Winona area residents will be watching the April skies for rains that could send area streams over their banks and compound the threat of a flood in the Mississippi River here that would be worse than the record one in 1952.
The Weather Bureau said that should rainfall over the Minnesota and Wisconsin watershed of the Mississippi River exceed more than an inch between April 1 and 15, flooding here could go above the 17.94 reading of 1952.
Joseph H. Strub Jr., hydrologist at the U.S. Weather Bureau in Minneapolis, said today that the spring rise would probably occur in the Mississippi here between April 8 and 11 and that there was a pretty good chance that the crest would be reached by April 21.
Under ideal condition, little rain and freezing nights, the river might not go higher than the 14.5-foot mark predicted in the March 15 forecast, Strub said.
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Strub said the flood dangers would be reduced by subfreezing nighttime temperatures. This would restrict melting to daylight hours, he said, and permit the water to run off “in spurts rather than in a big torrent.” He added that the prospects for such controlled melting were not good because temperatures at this time of the year can be expected to remain above freezing.
The Weather Bureau also predicts water three feet over flood stage in the Root River at Houston, Minn., southeastern community of 1,100 isolated March 1 by floods that caused problems to home owners and businesses. Some areas of the town had water four feet deep. Rushford upstream from Houston, was similarly hit.
Strub predicted these minimum flood crests: St. Croix River at Hudson, one foot above flood stage; Chippewa River at Durand, 18 inches above; Wisconsin River at Merrill, one foot above; Mississippi River at La Crosse, 18 inches above, and at Prairie du Chien, one foot below.
Reservoir levels on the Chippewa and Flambeau rivers have been lowered as a precaution and the gates of the Menasha Dam in the Fox River were opened for the first time in two years to lower the level of Lake Winnebago in anticipation of a heavy runoff.
La Crosse has been designated the emergency disaster center for seven Mississippi basin counties, and local and Red Cross authorities have joined to complete preparation. The counties are La Crosse, Buffalo, Trempealeau, Vernon, Crawford, Grant and Lafayette.
Robert Burnside, St. Louis, Mo., of the national Red Cross disaster service, said cots and bedding were being stockpiled for use by possible evacuees. He said food would be purchased locally if required.
Germain Davison, the La Crosse County disaster chairman, said the city was stockpiling sandbags to protect low areas, getting pumps ready and maintaining a communications link with the Army Corps of Engineers headquarters in St. Paul, Minn.
The snow melt potential alone is enough to raise the Minnesota River to a predicted 23 feet at Mankato, four feet above flood stage, weathermen say. The river reached 24.8 feet in the disastrous floods of 1952.
An earthen dike was built at Mankato after the flood to handle 25 feet of water. City officials are confident that dikes and pumping facilities can withstand anything predicted to date.
But disaster committees are making preparations. Mankato now has 188 additional homes in the area which flooded in 1952.
LeHillier and other outlying Mankato areas face flooding according to current predictions, said N. J. Matthees, regional Civil Defense director. Stephen Babcock, disaster preparedness committee chairman, estimated 100 homes in LeHillier and other low land in South Bend and Judson townships would be affected if the Minnesota rises to 23 feet.
Rochester, where a flood preview March 1 caused damage, is bracing for high water again on the Zumbro River and Bear and Cascade creeks, which flow through the city. The Zumbro forecast calls for water three feet above flood stage at Rochester and Theilman.
The Red Cross held an 11-county disaster planning session in Rochester Tuesday night to coordinate activity in setting up shelters, food and housing for evacuees, medical and nursing care.
Mayor Alex Smekia has called a special meeting of all Rochester department heads to discuss flood plans.
Minneapolis dealers report a steady flow of orders for burlap and heavy cotton bags for sandbagging. Orders have come from individual home owners, asking for a dozen or two as well as for thousands by municipalities, some of them Minnesota River towns.
North Mankato has a flood problem all its own. A fast thaw of the heavy accumulation of March snow at the same time the Minnesota River is at flood stage would present a major pumping problem.
The low-lying community across the Minnesota River from Mankato, would have to shut off storm sewer outlets to prevent a flooding river from backing up. Pumping equipment is being readied to lift captured water over the dike.
One sample of spring breakup destruction has already occurred in the Le Sueur River four miles south of Mankato. The river was dammed when a 140-foot high clay bank slid into the stream.
Water rose from two feet to 12 feet, then started working its way around the dam. No property damage is feared unless an ice jam occurs in the new channel where it cuts through a grove.
High water is predicted for the Redwood River, but Marshall is banking on its diversion channel to prevent floods. The channel was built at a cost of $3.25 million after severe floods in June 1957, when heavy rains sent the Redwood far out of its banks.
Minnesota’s two United States senators are concerned over the possibility of serious floods in the central and southern sections of their home state.
Sens. Walter F. Mondale and Eugene J. McCarthy met Tuesday with officials of the American Red Cross and of five federal agencies to discuss what might be done to aid residents if flooding occurs as a result of heavy accumulations of snow in Minnesota.
