Photo by Deb Gau Marshall residents unloaded trailers full of flood debris at a temporary disposal site at the Lyon County Fairgrounds on Wednesday.

MARSHALL — Residents are still working to clean up after roughly 8 inches of rain poured down on the city Friday night. And Marshall and Lyon County officials say it might take a while longer to see if any assistance will be available for the city and individual residents.

“It’s a unique event, because it just affected Marshall,” City Administrator Sharon Hanson said during Tuesday’s Marshall City Council meeting. “It puts us in a difficult, challenging position to secure funds for private assistance.”

Hanson said city staff are still encouraging residents to keep track of and report flood damage to their property. So far, about 300 properties have reported damage. Hanson said the city of Marshall is also working together with Lyon County to try and get different forms of help for local residents.

This weekend, both the city of Marshall and Lyon County declared a state of emergency due to the rain event. The county also set up a free drop-off area for flood debris at the Lyon County Fairgrounds.

On Wednesday afternoon, a steady stream of trucks hauling everything from furniture to water-damaged carpet and bathroom fixtures were coming to the drop-off site. People loaded debris onto forklifts and other equipment, which dumped it into roll-off trash containers for disposal.

Stephanie Bethke-DeJaeghere, who was helping direct traffic, estimated that the disposal site had about 200 visitors since it opened on Monday. They were anticipating more, especially on the weekend, she said.

Emily Coequyt, Lyon County emergency manager, said the county was taking a few different approaches to try and help people affected by flooding. Because the worst of the storm was limited to Marshall, it would be hard to hit damage thresholds for federal funding, she said.

“It takes federal aid off the table,” Coequyt said.

Marshall would more likely make the state damage threshold of $59,634 for Lyon County, but that aid is not usually for individual relief, she said.

Coequyt said she has reached out to organizations like the Red Cross. They may have supplies like clean-up kits that could be distributed to community members, she said. and she is also working with United Way of Southwest Minnesota to start a disaster fund that community members can contribute to.

Another possibility is reaching out to Minnesota VOAD (Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster), a statewide nonprofit organization dedicated to disaster relief.

“It’s kind of like an umbrella,” made up of different disaster services, she said.

Coequyt said she had applied to VOAD, and hoped that volunteers might be able to assist with tasks like debris cleanup or surveying damage door-to-door.

In the meantime, Hanson said the city has also created a web page for all of the flood response information it has shared with residents. That information can be accessed at www.ci.marshall.mn.us/flood.

The temporary flood debris dropoff location at the fairgrounds will be open from 3-7 p.m. through Friday, and from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday.

Flood impacts

At Tuesday’s Marshall City Council meeting, council members discussed the impact of Friday’s rain event on the community.

“The National Weather Service has indicated that event, there was less than a 1% probability for 5-8 or even more inches of rain over such a short period of time,” Mayor Bob Byrnes said. “The other unique thing was that it was concentrated over Marshall.”

In addition to affecting homes and businesses, rainwater from the storm overwhelmed Marshall’s wastewater treatment plant, Byrnes said.

“A lot of (city) staff were there all night and through the day. Wastewater, streets, parks all put in a lot of extra time, because it was an emergency,” he said.

Council member Craig Schafer discussed the impact of Friday night’s storm on construction at the new Marshall Aquatic Center site.

“I was able to attend a meeting (Monday) morning at the Aquatic Center site, to kind of look over how we weathered the weather,” said Schafer.

While the rain did impact the site, he said contractors deserved kudos for their work draining and pumping the site.

“They aggressively went at de-watering,” Schafer said.

Schafer said there was a potential area of concern under one structure at the site — the main slab for surge tanks.

“During the meeting (Monday) there was some discussion about, how bad was it undercut?” Schafer said. “I know that they consulted with WTI Water Technologies, and they’ve got a pretty good solution in place.”

Some of the public facilities that had water damage from the storm included Marshall Middle School, Southwest Minnesota State University, and the Marshall-Lyon County Library, Hanson said Wednesday. Coequyt said the middle school had about $100,000 in damage, and SMSU had about $50,000 worth of damage.

Coequyt said commercial properties were also affected. The mall building in Marshall had damage from both groundwater and roof infiltration. Apartment complexes had widespread damage, including sewage backups, and in some cases, mud coming in basement windows.

Avera Morningside Heights Care Center also had water damage, and seven care center residents were temporarily moved to an Avera facility in Granite Falls.

Avera Marshall spokesperson Stacy Neubeck said Avera Marshall was still assessing and responding to damage in part of the care center’s lower level. Neubeck said they were estimating that transferred residents would stay in Granite Falls for about two to three weeks.

The active construction zones on College Drive in Marshall were less affected by the heavy rains, said Diana Heston, project manager/construction supervisor for MnDOT District 8. A lot of water was observed Friday night and Saturday morning in the spot where MnDOT is working on building a roundabout.

“The  Trunk Highway 19 (College Drive) project in Marshall was not as impacted as I anticipated given the large area of the roundabout already opened up,” Heston said. The stormwater had flowed into trenches that were already dug at the construction site’s low point. “Basically, it filled up the area as opposed to washing through it like a river.”

Once the rain let up, contractors began pumping the water out. Heston said the de-watering process took about 24 to 36 hours. Heston said the construction will continue with the area being fully pumped out. The Highway 19 project would add material with better drainage under the roadway, she said.

Heston said there was some erosion in a landscaping area near the west end of the Highway 19 project, that will be repaired and re-seeded. No significant damage was reported at the east end of the project area, near the Main Street/College Drive intersection.

There was also no damage to the construction site at the BNSF railroad crossing on West Main Street, Heston said.