MINNEAPOLIS — With 240 guests expected, Luke Fischer and Rachel Smith weren’t about to let widespread flooding in southern Minnesota get in the way of their wedding Saturday.
The 24-year-olds, who live in the Minneapolis suburb of St. Louis Park, went to her hometown of Waseca to get married at the Church of the Sacred Heart. Their reception was about 10 miles away at the Owatonna Country Club, in a city where 70 homes were evacuated. “We’re pretty happy we don’t have to take a duck boat to the reception,” Fischer said a few hours before the nuptials.
With the Owatonna area drying out, state officials said the focus Saturday included Zumbro Falls and Hammond in southeastern Minnesota, and St. Clair and Madelia in south-central Minnesota. Across the border, concern shifted to the rising Wisconsin River in central Wisconsin.
The governors of both states declared states of emergency. The Associated Press; photo: Marlin Levison, Star Tribune
