Freak thunderstorm floods Marshall

MARSHALL, Minn. - The sudden flash flood overwhelmed Rita Smidt’s Dairy Queen, and she could only watch as water rushed into her store.

A line of dirt a foot high inside the Dairy Queen was a stark reminder Tuesday of the floodwaters that rushed in four days earlier.

Smidt is no stranger to floods in southwest Minnesota, but she said this is the worst she’s experienced in 32 years of running the store.

“It was a mess,” she said Tuesday.

Smidt is one of many residents and business owners cleaning up after an intense and highly localized thunderstorm dropped an estimated 5 to 8 inches of rain on the south side of the city in just a few hours Friday night.

Mayor Bob Byrnes said estimates suggest around 300 homes and businesses are dealing with the flood’s aftermath. The sheer volume of rain overwhelmed the city’s stormwater system, causing sewer backups and flash flooding.

The deluge prompted Lyon County to declare a state of emergency.

The storm seemed to stall directly over the city, Byrnes said. Just a few miles outside the city seemed to get little to no rain.

“It really did have a bull’s-eye over Marshall,” said Byrnes, adding that the flooding was entirely due to rainwater and not the Redwood River that flows through town.

Andrew Kalin, a hydrologist at the National Weather Service in Sioux Falls, S.D., confirmed the deluge was a rare meteorological event.

The chances of that much rain falling in such a short time are at or less than 1%, Kalin said.

“It’s an uncommon event,” Kalin said. “It’s not unheard of, but it’s quite rare.”

The downpour over Marshall was roughly double the amount of rain the city typically sees all of July, Kalin said.