Duluth Reflects on the 2012 Historic Flood

DULUTH, Minn. — On this day a decade ago, heavy rains that hit the northland and Duluth experiencing record-breaking flooding.

It started the day before, on June 19th, when waves of heavy storms began to drape across Northern Minnesota. Over the next two days, Duluth would nearly drown under seven inches of rain.

Former Mayor Don Ness, said that, “the thing that I really look back fondly on is that how the community responded and especially those residents that were not affected still gave their time and attention and helped those that were damaged.”

He went on to explain, “the work was difficult, the rebuilding efforts was difficult, it took a tremendous amount of patients and kindness from the residents.”

People from across the northland supported one another and worked together to begin the rebuilding process. The Federal Emergency Management Agency provided funding to repair areas and get them back to how they were prior to the flood. Duluth officials fought to receive help in creating a stronger system to be more resilient when faced with natural crises in the future.

Spokesperson for Mayor Don Ness, Daniel Fanning, reflected on the vastness of the flood. “This was a huge flood that affected St. Louis all the way through Northeast Minnesota and Northwest Wisconsin, so we were working with the Sheriff’s Department, the State, the Federal Government.” He further explained, “from a local level, state level, county, level, and federal level that’s how stuff really got done.”

Along with many homes and businesses, the Lake Superior Zoo was one of the flooding areas nearly submerged. The Zoo’s current Assistant Director of Animal Management, Lizzy Larson, was there on the tragic night.

“The entire center of our zoo was underwater. This whole space that we are looking at right now was completely underwater.” She said, “I can tell you 100% it was one of the worst days of my life. We had to bury a lot of animal that we called family, you know a lot of these animals we work with more than the animals that we spend time with at home.”

Despite all of the efforts to save them, 14 animals were lost that day. Including 11 barnyard animals who were not able to swim against the strong water forces and three birds within an exhibit that pooled to the top with water.

When the rain finally stopped, community support poured into the zoo.

“It was everybody and there brother was coming to help us out.” Larson further explained, “Over these last 10 years, we wouldn’t have been able to do any of the stuff we’ve been doing without having the donation support, the volunteer support, the community support saying to everybody we want this zoo, we want to come this zoo, we want to be apart of this zoo, and you know we want everyone to be apart of this zoo as much as possible.”

Many locations around the city now have wider culverts which can endure higher volumes of water. The sewer and wastewater systems have also been updated.