Faces of the Flood: Corinne Stone

Corinne Stone and her two daughters left their house on Ridge Road west of Cloquet around noon last Wednesday to make a run to Wal-Mart for toilet paper. When they tried to return home shortly after 2 p.m., a sizable chunk of the road was missing.

“If we hadn’t decided to go over to Esko to rubberneck a little,” she said, “we might have been on that very spot when it caved in.”

The cavernous chasm that opened up just 500 feet from Stone’s home not only made the road impassable, but she said the flooding that caused it seemed to ricochet along Brevator and Belich roads, making all routes to her home impassable.

“It was like an earthquake had struck,” she said. “I walk that road every day, and I couldn’t believe my eyes.”

She said she had a dog and two cats at home that she was unable to get to for two days.

“The dog was mighty happy to see me when we finally got there,” she added.

Though Stone’s house was undamaged by the area flooding, she understands that the lower end of the road was not quite so lucky.

“I hear River and Ridge roads and Mahnomen Drive were flooded and many of the residents had to be evacuated by bus,” she related.

“It used to be that Minnesota was the Land of 10,000 lakes,” she reflected. “Now it’s more like the land of 10,000 islands!”

Tags: flood 2012, faces of the flood, updates