Despite overnight rain, Friday’s forecast of the Mississippi River’s crest in downtown St. Paul remained at 20.8 feet expected Saturday night.

That would put the flood well within the city’s Top 10 historic crests, but still six feet below the record crest of 1965.

Lisa Hiebert, a spokesperson for St. Paul Public Works, said most flood precautions are already in place. Notably, a three-mile stretch of Shepard/Warner Road has been closed since last Sunday evening, and workers installed a “big bag” levy at Sibley and Jackson streets. If updated forecasts predict a river crest between 21 and 22 feet, Public Works may roll out additional road closures and extra precautions, she said.

By Friday morning, rising river water had flooded the primary playground at Harriet Island Regional Park in St. Paul and risen almost to the seats on its swing set, still well below the grass-covered levy wall and its hidden water pumps off Water Street. Park visitors strolled casually above the water, taking in a sight most consider more scenic than alarming.

A woman stops to look at a path covered by flooding from the Mississippi River at Harriet Island Regional Park in St. Paul on Monday afternoon, June 24, 2024.  (Devanie Andre / Pioneer Press)

Rachael Rhoades, previously of Minneapolis, bought a house boat from a co-worker last year and put it in the water by the St. Paul Yacht Club in October. She’s been staying with friends since Monday and wading through the regional park’s rising waters off Water Street each morning to check on her three cats.

“It’s a learning curve. Now I have a house that floats,” Rhoades said Friday. To get to her boat and cats she has to wade through water. Rhoads said the yacht club has been sending out updates and where to park. The power was still on for her boat Friday

“I will be happy to not have to bring out a special pair of shorts to get to my home,” she said with a laugh. “Mother Nature will find a way. The river floods. It happens.”

Meanwhile, the St. Croix River was at 687.5 feet in Stillwater on Friday morning; minor flood stage is 687 feet.

The river is set to crest in Stillwater at 1 a.m. Monday at 688.2 feet, which is just over moderate flood stage, according to the National Weather Service.

The St. Croix River at downtown Stillwater on Thursday, June 27, 2024. (Courtesy of Jim Sandahl)

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