Some spots in Marshall, including part of East Lyon Street by Independence Park, were still flooded Saturday morning after torrential rains Friday. Marshall city officials said anywhere from 5-8 inches of rain fell in a couple of hours, overwhelming city storm and sanitary sewers.

MARSHALL — Torrential rains flooded basements, backed up sewers and even impacted the Avera Marshall hospital campus on Friday night. Today, city officials declared a state of emergency, and said they were working with Lyon County to respond to localized flooding.

The city has also asked Marshall residents to limit water use until this evening, to help with the high flow at the wastewater treatment plant. After water got into its Bruce Street campus, Avera Marshall Regional Medical Center has asked the public to only come to the hospital for emergencies or scheduled appointments.

“This is not a river flooding issue,” Marshall Mayor Bob Byrnes said Saturday. “The issues we have are stemming from heavy rainfall.”

Anywhere from 5 to close to 8 inches of rain fell on Marshall within the span of about 2-3 hours, Marshall city officials said. The rain event led to a flash flood warning being issued on Friday night. Video taken near the intersection of U.S. Highway 59 and Minnesota Highway 23 showed about a foot of water on the roadway, the National Weather Service reported around 10:40 p.m.

“Marshall had multiple areas of flooding on city streets,” said Lyon County Sheriff Eric Wallen. Wallen said law enforcement received multiple calls of people stuck in vehicles on Marshall streets, as well as some calls where people needed to be rescued from their vehicles.

Avera Marshall Regional Medical center said the hospital’s Bruce Street campus also experienced some flooding during the rain event. In a statement Saturday morning, hospital spokespeople said areas of the hospital had some water get into the facility.

“Staff acted quickly, and all patients and residents are safe,” the statement said. “We are currently asking people to access the hospital for scheduled procedures and emergencies only.”

Avera Marshall spokespeople said they will offer updates as they become available.

On Saturday morning, Byrnes declared a local state of emergency in Marshall. The declaration can help make it possible to authorize aid or assistance for people affected by the storm. City staff said they are beginning to hear reports of home and business damage, and will begin an inventory of that storm damage. Lyon County will be establishing waste management disposal methods for flood-damaged homes and businesses. More information on flood waste disposal will be released on the city of Marshall’s social media and local media outlets.

Byrnes said the main issue with Friday’s rains was that the city received an overwhelming amount of water in a short time. The Marshall wastewater plant was receiving about 14 million gallons of water per minute – about 8 times the normal flow.

“That is a record amount of volume,” Byrnes said.

As a result, the city was asking Marshall residents to avoid activities that use a lot of water, like laundry or large baths, until Saturday evening.

While Marshall residents were most affected by Friday’s storm, other parts of Lyon County weren’t as severely impacted.

“It seemed to be a pretty narrow path of the storm,” Wallen said. While the Sheriff’s Office did place temporary barricades on three different county roads on Friday night, rainfall totals weren’t as heavy in other parts of the county. “They didn’t have nearly the amount of water,” he said.

River level observations near Marshall showed that on Friday night, the Redwood River jumped from a stage of about 8.2 feet to a peak of 11.65 feet in the space of four hours. River gauge data showed that water levels gradually started to fall after midnight. The river was at a stage of about 9 feet in Marshall on Saturday morning.

Flood stage for the Redwood River in Marshall is 14 feet.