Dayton says state is prepared for flooding

With a winter of record-setting snowfall winding down and predictions of major flooding ramping up, Gov. Mark Dayton on Wednesday said the state is making early plans to try to deliver a fast and efficient response to upcoming flood conditions.

"This is a very well-coordinated response in advance, in anticipation of what we all hope will not occur," the governor said at a meeting at a South St. Paul business.

Minnesota Homeland Security and Emergency Management Director Kris Eide said emergency management officials are making it a point to move faster this year. "We're making sure this year that we started earlier," she said.

Local emergency managers have been planning for floods for months, she said.

The state has been working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to look at resources that can be made available to communities.

Generators have already been ordered for deployment across the state, Eide said. The state is also working to put together a plan to address the constant threat of ice jams.

Dayton spoke at one of several South St. Paul businesses located in the shadow of the city's levee, which was recently given an "unacceptable" rating by the Army Corps of Engineers and could be in danger of being topped by water in a worst-case flooding scenario. He was joined by a group of city, county and state representatives.

Dayton said he was taking personal responsibility in making sure that the state's response to predicted flood conditions is efficient.

Eide said last week that extremely high water is all but certain across the southern two-thirds of Minnesota and that flood levels could exceed recent records in some areas.

In the Twin Cities area, major flooding is expected to close key commuter crossings and riverside roads from Stillwater through St. Paul to the southwest suburbs as the Minnesota, Mississippi, St. Croix and other rivers swell.

This month's brief thaw didn't do much to reduce the flooding threat, officials said last week, and last weekend's heavy snowfall only added more moisture to the mix.