Video shows home near Rapidan Dam collapsing into southern Minnesota river, nearby store could be next

RAPIDAN TOWNSHIP, Minnesota. – THE Terre Bleue River in furythat caused An abutment of the 114-year-old Rapidan Dam will partially collapsehas now swallowed most of the the emblematic house which is located on a neighboring embankment in the middle Minnesota's Historic Floods. A nearby store could likely be next, according to the owners.

Blue Earth County officials say the collapse occurred Tuesday evening and continue to monitor possible downstream impacts.

WCCO spoke Monday with Jenny Barnes, whose family owns Rapidan Dam home and store nearby for over 50 years. While baking pies to sell that morning, she heard the river destroying a nearby Xcel Energy substation.

“It's very close to the house. We had to evacuate this morning, get out as much as possible. All the freezers and stuff,” 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.”

Rapid erosion carved out the ground beneath the house, leaving its east side hanging over a cliff before partial collapse.

The family told WCCO on Wednesday that officials believe the store will likely be the next to fall into the water as the river continues to dig into the ground around it.

“My family is waiting here for their history to be erased minute by minute,” said Shannon Whittet, whose uncle Jim Hruska bought the store in 1972. “My family lost their home, they lost their business, their livelihood. bread and their land will disappear. This is not a simple situation where something has happened, and we will rebuild the land and it will disappear.

Whittet says family members were able to empty everything out of the store, but they weren't able to get all of their belongings back home.

“Water is powerful. It is powerful. It goes where it wants. It will make room for itself at the expense of everything,” Whittet said.

She said she would miss sitting in a booth with her uncle and seeing children come to the counter or sit on rocking stools. Since the house was swallowed by the river, people have donated food and water and started a GoFundMe.

The dam remains in a “state of imminent failure,” according to county officials, but the threat of failure has diminished. On Tuesday, Sheriff Jeff Wersal said the water level in the event of a “catastrophic event would not be that significant.”

If the dam completely collapses, county leaders say the river could rise another 2 feet or so. There is a system of levees protecting the city and authorities are confident it will hold up.

The Blue Earth County Historical Society says the dam opened in 1910, doubling Mankato's electrical capacity.

The National Dam Inventory rated the dam in poor condition as of April 2023, classifying its hazard potential as “significant.”

The Army Corps of Engineers and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission are still assessing the damage.