The river watcher points to the Straight River that has flooded Teepee Tonka Park and tells me how much the water has already gone down. The park often floods in the spring.
DAILY HE’S TREKKED across town from his north-side home to the downtown area and then crossed the bridge to check on the river.
I met him early Wednesday evening near the banks of the Straight River at Faribault’s east-side Teepee Tonka Park.
We didn’t waste time on chit chat, didn’t even introduce ourselves. We simply talked about the river and flooding and how he’s driven here daily recently to watch the river rise.
We look from the bridge toward flooded Teepee Tonka Park, where waters have already begun to recede.
He has reason for concern. During last September’s flash flood in Faribault, sewage backed up into his home from the sanitary sewer causing $15,000 in damages. He doesn’t live on a river. The Rice County Fairgrounds on one side, buildings and land on the other across a roadway, sit between his home and the Cannon River. His 20th Street Northwest home is buffered from the rivers, the Cannon nearest his home and the Straight that joins it nearby, flowing north past Teepee Tonka where he’s kept a watchful vigil.
He was optimistic, though, on Wednesday evening, telling me the Straight River had crested that afternoon and gone down. He wasn’t worried. The water was no where near the level during last fall’s flash flood. I could see that and so could he.
We turned away from the park bridge, toward the viaduct, to check the river level.
The Straight River has stayed mostly inside its banks near the historic viaduct.
And so I left this river watcher, braving the slippery, iced sidewalk to step onto the park bridge and peer into the raging waters of the Straight River.
The river watcher turns and walks back to his post on the bridge.
I leave the river watcher peering over the bridge at the churning Straight River.
CHECK BACK for more river images from Faribault.
© Copyright 2011 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Minnesota Prairie Roots 
What a thing to have to watch and pay attention to. Bless his heart.
I never know who I’ll meet when I’m out and about and I thought his story was one worthy of sharing. To me it really shows the personal side of the larger story.