Family who lost their home to a flooded river vows to keep the store open as floodwaters devastate the Midwest

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A family who saw their home collapse into a flooded river near an endangered dam in Minnesota is vowing to reopen their nearby store to sell homemade pies and burgers as soon as it is safe to do so.

The Rapidan Dam Store remained standing Wednesday, but after the house where its owners, Jenny Barnes and brother David Hruska, grew up the day before collapsed into the Blue Earth River near Mankato, they’re not quite sure what’s next.

“We don’t know what will happen,” a post on the store’s Facebook page said Wednesday night, adding that it had been a difficult experience. “The Dam Store hasn’t sold its last burger or pie.”

The disappearance of that home in the river and the hundreds of flood-damaged or destroyed homes elsewhere in the upper Midwest are among the first material casualties of extreme weather gripping the region as waters move south.

A swath through Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota and Minnesota has been ravaged by flooding since last week due to torrential rains, while also experiencing a suffocating heat wave. Up to 18 inches (46 centimeters) of rain fell in some areas, causing some rivers to reach record levels. Hundreds of people have been rescued and at least two people have died after driving into flooded areas.

In Iowa, more and more cities were preparing for flooding. The west fork of the Des Moines River in Humboldt was expected to crest at nearly 16 feet Thursday night. About 200 homes and 60 businesses in Humboldt could be affected, officials said.

In the coming days, Nebraska and northwestern Missouri are expected to start feeling the downstream impacts of the flooding. Many streams and rivers may not peak until later this week. The Missouri River will crest near Omaha on Thursday, said Kevin Low, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service.

Some of the most stunning images are of the water flowing around the Minnesota Dam.

Jessica Keech and her 11-year-old son saw part of the house near the dam fall into the river Tuesday evening. They had often been to the area to view the dam and enjoy the cake from the Dam Store.

“It just kind of got sucked into the water. Just literally disappeared,” said Keech, from nearby New Ulm.

Blue Earth County officials said Wednesday that the river had cut wider and deeper into the bank, and they were concerned about the integrity of a nearby bridge over the river. After the flooding subsides, the county must decide whether to repair the dam or possibly remove it — with both options costing millions of dollars.

President Joe Biden spoke by phone with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to discuss impacts to the Rapidan Dam and the Federal Emergency Management Agency had arrived in Minnesota, White House officials said.

Preliminary information from the National Weather Service shows that recent flooding has caused record high river levels at more than a dozen locations in South Dakota and Iowa, surpassing previous crests by an average of about 3 feet.

In southeastern South Dakota, residents of Canton were cleaning up after receiving 18 to 20 inches (46 to 51 centimeters) of rain in just 36 hours last week. A creek next to Lori Lems and her husband’s 20-acre property flooded the playground they had built in their backyard for their grandchildren.

Lems, a 62-year-old former owner of a supermarket and wedding venue, says she has lived in the town of 3,200 people all her life and has never experienced such heavy rainfall as last week.

“We felt like we were in a hurricane-like rain,” she said. “It was just incredible.”

Farther south, in North Sioux City, South Dakota, the floods collapsed power poles and trees, and some homes were washed off their foundations. There was no water, sewer, gas or electricity service in that area, Union County Emergency Management said in a Facebook post Tuesday.

In the Sioux City, Iowa, area, water overflowed the Big Sioux River levee, damaging hundreds of homes, officials estimate. And the local wastewater treatment plant is so overwhelmed by floodwaters that officials say they are dumping about 10 million gallons of untreated sewage into the Missouri River every day.

Numerous roads were closed due to the flooding, including Interstates 29 and 680 in Iowa near the Nebraska line.

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Collins reported from Hartford, Connecticut. Associated Press journalists Summer Ballentine in Jefferson City, Missouri, John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas, and Lisa Baumann in Bellingham, Washington, contributed to this report.