WINONA, Minn. – The dikes built in the 1960s and 1980s to protect Winona have been holding well against this spring’s high water, said Ben Klinger, the county emergency management director. The Mississippi has been at 13 feet – short of 15 where modest flooding can occur. The crest will come Tuesday at 15 feet, the National Weather Service predicts. Meanwhile, the city has foot patrols on all 15 miles of levee from Prairie Island in Minnesota City to the Winona South End. The patrols look for “boils,” caused when water seeps under the levee and weakens the barrier. An outright breach can mean a 1965-scale Doom’s Day. Short of that, the city has pumps to keep ahead of leaks, but that an be can be problematic. In 2007 a few neighborhoods mostly west of downtown took water.
Earlier: Levee break unleashes wall of water
Levee profile
The first part of the Winona dike system was in place before the devastating 1965 flood. What followed was a major civic engineering project that took several years to complete. The $22.5 million levee system was finished in1988. Its presence today mostly is taken for granted. It’s the foundation for Riverview Drive from Huff Street to the fleeting harbor and north to Theurer Boulevard in Goodview, and also the causeway to Prairie Island and north to Minnesota City. The system’s most obvious presence is Levee Park downtown.