As major flooding rampages through southern Minnesota and the Upper Midwest, one dam is facing potential failure and collapse.

The Rapidan Dam was built in the early 1900s near Mankato, Minnesota, and its failure could threaten homes and local businesses. The dam is capable of generating 6 million watts of hydroelectric power and is owned by Blue Earth County. 

“The Dam is in imminent failure condition. We do not know if it will totally fail or if it will remain in place,” the Blue Earth County government posted on Monday.

A 2021 report revealed the dam was damaged by previous flooding as well as the “toll of time.” The report suggested “two feasible solutions for the dam’s state of disrepair: repair or remove the dam.”

“Our agencies are in close contact with Blue Earth County and other local officials regarding the Rapidan Dam near Mankato,” Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) said in a statement on X Monday. “Emergency management is on the ground and acting quickly to ensure the safety of Minnesotans as the situation develops.”

The dam is also threatening one area resident, Jenny Barnes, and her nearby business The Dam Store. 

“It’ll happen. We don’t know when but it’s going to be inevitable that the house is going to go,” Barnes told KARE. The store opened in 1910 and was taken over by the Barnes family in 1972.

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“That’s our life, as well. That’s our business, that’s our livelihood. It’s everything to us,” Barnes said. “There’s no stopping it. It’s going to go where it wants to go. It’s going to take what it wants to take. And everybody pray that it doesn’t take The Dam Store.”

At least two people have died due to extreme flooding in the Upper Midwest this week with one fatality in Iowa and the other in South Dakota.