Major flooding envelops Duluth, North Shore as rain continues to fall
June 19, 2012 at 10:39 pm in Duluth News Tribune
Hour upon hour of torrential rainfall has caused major flooding in the city of Duluth and up the North Shore this morning, and with more rain on the way the situation could get worse.
Major flooding envelops Duluth, North Shore as rain continues to fall Continue Reading
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Apparently it got a hold of you and ate your brain.
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Well he lives….he breathes…six months and that’s the best you can come up with? oh yeah I owe you this ..l.. you earned it.
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I love to see you spar with hugh, I can’t wait!
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Hang in there Duluth! We (here in Fargo) can relate to your problem. Best of luck to you.
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Stay safe and hopefully dry!, my friends! From a Minnesota girl temporarily living in the Land o’ cheese!
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conrad, you have to explain sarcasm. People on here don’t understand humor/sarcasm.
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Hope our friends from Grand Forks that moved to Grand Rapids after our flood in ’97 are staying dry! Nobody deserves to go through a flood once, let alone twice. Hang in there Duluth and surrounding communities. Our prayers are with you.
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Put down the crack pipe, man.
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Why fear something that doesnt exist?
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zeitgeist the movie i recommend it as to where god came from…. god =sun other than that their is no god….
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Why are the buses still running?
Hot debate. What do you think?
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” Why are the buses still running? ”
Should they move people via tricycle?
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jet skis Petey or canoes
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johnzimm….you are crazy
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I think its Fred Phelps posting on our website.
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I can understand that we weren’t sure how much rain was going to fall, but I’m a little confused about why the zoo animals that drowned weren’t inside their buildings. I “get” that the seals and Berlin got out due to flooding..their enclosures aren’t sometthing you normally consider a flooding issue since they’re huge enclosures and there’s quite a distance between where the ground is and the top of the fences…but the barnyard animals should have been inside the barn where they wouldn’t have drowned. I can’t imagine how panicked and frightened they were trying to get out of that barnyard as the water covered their heads. Same with the birds of prey that may have perished. I’m sad for the whole situation…and I know that there are going to be bashers out here who are going to call me out for worrying about the animals and not the people affected by this flooding…but let’s be realistic, people can leave the flooding areas…those animals were trapped, plain and simple. I firmly believe that if you are going to keep animals in zoos, you have to be responsible not only for what will happen, but for what might…and simply taking them inside the main building would have saved their lives. These weren’t tigers or lions that can’t be handled safely…they’re petting zoo animals, they could have leashed them and walked them inside the main building.
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I’m sure its something they need to look at so it doesn’t happen again. I can honestly say that I’ve never seen anything like this in Duluth. I was too young to remember the flooding we had back in 1972. We walked down to Chester Creek this morning….it was unreal how much water was flowing! Parts of Chester Park Drive had washed out. Just amazing the power of nature has.
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I’m sure the staff at the zoo had no idea how fast or how much water they would get. They do a great job and I’m sure they are all hurting from the loss of the animals. We are fortunate to have a great zoo in our city!
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That culvert has caused no end to headaches at the zoo. I heard it washed out. Hope they replace it with something twice as large.
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Probably need to think about a bridge instead of culverts.
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I don’t know how it is there, but several years ago I worked for a small city that replaced culverts on what was basically a ditch for spring run off and of course an over abundance of rain. After the first big run off there was all kind of problems with backing up because the people in charge didn’t want to be seen as having spent too much on the project. So every dollar they saved putting it in cost something like ten to dig out and replace. That’s the problem with doing things half assed….
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Aaaah, I get it…. God sent a flood to Duluth and killed some zoo animals because our mayor isn’t anti-gay.
Now that he’s fixed that hopefully he has time to get to Syria next.
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johnzimm is mentally unstable….be careful of him
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let he who quotes scripture back himself into corners of logic he cant get out of.
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johnzimm, I’ve been waiting for the world to end for 60+ years. 2012 is my last hope.
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i can sin all i want remember jesus died so i can sin like a heathen
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If God had wanted you to behave like an angel he would have made you an angel. The same theory applies with the Devil. You are human and humans are naughty at times.
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Dear John . If God really wanted to punish us he would have wiped Duluth off the face of the earth. You can twist your demented beliefs any way you want. So we got flooded because ???? The mayor takes a stand on gay rights?? I didn’t vote for the mayor….Don does not deserve to take a shot like that at a time like this. How about the fact that we had no loss of human life? Was God looking out for us? Was it a miracle? I think God was in our corner. He was sure looking out for that 8 year old boy in Proctor! It was a miracle that boy survived. Don’t you think??? Sounds to me like you are a really sick individual. Or….God can’t make up his mind on punishing us or blessing us with a miracle. I’m putting my money on option #1.
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You seem a little more shrill about this than you should be. Accidents happen. Life happens. Nothing in the world is perfect, and nothing is foolproof. The people at the zoo do the best they possibly can, given the resources they have at hand. Nobody could have predicted that there would be THAT much floodwater in the zoo. Think about it, the floodwater was deep enough that it provided an escape route for the seals and Berlin. That means it really had to be at least 10 feet, maybe 20 feet deep down there, in order to overtop the enclosure and allow them to swim out over the walls.
It also happened in an awful hurry, at 3am. It’s got nothing to do with “competent animal stewardship practices.” It’s got everything to do with the fact that sometimes things happen that are just beyond anyones ability to control.
What exactly do you think the zoo staff should have done?
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They probably don’t have an animal evacuation plan, but when they saw how high the water was getting in the enclosures, they should have let the less dangerous animals loose! It would be better to have a few barn animals running loose and fending for themselves than to have so many drown.
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After reading some of these comments I understand why Inforum removed areavoices Lets talk About It. You people need to read rule #3. (Make that all 3 rules.) I am talking the posters that think this forum is a joke.
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Live and learn….There’s those who either don’t get toung in cheek, or don’t like trying to add a bit of humor, or both. It’s amazing how remarks like that get negatives. Then again….I guess they actually could feel that these are extremely serious…..That’s even more troubling…
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So apparently you think voices of dissent should be silenced. Yes people do say some mean things, but that’s life Bill, get used to it. The Forum likes to spout off all kinds of crap, but then they don’t let others be heard. This forum is not a joke.
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In the immortal words of Bill Murray: “Lighten up, Francis”.
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yeah…um….not Bill Murray…but good try. Lots of swearing in that movie…suprised you’re a fan…
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Dang, thought I was a gem of a human being.
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Criss, that was Sgt. Hulka that said that in case you were wondering.
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Funny how for a person who always seems to sdvocate geting rid of the comment section that you keep coming back and commenting……..There is a way to not be bothered by these you know….Think about it…It might come to you………eventually
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I never never said I sdvocate geting rid of the comment section. What i said was I understand it. This was my faveret blog on Fargo inforum.
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Have you even been outside? Have you seen the damage caused by this flood?
You think the city has money in its budget for a flood?
Don did the right thing, we are going to need a lot of help to clean up after this, especially with the loss of funding from the casino.
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Well, it might be nice to get some help in getting the sinkholes fixed. And maybe the infrastructure so that we don’t get sinkholes again.
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I’m seeing some childish and really stupid things being posted.
This is no joking matter.
This has no political agenda. I couldn’t disagree more with Mayor Ness politically speaking, but this is an emergency and he was absolutely correct to declare it as such.
Nor is this the end of the world.
It is our home and we will all need to work together to get things fixed. I shall be offering my services to help in any way I can at the zoo. I challenge those of you who think this is a joke or some sort of political game to man-up and help out instead of pointing fingers and making snide remarks at the real devastation going on here. This affects us all.
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Derp.
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You must be Duluth local because I haven’t seen you on the Forks “Voices” I don’t think……So do you really have a bug up your arse, or do you just like to shake people up? Aparently you do rather well getting people a bit in the anger mismanagement mode from the looks of it.
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So basically, you are a troll.
You purposely disagree with people regardless of your own feelings on the matter. You have no meaningful input to the conversation, your only goal is to get people riled up.
Congratulations! You must sleep well at night knowing that your crusade against the horrors of complacency is going well. Keep it up, you might be eligible for a Nobel Prize.
I and the rest of my cohorts who are unable to think abstractly will do the right thing and help their neighbors clean up after this mess.
You can continue to troll internet forums all you want.
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Logical debate is far more effective in your goal than sucker punches…….That is if you actually do have a logical side in the debate rather than doing a bit of hit and run….Probably wont be on mixed boards much…Otherwise…Who knows…..Might go a round or ten on opposit topics some day…
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Dead Inside: I don’t think I need to explain to you why all of your comments are “Hidden due to low comment rating”.
Why don’t you go find another hobby?
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You’re going after everyone. That tells me a lot. Not many likes on any of your comments. That tells me a lot. The fact that you feel you are better than me and most everyone else tells me a lot.
Yet I proudly served to protect your right to free speech even if you are an opinionated narcissistic dolt.
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brainDead Inside: You are incorrect again.
I made a generic comment about others pointing fingers and making jokes at 12:10, I mentioned no one by name.
At 12:37 you came after me.
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I admit I haven’t been to the Duluth zoo in many years and have no idea how it’s laid out now. But I can’t visualize where the animals could possibly have been that would have collected water like that. Terrible, terrible thing, and I hope preventive measures can be built into the zoo as part of the repairs.
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I wish our founding fathers had added a requirement for smart speech to go along with .granting free speech. But they didn’t….. Dead Inside has nothing to worry about.
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The only thing I am thinking is ….hope your day care is back open tomorrow. That way you can play with toys and have nap time to fill your day. Let the adults do the posting here.
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There is a night watchman I don’t think that he can move animals out of thier cages, maybe some of the tame barnyard animals I know him and he is very concientioud (sp)
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How can I possibly believe that when the first anyone knew of this was when a seal was found on the road by a passerby and the water was so high that the polar bear was at the top of her enclosure? You need responsible systems in place, people, authority, and gumpshin to be responsible animal caretakers. This situation shows a complete lack of that. My apologiges to your aquaintence for the starkness of that critique but the evaluation is clear for all to see. Fix it or end it, this should never be able to happen again no matter what the threat, period.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Considering nothing like this has ever happened in the history of the Lake Superior Zoo, you cannot blame them for not having an evacuation plan for the animals.
Would you be condemning the zoo if they did not have an evacuation plan for the animals in the case of a tornado?
What about an evac plan for an earthquake?
Hell, we should make sure we have one in case of a Hurricane.
What did you expect them to do? Have an enclosure on stilts for every single animal in the zoo in case of a once in a lifetime natural disaster? That is what this is, a disaster.
Yes, it was a tragedy. Yes, it would have been nice if we had a way to prevent the animals from dying. But you are going a little overboard on this one.
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If you want to blame someone….blame the railroad. It was the rail embankment that acted like a dam to flood the zoo. Make them build a bridge instead of putting back a culvert. The same kind of thing happened a couple of years ago. They put a culvert back and look what happened this morning. The zoo has suffered enough.
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Good luck to you folks from up here in Thunder Bay! We just had flooding as well, hopefully the rain lets up for you guys, what an awful thing to happen!
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Some wild pictures. I’ve basically only seen Duluth from the interstate and down by the docks. I always thought the primary problem would be those streets built on hills for winter ice. I just assumed since everything went down to the lake that flooding shouldn’t be much of a problem…..I can’t recall hearing about flooding in Duluth before. Probably hapened, but I just don’t remember it.
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deminn , If you have all the facts tell me why you didn’t warn the Zoo before the tragedy..?
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Crack. Pipe. Down. Put.
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you got one thing right people look at you as a weirdo…and religious people are the ones that treat non believers as outcasts not the other way around my friend. And i will never bring up religion unless someone like you brings up first so i can point out your illogical beliefs.
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I’m glad that kid’s ok. He’s going to have one heck of a story to tell his classmates in “What I did over the summer…” class.
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While I don’t normally have much time for Duluth, I do hope everyone stays safe and the mess is over soon.
And when the fed aid rolls in, keep it outta the hands of the school board! Except for necessary repairs, of course…
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On the bright side, think of all the brand new streets!
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we have streets in this city??? i thought it was pothole and manhole obstacle courses
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Roads and cars and flooded basements are a real bummer, but I’m really horrified that zoo animals, whom the zoo is responsible for, drowned in this, through no fault of their own.
Those poor, poor living creatures. They deserved better.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Pointing fingers after the fact is meaningless unless you were at the zoo before the storm demanding that the zoo update their flood control plans. You didn’t see this coming any more than they did.
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You’re exactly right of course. It’s imperative we ask people to risk their lives by wandering around a flooded bowl of land in the dark, searching for chickens while a polar bear wanders around aimlessly. . .
Yup. Chickens and sheep are so much more important than locating the WILD ANIMALS roaming free outside of their cages.
And also, all Zoo employees should be required to own and have 24/7 access to water craft just in case they can’t make it to the zoo to help out. . .
Considering that we weathered this storm without a single human life lost. . . I think we can spare a couple farm animals.
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I suppose nobody saw it coming that the culvert under Grand Avenue would plug up and cause a good portion of the zoo to become a lake. But the fact that the lovely petting zoo farm animals along with a number of caged birds drown in this fiasco is nothing less than an a tragedy. What a pity.
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The DNT has posted numerous updates today and managed to pull the comment thread along with it. So it can be done.
Kudos to the IT staff.
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How far up North Shore does all this flooding go? We are going on a hiking trip from July 4 to the 8th? I hope we don’t have to change anything.
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Probably because the various cities and counties along the North Shore are still assessing the damage. . .
Also, there are probably better websites, more adequately suited to the answer you are looking for.
In short, maybe no one’s replied because no one really knows. We’re a little busy up here at them moment. . .
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Kudos to the DNT and especially Andrew for keeping the live blog running all night long and far into today so people could keep updated in real time.
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Freeways and highways closed all around duluth and at least one spit (the big tunnel) up the shore. I’d definately check road access before heading up that way. Right now you can’t even cut north to get around it at Cloquet or Midway or Proctor–have to go further west than that.
As for the zoo, I think it’s a pretty simple matter of low budgets (if not mistaken funding for this zoo has shrunk quite a bit over the years and desires improvement bonds have not been approved) leading to low staffing, and bad luck that would be hard to plan for.
The animals that drowned sound like they were inside their secure facility for the night, so when the culvert on the creek (Kingsbury I think?) plugged up, the were sitting ducks so to speak. Someone put the plug in the bathtub all of a sudden–only they were in an enclosed place.
As for the night watchman, I can only imagine how most would react. I know if I saw the polar bear out of his exclosure and seals swimming about out of theirs, my thoughts might turn away from the barn animals being a priority.
I might also guess the worst of it happened very fast, an hour or two. LOTS of water coming down those hills. Then there’s communications–no doubt regular phone lines were not working and I know from experience cell phones in emergencies like that can NOT be relied on to work.
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I remember same exact same thing happened to a kid when Duluth flooded in ’72. He went several blocks before coming out bruised and battered, but alive.
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I went through this back in 1997 in EGF but we had time to prepare. This flood came on so suddenly it was impossible to get ready for. Thankfully no one was killed. Be careful during the recovery period. That can be the most dangerous part of a flood.
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-sum, if they allow my comment.
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“Melde said the recent downpour resulted from high levels of moisture in the atmosphere combined with strong lift from a low pressure system that has slowed the system to a crawl.”
101 comments about not much of anything & not one about the meaning of the above part of the art. This is about global warming caused by the heating of the atmosphere from human fossil fuel burning causing more evaporation & thus heavier rainstorms.
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It’s not global warming, it is climate change. Global warming implies that everything on the globe will get warmer, which is not the case.
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