Heavy rainfall in southern Minnesota has caused major flooding and is having a big impact on the people who live there.

Many of the residents in the small city of Comfrey had to leave their homes due to the amount of standing water in the area. 

City officials report a total of 11.3 inches of water over the week, with the most rainfall occurring Saturday night, an estimate of about 5.5 inches of water.

Mayor Gary Richter said emergency crews and volunteers worked long hours to mitigate flood waters from seeping into homes. 

“The biggest thing is to keep the lift station going to pump the water out of town, so the first thing we sandbagged was the lift station, so it didn’t get flooded; that kept things even,” Richter said.

Sandbags were also placed around an apartment, where many tenants, including Cyrilla Wall, were evacuated. 

“Very wet and squishy, and I had to throw a lot of stuff away that was sitting on the floor,” said Wall. 

Wall said carpets remain muddy and soaked, and she plans to stay with her daughter for a couple more nights. 

Mitigation efforts didn’t do much for Hillary Baarson and her family, who live just a block away from Wall.  Baarson said the water forced its way into her basement, submerging everything in water. The family is using a pump to draw gallons of water out from the basement. 

“I didn’t know what to think; I felt helpless. There was nothing I could do for how it was coming in and how fast it was coming in,” said Baarson. “Once all the water is pumped out, then we get to get a dumpster and throw everything away in the basement.”

Mayor Richter is calling for help from the state and federal levels to get major updates on mitigation efforts to prevent any more damages.