The Lake Vermilion-Soudan Underground Mine State Park in northern Minnesota has closed tours to their underground mine due to flooding.

Last week, the mine was hit with 7.6 inches of water in less than 24 hours. The ground near the mine was already saturated due to the constant rainfall that had persisted for days before.

The mine has pumps to remove water called a dewatering system, but on June 18 it was struck by lightning, cutting power to the park and stopping the pumps.

A custom pump was installed Tuesday to remove water and another is on its way to be installed next week.

Potential damage to the mine has yet to be assessed. As of now, park managers are hoping to have underground tours open again July 23.

“The expectation at this point is that even once there are fully operating pumps on all the levels that it will take between two and three weeks to get all of the water pumped out,” said Sara Berhow with the Minnesota Department of Natural. “After all the water is pumped out, then of course they’ll need to be some assessments to see if any repairs are needed to make sure that everything and all the areas where tour participants would go is safe.”

Three levels of the mine have experienced flooding: level 12, 22 and 27. Level 12 is cleared of water as of Monday. Level 22 has two fully operating pumps. They are in the process of installing new pumps in level 27, which is submerged up to about two feet from the ceiling of that level. The pumps on that floor are not functioning due to being too submerged underwater.

The mine was reopened to underground tours earlier this year after closing tours due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a $9.3 million reconstruction project.

“The staff at the park was so excited to have tours back,” Berhow said. “They’re disappointed that there has been a halt in that temporarily and they’re working hard to get tours back and get people back as soon as it’s safe to get people back in the mine.”

Tours of the mine above ground are still available and are free and do not require a reservation.

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When the WNBA season tipped off six weeks ago, the Minnesota Lynx were projected by many national “experts” to be a team for which success would not be easy.

The Lynx continue to prove those skeptics wrong.

With 40 percent of the season in the books, the Lynx are 13-3 and find themselves three games up in the Western Conference. On Tuesday, they won the WNBA’s in-season competition.

By beating New York 94-89 on Long Island, the Lynx took home the WNBA’s Commissioner’s Cup.

Winning players are to receive about $30,000 apiece out of a $500,000 prize pool. Plus, a $10,000 donation will be made to Gender Justice as the league makes charitable contributions to non-profit organizations aligned to the teams’ social justice work.

The game in Elmont, N.Y., does not count in the regular-season standings, so Minnesota still has officially won six straight and nine of 10, with that lone setback coming on a last-second shot in Phoenix.

Bridget Carleton was all over the court, finishing with a season-high 23 points, including a career-high six 3-pointers. Her last came with 1:51 to play to put the Lynx up 88-77. She added five assists and three steals.

Less than a minute earlier, she intercepted a pass and scored on a drive.

The Lynx scored 27 points off 21 Liberty turnovers. Minnesota turned the ball over just nine times.

New York (15-3) got within four with 35 seconds left, but Kayla McBride drained a couple of free throws on her 32nd birthday. Napheesa Collier made a pair, as well, for a six-point lead with 6.3 seconds left.

Named the game’s Most Valuable Player, Collier finished with 21 points, six rebounds and three steals. Cecilia Zandalasini scored a career-high 15 points, including a couple of Minnesota’s 14 3-pointers.

Before the game, coach Cheryl Reeve spoke about the importance of a potential statement win. It’s only the fourth year of the Commissioner’s Cup, but five of the previous six teams to participate in the game went on to reach the WNBA finals.

“We got a long, long way to go, but I certainly like where we are. And if we continue to improve and keep on this trajectory, they need to understand there’s a great chance we could be in the WNBA finals,” Reeve said. “That’s what it means if you win this game tonight. … You win the Commissioner’s Cup, and people are going to start talking about actually being real contenders to win the 2024 WNBA Championship.”

The Lynx led by 10 early in the fourth quarter, but Breanna Stewart scored nine straight points in a 66-second span, and the UBS Arena crowd was roaring.

Out of a time out, the Lynx scored 18 of the game’s next 26 points, capped by Carleton’s final three.

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As Minnesota got a reprieve from significant rainfall Tuesday, Gov. Tim Walz and U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar took to the skies to survey damage from widespread flooding in the southern part of the state.

What National Weather Service forecasters have described as “impressive” rainfall triggered severe flooding across the state this month — more than 40 of Minnesota’s 87 counties have been affected.

Gov. Tim Walz, front right, and U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, left, brief reporters at the St. Paul Army Aviation Facility at Holman Field in St. Paul on Tuesday, June 25, 2024. (Alex Derosier / Pioneer Press)

Flooding this past week in southern Minnesota closed roads, caused evacuations in some communities and pushed a dam at Rapidan near its breaking point.

To assess the situation, Walz, Klobuchar and state cabinet leaders took a 90-minute ride aboard a Minnesota Army National Guard Blackhawk helicopter from Holman Field in downtown St. Paul about 70 miles southeast to the Mankato area, which has seen what Walz has called “unprecedented flooding.”

“The scope of it strikes you much more,” Walz told reporters after returning to St. Paul. “You can listen to the number of acres and hear these things, but I think each of us was talking about the amount of standing water that’s out there.”

Rising waters

Since June 18, rising waters have damaged infrastructure and property, ruined crops and led to evacuations in the city of Waterville and surrounding areas in Le Sueur County.

Walz had already visited northern Minnesota to survey damage last week and over the weekend declared a peacetime emergency, activating the Minnesota National Guard to assist with disaster relief.

On Tuesday, Maj. Gen. Shawn Manke said about 40 soldiers are deployed in Waterville to assist with sandbagging and water-pumping, and the Guard is opening its armory in Faribault as an emergency shelter for those displaced by flooding.

Minnesota is getting a break from rain this week, but it’s possible wet weather will continue, according to Daniel Hawblitzel, meteorologist in charge at the National Weather Service in the Twin Cities.

At a Monday briefing, Hawblitzel said many areas have seen rainfall amounts of 8 to 9 inches above normal in the month of June alone, and some parts of southern Minnesota have seen as much as 10 to 12 inches of rain in the past week.

That’s led to major flooding on parts of the Cannon, Cottonwood, Crow, Des Moines and Minnesota rivers, and some continue to rise, according to the weather service. In Windom, the Des Moines River on Monday eclipsed the record level set in 1969, with an even higher crest expected Wednesday.

Federal disaster aid

Minnesota will likely seek federal disaster aid to help repair damage across wide swaths of the state, and Klobuchar said it was evident from Tuesday’s aerial survey the state would qualify.

“I am not an engineer but looking at that dam and seeing the severe damage there as well as washed-out roads in Minnesota, I believe we could well be into our $10.5 million — that is the level at which federal aid would kick in for public infrastructure,” she said.

The state also has its own disaster relief fund with about $26 million, and about $50 million will get added to the fund in September.

Damage assessments are already underway in northern Minnesota, said Minnesota Public Safety Commissioner Bob Jacobson, who said his agency is already working with officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

St. Paul, Stillwater

In St. Paul the Mississippi River on Tuesday was at 17 feet. It is expected to crest at more than 20 feet on Saturday, more than 3 feet higher than major flood stage.

In Stillwater, the St. Croix River was at 685.7 feet above sea level Tuesday. That river is set to crest on Saturday at 688 feet, just under moderate flood stage, according to the National Weather Service.

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