Days after the rain, flood waters continue to rise in Mora, Minnesota

MORA, Minn. (KMSP) - For the neighborhoods surrounding Mora Lake in central Minnesota, the question remains: When will the water stop rising?

“Thursday morning at 7 o’clock. Ready to go to work and I walk out, and front yard. It was all a foot and a half [deep],” said Clinton Willing who lives near Mora Lake.  

That was the, this is now as the flooding continues – and the Kanabec County tries to keep up with the rising waters.

"This morning woke up and we needed more sandbags and I think we pumped out 4,000 sandbags just with volunteers and shovel,” said Kanabec County Sheriff Brian Smith.

The volunteers – and the sandbags – are working hard to helping protect basements like Barry Stevens’ from the lake – one that has now flooded. Twice.

“We put up the dike yesterday and it failed early this morning so we had water that was at least a foot deep that hit the door to the walkout basement…that blew the door open,” Stevens said.  

He pumped that all out – but will now be trading overnight shifts with his wife to make sure that water doesn't breach again.

Farther up the street, Shawn Doering watches over his house – a house he’s only lived in for 3 months.

“We had water coming through the basement from that way on Thursday. And yesterday around suppertime the lake crept around to our house again, now the lake is coming through our basement,” Doering said.

Basements – front yards – driveways – and streets all now a part of Mora Lake.

“Because it doesn’t have a natural outlet, we don’t have a good answer to stop it from rising,” Sheriff Smith said.

The county does have a community of volunteers who will sandbag as needed so people like Doering and Stevens will have a little more peace of mind while they wait for the water to stop rising, and finally go down

Sheriff Smith says Mora has contracted crews to pump water out of the neighborhood. They can pump about 10,000 gallons a minute – but he’s not sure they’ll be able to keep up because the water from surrounding areas just keeps flooding into here.