OSLO, Minn. (AP) - Spring flooding has turned a northwestern Minnesota community into an island of isolation.
The rising Red River has flooded the two highways leading into and out of Oslo in Marshall County near the North Dakota border.
Roughly half of the town left before the roads flooded, including those with jobs outside the city and those with school-aged children, Minnesota Public Radio News reported. It’s unclear how long it’ll take the floodwaters to recede.
The city’s 330 residents have grown accustomed to the isolation. It marks the fifth time in a decade that flooding has enveloped the community.
Kitty Stromberg, owner of Kitty’s Cafe, has stocked up to feed the remaining Oslo residents as well as Minnesota National Guard members who have been dispatched to patrol the city’s ring levee.
The levee was recently built up several additional feet to manage a 42-foot (13-meter) flood crest. The Red River crested just less than 38 feet (12 meters) over the weekend.
Stromberg said the flooding and isolation are just parts of living in Oslo.
“I don’t love the island thing,” she said. “But we have to deal with it.”
Stromberg said if the flooding persists, food and supplies arrive by boat.
Cory Jamieson, owner of Jamieson’s Bar and the local fire chief, was recently unloading a trailer of 100 cases of Bud Light, another staple of flood season. The recipients were firefighters who had just saved a man after his car was swept into a ditch when he attempted to drive across a flooded road north of town.
“When you’re flooded, there’s not much to do, but come up to the bar and tell flood stories,” Jamieson said.
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Information from: Minnesota Public Radio News, http://www.mprnews.org
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