Floodway Spares Minnesota Town from Major Damage

recent aerial photo of the Snake River diversion channel that goes around the City of Warren, Minnesota

Thanks in part to NRCS engineering assistance and Public Law-566 Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Program funding for the Snake River Watershed Project, the residents of Warren, Minnesota, were spared serious flooding when the Snake recently crested five feet over flood stage.

Warren, Minnesota, suffered $12.7 million in flood damage in 1996-7, when the Snake River crested more than five feet over flood stage.  The $18 million Snake River flood-control project was initiated as a result of that flooding and groundbreaking took place in 2001. “The project will provide the city with 100-year flood protection,” said Dave Jones, NRCS area engineer.

Learn more about NRCS  in Minnesota

The Snake River Watershed Project consists of two main components, an excavated floodway around the city of Warren, and a floodwater storage impoundment located 10 miles upstream of the city.  The floodwater storage impoundment was needed to ensure that flood levels would not be increased either downstream or upstream of the floodway diversion structure currently under construction in Warren.

The impoundment and floodway channel are complete.  However the diversion structure above the city which directs water to the floodway is incomplete but emergency sandbagging diverted flood water and prevented any serious damage.  “Without these existing flood control structures, it’s estimated that the water would have been three to four feet deeper causing major damage in the city,” said Warren Mayor Bob Kliner.
Your contact is Julie MacSwain, NRCS public affairs specialist, at 651-602-7859.