Heavy rain in the Bemidji area on Friday night led to the flooding of the entire basement at City Hall.

City workers discovered the flooding Saturday morning and worked to clean out the basement and dry the area over the weekend. City Manager Nate Mathews says it was an amazing team effort to get everything removed from the basement.

Several departments were affected, including the Building Department and the Rental Inspection Department. Joint Planning Board staff and GIS staff were also affected by the flooding.

Mathews says they are still assessing the damage, but it appears to be extensive.

“The main reason we flooded in the City Hall was we have roof storm leaders that are connected into the storm water system directly, and the storm system in the street was overwhelmed, so it backed up into the basement of City Hall with the storm water,” explained Mathews. “We’re working really right now to dry out the basement with squeegees and blowers and dehumidifiers. We had, when all was said and done, a good four inches of water throughout the entire basement, so all of the basement was affected.”

Mathews says he’d like the public to know that during next week or so, it will be difficult for the departments affected to meet with the public.

By — Lakeland News