WATERVILLE, Minn. — Travel down just one of Waterville's water-logged roads and the reality of a days-long flood quickly sets in.
"This is the worst it's ever been," said Frank Velishek, who has lived along Tetonka Lake for years. "We've evacuated and I'm living with my daughter and son-in-law."
"The beach is probably a block away from us," said Barb Porter, who has been navigating two layers of sandbags on her driveway for the last five days just to keep the lake from entering her home. "Now our biggest problem that we are facing right now is (the backyard) because this is also the lake where everything has breached."
Fortunately, Barb says her home remains mostly dry, aside from her crawlspaces, and the entire neighborhood is breathing a little easier after seeing the flood waters level off on the last day.
Still, many of the town's streets and homes still cut off, and the Le Sueur County Sheriff's Office spent the morning deploying boats to simply take stock of the devastation.
"I mourn for all of those who have lost their houses completely here," Porter said. "We had a neighbor down the street who was coming all night long to get anything they could out of the house because the house was gone."
According to Le Sueur County Administrator, Joe Martin, most of those who are displaced in town have a place to go, while roughly ten residents are staying in a temporary shelter in town. But Martin says the county is currently looking for a bigger, long-term shelter space because the saturated Cannon River Watershed could mean flood waters remain for weeks.
"Weeks? That don't sound like fun," said Pete Nytes, who has worked to navigate roughly eight inches of water inside his home since Sunday. Tuesday marked the first time that he made it to his door with a pair of waders.
"People were picking each other up by kayaks and duck boats and stuff," said Mary Nytes. " Everyone was helping us move out of here."
As the couple moved a few more items to their daughter's home on Tuesday, they said they simply hope the pumps manned by the Minnesota National Guard continue to keep the city's sewer system from backing up.
In the meantime, they say they're still just grateful it isn't worse.
"You know what? It's only stuff, and stuff you can either fix or replace," Pete Nytes said. "Nobody got hurt. I haven't heard of any injuries or any drownings, so that's good."
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