HATTON, N.D. — Talk about the power of rain, rivers, and a complete natural failure. WDAY News' drone provided a birds-eye look at Steele County Drain #11. Usually an unassuming ditch along a township road is now a runaway, rampant washout as long as a football field, and thirty feet deep.
"(It's) overland floodings. All of it little tiny creeks. Last year they were dry, this year, they all ran off due to the frozen ground," said Steele County Water Resource Water Manager Tor Bergstrom.
The Water Resource District says this used to have a drop structure, and a 48-inch culvert, to move water downstream.
"(The water) took everything out. There's nothing there. You can't even see that the control structure was there anymore," Bergstrom said.
All this water is headed east and a little south, to the Goose River and Mayville, North Dakota.
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Water is still moving through, except now the small, grassy ditch is a blowout. It's as if dynamite went off. Once the floodwaters recede, the work to repair will begin.
"It's amazing what running water can do," Bergstrom said.
