest of 8 feet above flood stage is likely on Sunday. But some folks in Montevideo itself think the crest could come as early as today. Mike Lemke is Montevideo's emergency director. He's on the line now. Good morning, sir.
MIKE LEMKE: Good morning.
SPEAKER 1: What's the situation like right now? What have you been doing overnight?
MIKE LEMKE: Last evening, they went around into Smith edition, the fire department, and rescue squad, and knocked on doors and gave people pretty much the conditions as to when they should plan on evacuating their own home.
SPEAKER 1: And when are you recommending that people leave?
MIKE LEMKE: The terms are if they want to leave right away, that's a good idea. If they don't, once they lose power, sewer, or their hot water heater or anything like that, or if they have an electrical condition that is not safe.
SPEAKER 1: What are conditions like in Montevideo right now?
MIKE LEMKE: Right now, I haven't been out yet this morning. But as of last night, the waters had risen really fast. And we had our plan set up right away. Yesterday morning, we had our flood committee that got together and everything looked like it was pretty much set to go as according to plan. And then two hours later, we find that they raised our flood elevation two feet on us.
SPEAKER 1: So what impact did that have on you?
MIKE LEMKE: This is going to push us into a record flood that we weren't quite expecting. We have some construction crews that are set up this morning to come in and raise our levee system two feet on a good portion of it. And I don't exactly know how much, but it is quite a good-sized portion.
SPEAKER 1: Under the earlier forecast, would folks have had to evacuate or not?
MIKE LEMKE: We knew there were four to six houses that were at high risk. Now that has changed to better than 30 houses.
SPEAKER 1: And how about businesses downtown? Any effect on them?
MIKE LEMKE: No. Providing our levee system is going to hold the higher water than anticipated. They should be protected. And like I said, we are putting another two feet on the levee this morning. The crews are what I was told last night. The crews are to be in place at 6 o'clock this morning to start raising it.
SPEAKER 1: Now you've got two rivers running through town-- the Minnesota and the Chippewa. Which is the bigger problem?
MIKE LEMKE: Well, actually, the Minnesota's the bigger problem. But our flooding that we're going to see in our residential is caused by the Chippewa, but that is related to the flow of the Minnesota gets so great that it won't allow the Chippewa to enter, and it backs the Chippewa up.
SPEAKER 1: And then they're talking about more rain this weekend.
MIKE LEMKE: Yeah. And that's the other thing that we're kind of hinged on the edge is because our forecasts are based on no more rainfall. And we had asked about the rain that was coming, and they said that they hadn't run a scale model on it yet at the National Weather Service. They're going to be running that during the night and supposed to give us an update this morning.
SPEAKER 1: Well, good luck to you. Mike Lemke, Montevideo's emergency director. And thanks so much.
MIKE LEMKE: Thank you.
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