| Flooding
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A combination of lots of snow, warmer temperatures and heavy rain led to flooding on the Prairie Monday afternoon and evening. The amount of water flowing into area creek drainages had the creeks overflowing their banks leading to flooding. Both downtown Cottonwood and Ferdinand had volunteers sandbagging to protect homes and businesses. For Cottonwood it was the first case of flooding on Main Street since similar conditions occurred in 1996. Cottonwood Creek was overflowing the culvert at the intersection of Front St. and Lewiston St. causing flooding on Main St. There was also flooding reported in the northwest portion of town from the creek that flows there. Cottonwood City Maintenance Supervisor Roy Uhlenkott said it was fortunate the rain stopped when it did or it could have been worse. The rain stopped about 4:30 and it wasn’t until well after 5 that the flooding hit. Much of Main Street was flooded, especially along the south side of the street with water a foot deep in places. Cottonwood Creek was roaring behind Riener’s Grocery where it surfaces again after going into culverts under Nuxoll Shell. Much of Gary Riener’s yard was flooded. On Tuesday morning Main St. had a lot of debris and many of the buildings still had sandbags in front of them. 
Cottonwood Creek was overflowing its banks behind Riener’s Grocery at 5 p.m. Monday and flooding the yards of a couple of houses including Gary Riener’s. Gary says that footbridge is his line of demarcation. If the creek starts lapping over it, Main Street starts getting flooded, which happened later in the evening. 
Cottonwood Fire Chief Greg Sonnen, left and Ed Holthaus keep watch on the flood waters in front of the fire station. At right are city maintenance supervisor Roy Uhlenkott and Don Nuxoll. 
Don Nuxoll brought by the above two photos from the 1948 flood in Cottonwood. The upper photo shows Cottonwood Creek where the Nuxoll Shell warehouse is now and the lower photo shows the Main St.-Broadway intersection, looking up Broadway. The dark building on the right is where the fire station is now. |
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