The devastating storms and dangerous flooding are still causing thousands of dollars in damages for residents throughout the Northland this spring. One of these spring storms caused a century old wooden dam at Sullivan Lake to crumble just a couple days ago.

The rising water levels in nearby rivers, led to flooding near the community of Brimson. Nick Elmquist and his family are picking up the pieces.

“Even in 2012, it was nowhere near this bad,” Elmquist said. “I was actually able to take my skid steer and make a dike behind my house to keep the water out. Otherwise it would have been about four and a half feet in my basement.”

The flooding from the Sullivan Lake Dam wreckage caused water levels to rise in the nearby Cloquet river. Elmquist says he and his family are now struggling in the watery aftermath.

“I’m looking at probably a loss of around $100,000 with all the damage that we have from the water. There’s pretty much nothing I can do with it,” Elmquist said. “So, and I didn’t have insurance on because we’re not currently operating as a gravel pit anymore. I was actually in the process of fixing some of this stuff to get ready to have an auction to sell it all.”

Whether or not Sullivan Lake Dam will get repairs is not a concern for Elmquist, especially since he’s dealing with the damages. Although he is concerned about other nearby communities that are at risk to future flooding disasters.

“I don’t really care if they fix it or not. I know in the area, there’s a lot of these other dams that have been here for 100 years,” Elmquist said. “[They] should probably be looked at and see if something should be done with those.”

LeRoy Veness, the owner of Veness Bait and Tackle in Two Harbors says it’s a surprise the Sullivan Lake Dam didn’t fall apart sooner.

“The dam was built somewhere around 1905. An earth, and wooden dam. Any excess of water just blew it out, but I’m surprised it hasn’t happened sooner,” Veness said. “The last big flood I think we had was like 2012, you know, and that was pretty much localized to Duluth area. Now we’re a little farther north this time.”

Veness says the storms this spring season aren’t something new to the Northland, especially with the warm winter season.

“Well, we didn’t have no snow. So, northern Minnesota, we’re going to get it one way or another, whether it’s snow or rain,” Veness said. “We haven’t heard anything about rebuilding the dam. Right now, DNR is busy with washed out roads, culverts. That’s where their focus is right now.”

The U.S. Forest Service owned Lake Sullivan Dam and they are currently working with the Minnesota DNR to decide whether or not they should rebuild it. After the dam broke, the water level reduced by five or six feet. Leaving the reservoir pretty much a puddle with two or three feet of water.

For more information about Sullivan Lake you can read more here. Also for other stories about flooding this spring season you can read more here.