Crime & Safety
UPDATE: Cannon River Continues Receding in Northfield
City officials say the Cannon River is down another 2 inches Tuesday from Monday.
No news is good news.
City officials have ceased flood-related media updates for the time being because the Cannon River continues to recede and is not currently a serious threat to Northfielders.
"It continues to come down," said Chuck Walerius, deputy police chief, on Tuesday.
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He said the water level has dropped 2 inches since Monday and is down considerably since the Cannon peaked a week ago.
Using a stick gauge at the Northfield Safety Center, which remains protected by sandbags, Walerius said the water measures at 8 inches. A week ago, when water was level with the west-side Riverwalk wall in downtown, the gauge measured at 2 feet 9 inches.
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The city has reopened the west-side Riverwalk after closing it because of the water. The east side was temporarily closed, but reopened Friday. The Peggy Prowe Pedestrian Bridge remains closed as water covers the trail.
Jennifer Hauer of the Rice County Sheriff's Office told city officials on Sunday that there is still a lot of water to come through Cannon River Basin system and the lakes area to the west.
The county has discontinued its daily updates to the city for the time being and will issue a weekly report as long as the conditions remain the same.
The National Weather Service is predicting a snow/rain mix for Thursday and Friday. Any level of precipitation could cause the river to rise because the ground is still saturated from the wet fall season, officials say.
For now, Walerius said he is hopeful that the worst is behind Northfield, but knows that there's always a chance the river could threaten to go over downtown banks again because of the saturated ground and remaining snowbanks. He said the sandbags will remain at the Safety Center.
Upstream from Northfield, the Straight River water level was at 6.96 feet Tuesday morning, down from 8.3 feet Saturday morning and down from nearly 11 feet a week ago, according to the United States Geological Survey. The river's highest crest on record happened last September, when it reached 14.9 feet.
Downstream from Northfield on the Cannon River in Welch, the water measured at about 8.7 inches Tuesday morning, down from 11.5 inches six days ago.
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