St Paul, Minnesota

St Paul is the "Twin" to Minneapolis. Both cities lie along the Mississippi river as it winds its way to New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico. From the main International airport, the Mississippi runs fairly straight into the downtown area of St Paul. It is in downtown St Paul that the river makes a sharp turn towards the south. This lower area can then flood as the high water tries to take a straight course, directly over the St Paul airport, Holman Field, and the surrounding industrial and park land.

The National Guard has facilities at Holman Field and sandbagging has a priority once all the planes and helicopters are evacuated to higher ground. Since the military helps the civilians in sandbagging operations quite frequently in Minnesota, it is not unusual then that the civilians help sandbagging to protect the military facilities. This year the airport was completely covered with water and only a small portion of one runway was left protruding out of the water.

Edited  Sunday, 22 August 2010