MINOT, ND - A large, middle of the night thunderstorm hit hard here in the early morning hours of June 29th. Locally, some rain gauges toped off at 3 plus inches. As the low pressure area moved across the region, the storm rotated back into the area.

Minot Rural Firefighters were alerted to the flash flood while on scene of a room fire at Pat's Motel in southwest Minot. A report came into Minot Central Dispatch that some flooding in the Meadowbrook area had dislodged a 500 gallon LPG tank, and that it was now "hissing." Engine 214 responded to the area and found a house that was completely surrounded with water. The long driveway had 4 to 6 inches of water running over it. Once forging the driveway on foot, 214's crew found a 500 gallon LPG tank had been disconnected from the house line, and was spewing it's contents into the atmosphere. The hissing could be heard 500 ft away, and the propane was saturating the area in the rear of the house.

The main breaker was thrown in the house, and by the time the residents were ready to evacuate, the water had rose another 3 to 4 inches. The residents were evacuated through the water using a saftey rope and firefighters walking behind the residents. The line was anchored to Tanker 218, then to the house, utilizing the wall between an open door and the open garage door. Minot City Rescue 1 responded with their "Gumby Suits" and entered the water behind the house, which was waist deep with a serious current flowing through it. The tank was shut off, and Minot Rural firefighters went to survey the damage in Meadowbrook Estates as well as Eastside Estates. Chief Rex Weltikol found that the water was flowing from one neighborhood to another. Firefighters were called back to the area to help evacuate and shut off LPG tanks, and natural gas lines in the area. A crew of firefighters stayed in the area until 1600, and crews were randomly sent out to evaluate the water situation. By 2200 hrs, the water had gone down enough that the normally dry stream beds could handle the runoff.