Breckenridge family battles flood waters after ice jam

Nearly every year a ring dike is put around this home. Overland flooding comes racing in and settles in this area just northeast of Breckenridge.

"It's almost like we live in a bath tub. Everything just sits here and if it can't flow properly, it goes right into the yard."

In a couple of days Jan and Trista Vagts expected water from this creek to start flowing over their driveway. But no more than 10 minutes after we left, Trista called us back. An ice jam in the creek turned this into this in that short time.

"In like 2 minutes. Within minutes it came up."

The county rushed backhoes to the area and started clearing out ice, while the Vagtses began marking a path into their home.

"It scares you because just an hour ago we had a complete driveway."

The toughest part for this family is in the next couple of days things will only get worse.

"It gets to be a mess."

The Vagtses say all of this water that's turned every field east of their place into a lake is headed straight for their home.

“It'll come over the road and once it comes over the road then it's really going to get even uglier out here."

Jokingly, Jan says the water can take over the house as long as the Viking cave and everything inside this shed stays dry.

"People in the public learn about the man cave and so I think if we have a lot of water trouble out here we'll have a lot of help to save it."

Lucky for them and their friends, football season's in the fall because right now, everything is on hold. A dangerous sight a few miles North of the Vagtses home: some roads have been taken over by flooding.

Area farmers say since Friday County Road 16 has had spots with water going over the road. Farmers say drains in the culverts are too small to keep up with the melt. And flooding only gets worse when things like corn stalks clog the drains.

Tags: reporter stories, todd kurtz, breckenridge, minnesota, news, flood, vagt