Highways in the Minnesota River Valley and some major urban thoroughfares began closing Monday as rivers swelled toward what is expected to be major spring flooding. Meanwhile, a storm expected to cross Minnesota on Tuesday and Wednesday is likely to complicate the picture, bringing river-swelling rain to southern Minnesota and a blizzard dumping 8 to 12 inches of snow across northern Minnesota.
By Tuesday morning, some of the heaviest amounts of overnight rain reported by volunteer observers were in areas of southwestern Minnesota, where there has been the state's deepest and most saturated snow.
In Renville County, 1.15 inches had fallen at Danube by 5 a.m., with .83 at Marshall and .88 at New Ulm. At Carver, in the southwest metro along the Minnesota River, .48 fell by 6 a.m.
MnDOT closed a stretch of Hwy. 62 near Dundee in Cottonwood County in southwestern Minnesota on Monday night and posted a water-on-the-road alert for Hwy. 7 near Milan in far western Minnesota on Tuesday morning.
THE ROAD CLOSINGS: In St. Paul, Shepard Road was closed from Eagle Street to Hwy. 61 to allow for construction of a flood levee. The Mississippi River at St. Paul has risen more than 2 feet since Friday.
The state Department of Transportation and the State Patrol closed the Hwy. 19 crossing over the Minnesota River from Hwy. 169 into Henderson. In southwestern Minnesota, a stretch of Hwy. 14 between Tracy and Tyler has been closed.
MnDOT officials say motorists who drive on closed roads can be fined up to $1,000 and spend up to 90 days in jail. If travelers need to be rescued from a closed road, other expenses and penalties will apply.
THE FORECAST: Much of southeastern Minnesota, including the metro area, could get more than an inch of precipitation. Most of that is expected to be rain, but some could be wet snow.
