Flooding on the Minnesota-Ontario border is a disaster of historic proportions — a fact perhaps not fully appreciated due to its distance from the Twin Cities and other metro areas.
So historic that water levels topping those of the record 1950 flood have been measured at Rainy Lake and Crane Lake, among other lakes and rivers in the watershed.
Encompassing nearly 5 million acres, much of it low and water-filled even when not flooded, the watershed is distinctive because every ounce of excessive water within it, east of International Falls, must drain through the comparatively narrow Rainy River.
