NEW ULM, Minn. — The cottonwood River and Cottonwood Street are now one.
A massive ice jam in New Ulm sent the Cottonwood River over its banks, diverting the river across the street with the same name and threatening several homes.
As the water rose Wednesday night, New Ulm police chief Dave Borchert knocked on doors warning residents of several homes near the diverted river.
“Just told them to watch the river really close and have that week’s supply of clothing and medication ready to go,” Borchert said.
Borchert said the ice jam was created when the Cottonwood River began flowing into a still frozen Minnesota River.
Cottonwood Street remained barricaded on Friday as city official expressed optimism warm weekend temperatures will help break up the ice jam. Flood waters had already receded some on Friday.
RELATED: Spring flooding risk runs high
New Ulm’s issues aside, the spring melt has been near perfect – allaying fears just a month ago of spring flooding across much of Minnesota.
“It’s been very ideal for us so far,” Craig Schmidt, a National Weather Service hydrologist said Friday.
“We just have not added a lot of snow since early February,” Schmidt said.
Warm days and freezing nights have also helped, slowly reducing the snow-pack.
Nonetheless, Shawn Wohnoutka was frustrated Friday in his attempt to collect water samples from the Cottonwood River for his employer, Redwood-Cottonwood Rivers Control Area.
As he leaned over a bridge railing taking stock of the jammed up ice in the Cottonwood River, Wohnoutka had nothing to write in his notebook.
Hard to take a sample, he said, “when you can’t even see any open water.”