Important Takeaways:

• The raging Blue Earth River, which caused an abutment of the 114-year-old Rapidan Dam to partially fail, has now swallowed most of the iconic home that sits on a nearby embankment amid Minnesota’s historic flooding.
• A nearby store could likely be next, according to the owners.
• Blue Earth County officials say the collapse occurred on Tuesday evening and they continue to monitor for possible impacts downstream.
• The river is expected to drop up to 5 feet by Friday. Officials say it’s still cutting away quickly.
• “It’s very close to the house. We had to evacuate this morning, get as much as we could out. All the freezers and such,” Barnes said. “It’s my childhood. I grew up in the house, I grew up in the dam store. I’ve been there all my life.”
• “My family is sitting here waiting for their history to be washed away minute by minute,” said Shannon Whittet, whose uncle Jim Hruska bought the store in 1972. “My family has lost their home, they’ve lost their business, their livelihood and their land will be gone. This isn’t a simple situation of something happened, and we will rebuild. The land will be the last thing. And it will be gone.”

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