WINONA, Minn. – Responding an emergency request, Winona County has trucked 20,000 sandbags to the flood-besieged town of Waterville 110 miles west in LeSueur County. It’s a mutual aid kind of thing, said Ben Klinger, Winona’s emergency management director. In Waterville an estimated 1,000 volunteers filled the Winona sandbags, plus thousands more sandbags from elsewhere, in a desperate attempt to hold back the unbridled Cannon River. Reporter Babs Santos of Minneapolis teievison station KMSP was there:

Packing, hauling sand bags. Volunteers slog through  Cannon River overflow. It was a hod-carrier attempt to wall off the water. Image: Jackson Forderer

Earlier: Dike status in Winona: So far, so good

Earlier: Minnesota Guard into emergency flood duty

Tiny isle vacant. Boaters typically crowd the island’s beach just downriver from Winona in mid-June, but not much remains visible above the Mississippi’s high-flowing ad fast-moving currents. This was between weekend storms that caused flooding through the region. Image: Steve Lunde

Earlier: Multiple waves of rain due; so too flooding

AUGUSTA Wis. – Rescuers began a search for a person reported struggling in the swollen Eau Claire Rver eight miles north of Auugsta. Rescurs were called about 3 .m. Beause of intermittent deluges, they gave up for the day about 6. The search was near U.S, Highway 27 and Black Bear Road and U.S, west of Lake Eau Claire Park.

Sirens at 2 a.m. Worst hit community in rain-satrated northwest Iowa was Rock Valley, population 4,100. The sheriff reported 250 rescues. Image: Sioux County sheriff

Flat-bottom boats, dive teams mobilized for rescues

ROCK VALLEY, Iowa – A Rock River levee broke in the middle of the night, unleashing a wall of water into town. Then the water kept rising Sheriff Jamie Van Voorst activated tornado sirens to warn people to get out of bed and head to high ground. The evacuation was frantic in the dark as the water rose. For some people, an emergency shelter at a church i was inaccessible. Before the day was out, 1,000 people crowded into the church. As dawn arrived, dive teams and swift boats on rescue missions patrolled streets for stranded people. They performed 250 rescues on streets that had become silty canals, Sheriff Van Voorst said. Water was too high for tractors, trucks or loaders. In the region there had been as much as 18 inches of rain from thunderstorms. Other towns also had flooding but nothing like Rock Valley’s levee break.

EYOTA, Minn. – Deputies responding to a car wreck near Eyota found a dead body wrapped in a bed sheet in the back seat. Nearby, they said, was the driver — Margot G. Lewis, 32, of North Liberty, Iowa. She was sitting in a lawn chair. Lewis was triaged for injuries. Then deputies checked the vehicle for perhaps someone else with injuries. They discovered the body of a woman on a futon mattress under a tarp. The body was cold to the touch with dried blood soaked into the bed sheet, deputies said. There was a large wound on the right side of the neck near the carotid artery. This was about 7 a.m. at the Interstate 90 turn-off to Eyota. The vehicle, a gray Chevrolet Sonic eastbound toward Winona, had entered the median at high speed and crashed into a guardrail at a State Highway 42 overpass pillar.

WINONA, Minn. –  The Mississippi River was predicted to come close to — but not at — its 15-foot flood stage Tuesday morning. The National Weather Service expects a crest of 14.8 feet. The river was 12 feet Saturday morning. Even at 15 feet the flooding would be moderate. Record floods historically have have been 20..8 Meanwhile, some tributary rivers and creeks  have overflowed banks.

Earlier: Mississippi crests at Winona, now slowly receding

WINONA, Minn. – A driver heading over the Interstate Bridge toward Wisconsin was stopped on Latsch Island for erratic driving, then taken to jail on suspicion of drunkenness at the wheel. Police said that Aaron Gene West, 24, if Cathlamet, Washington, declined both on-site and at the jail to submit to blood-alcohol testing. Police based their arrest on weird lane-switching, speeding and ignoring a stop sign, as well as red-shot and watery eyes, slurred speech, poor finger dexterity, and a strong odor of alcohol.

WHTEHALL, Wis.  – The only judge in Trempealeau County, Rian W. Radtke, withdrew from the Todd Eric Gieck murder case. Ratkte explained his recusal to avoid suspicion of a conflict of interest. He said that a family member of the victim, Kyle Dahl,  was a county employee who works closely with the cout system. Before recusing, Judge Ratkte ruled there was probable cause to hold Gieck until a judge from a neighboring county can be assigned to the case.

 Earlier: Charges filed in Ettrick drive-by fatality

CHATFIELD, Minn. – A Preston driver was hurt when hree pickup trucks, a minivan and a sedan collided at an intersection north of Chatfield. Count them: Five vehicles piled up. Timothy Alan Majerus, 58, of Preston, was taken 22 miles to a Rochester hospital. His injuries were non-life threatening, deputies said. The collisions were about 1:30 p.m. at U.S. Highway 52 and 130th Avenue Southeast. All the vehicles were southbound toward Chatfield. Involved were:

> 2015 Nissan Altima. Driven by Reid Kennedy Johnson, 21, of Chatfield.

> 2014 Ford Taurus. Driven by Cole Richard Johnson, 19, of Chatfield.

> 2022 GMC Sierra. Driven by Brandon Mitchell Albertson, 41, of Fort Atkinson, Iowa.

>2023 Ford F350. Driven by Zachary Allen Parksn, 19, of Sargeant.

> 1998 Ford F150. Driven by Timothy Alan Majerus, 58, of Preston.

All were belted except Majerus, police said.

WINONA, Minn. –  The National Weather Service posted a flood watch through 1 p.m. Saturday with as much as five inches of rain possible across all southern Minnesota and adjoining Iowa and Wisconsin counties. The forecast anticipates a triple assault:

> A cluster of strong thunderstorms Friday afternoon, potentially with damaging wind gusts until early evening.

> A second round of strong storms overnight through 4 a.m. on Saturday.

> A cold front from the Plains early Saturday afternoon with damaging winds, large hail, and possible tornados.

A slightly cooler air mass will arrive after Saturday’s cold front. Sunday was forecast as mostly sunny in the upper 70s

Earlier: Flooding closes southwest Minnesota roads

BROWNSVILLE, Minn. – The Army Corps has begun dredging river-bottom sediment at Crater Island north of Brownsville to maintain the Mississippi navigation channel at the nine feet necessary for barges. About 50,000 cubic yards is being trucked to a Corps-owned storage site on State Highway 26. The project is scheduled through July. Meanwhile, Crater Island is off limits to the public for safety concerns.

WINONA, Minn. – A Winona man was arrested at work after his live-in partner called 911 that she had been assaulted. Aaron Thomas Swedberg, 36, was booked on three domestic assault charges including one for strangulation. Police were called about 7:50 a.m. to an apartment in the 350 block of East Sanborn Street. The woman said an argument over relationship issues escalated, that Swedburg left for work, then came back, forced open the  door, pushed her to the floor, and held her down by the chest and neck. Police said the woman had reddened bruising but didn’t require medical attention.

Swedburg. Accused of strangulation.

ADRIAN, Minn. – The State Patrol blocked access to Interstate 90 for 29 miles from Adrian to \the South Dakota border due to flooding. Also closed was State Highway 91 north out of Adrian. Heavy rains swelled creeks and overwhelmed some culverts and bridges. The closures were put into effect about 7 a.m.

Off the rails. Nine freight cars slid off flood-loosened rails near Alvord in northwest Iowa about 4:30 a.m. No injuries were reported. None of the cargo was hazardous. The train was on the Burlington Northern Santa Fe’s 270-mile route connecting Willmar, Minnesota, and Sioux City, Iowa.

WINONA, Minn. – Police arrested a Tennessee man on the far east end of Sarnia Street and ticketed him for driving drunk. Cited was Elicser Celaya Ramos, 40, of McMinnville. This a abut 12:25 a.m. Hs. blood-alcohol level was 0.10%, about 20% higher than legally allowed. The traffic stop began for inoperable headlights