Rapidan community unites behind Hruska family after loss of home, store 

I read in another article that the county purchased the building and it was emptied of appliances, tables, chairs and other items before being demolished.

🤣🦍

This family made the decision to give up their building so it did not become debris for someone down river. Class act, and I respect them.

I am in California and have never been to Minnesota, but have been following this story since the very beginning with great concern for the owners of the house and store. I am confident things will work out for them in the long run, but pray that they can hang in there until it does.

Heartbreaking, I hope the community will come out and support them in rebuilding when the time comes.

Very good journalism covering this tragedy FOX 9, I have been following this story since it broke.I am sad as well for the family but I feel God will replace them with a greater blessing.

As a Former Bridge Inspector, Quality Assurance & Inspection in 4 Statee. It's because the State did NOT FIX this Situation before it Happened & knew it Would!!! Unfortunately the Bridge did hold but Not sure that was Good Either!!! So Sad to See this happening repeatedly around Bridges & below Dams!!!

The home and general store/restaurant were leftovers from the dam's construction. More pieces of family and local history are lost.😢😭

So sad, fortunately it seems as if your community is very supportive. ❤❤

What?! Why would they demolish it instead of just seeing what happens?

Prayers for the family and the whole community

The home owner doesn't need insurance for this sort of thing. The owner of the dam is liable. It will be a PITA, but ultimately the property owners should prevail.

Please help this family.

Unite and rebuild house and store

Right on cue, all the self appointed "experts" in the comments section reminding the rest of us that social media was a mistake.

I sure hope the cimmunity rallies around to help them build a new store. Remember barn raisings?

God bless the Family who lost their everything. Put up the go fund on youtube! Ya all on here give em a couple of bucks. They be back

the county or state or army corp of engineers never kept the trash away from the dam and their negligence cost millions

Tell me they saved their iconic sign and the payphone..... Hopefully some other stuff to.... Maybe rename the place "Dam cliffhangers"

Whatever bad luck or misfortune befalls a community, if it's a choice instead of FATE then it's more bearable. Surviving life's choices is better than feelings of powerlessness and victimization. They had to do something. They made the right decision for them.

I guess moving it was out of the question

GO FUND ME .???? Let people chip in!

Why in the world would they tear the business down? If the river takes it, then it wins. This makes zero sense.

Dam should have been removed ages ago.

What an idiotic dam design. Debris had no way of getting through the wall cavities clogging up the river which caused unnecessary loss.

Creepy fox didn't even give a fund raising link.

The little tree between the store and the store is still there. Might not ever fall in. I guess they got a decent offer and hopefully they rebuild somewhere else.

If someone puts together a sight to help the family you all could rebuild some where safe….

Prayers for the family! I feel so bad for what all you have been through🙏🏼

It should fall to the state. They didn’t clear the debris from the damn which made the water reroute. Infrastructure failure.

Don't look at the federal government for financial aid 😂.... Ukraine needs it 👍

just corruption not removing the trees and logs from the dam spillways

praying for you

Dam

Because that dam failed? The state failed the family. Whatever it costs to rebuild that dam or that area? They also should rebuild that family’s house and replace there business.

Omg we’re still talking about this? Stop the over sensationalism. Get over it . Move on . How many other families have lost homes to weather like tornadoes, hurricanes, wildfires, etc.

What about the graves that washed into the river? How will the bodies/coffins be retrieved?!?

I wonder if a new dam could have a cemented crane attached for log removal? 🤔🤷🏻‍♀️🙏🏻

I’m just overwhelmed by the devastation. The loss to Mother Nature is a bitter pill to swallow.

Will they rebuild, new campsites? New home? How are they (we) doing fund raiser?

The dam is of no use anymore, and should be removed before they get more flooding rain. That will allow a straight path for the water, and minimize further erosion near the bridge embankments.

So which gov "official" didn't open the gates?

I hope the county, state, surrounding property owners and the family are able to come to an agreement to rebuild a replacement home and store in a safer location around the Rapidan Dam site. I would go manufactured for the store and bring in a mobile home to be temporary while building a replacement home. If the dam fails and ends up in the river or it’s removed or replaced I would have engineers reclaim some of the lost land and if the dam is repaired a overflow tunnel is needed at the site. I also hope the state places a historic marker explaining the event and the buildings lost during this flooding event.

If I was that family I would sue the city for not building a dam not capable of handling that much water. If it was for the dam the direction of the water wouldn’t have gone that way

Give me a break, if the water doesn't erode any more of the bank, then what? It was all for nothing.

Any new blakktivities to report on in the metro?

I am not experienced with such things so forgive my ignorance, but i do not understand demolishing the place just incase the ever calming river might try to take it. Maybe i am missing something, but it doesnt make sense to me. I was sad to see it go. I knew nothing of the place as of last week, but have found myself rooting for it and the people who owned it. I wish yall blessings in the recovery. I have never met anyone from up that way that wasnt good people, i hate to see yall having a rough time. Hope it gets better.

big effin deal. dam thing shoulda never been there anyway

Ohhhh wahhhh they're going to get paid ! they'll build it bigger and better. they're not out a damn thing. the only this news coverage does is promote donations that they'll get in spades !

A new era for those in the community.

Get the debre away from the river, you don't need that stuff to go in the river, there was no reason to tear it down if it might still end up in the river.

They saved the store from the river by destroying it first.

Land is GONE

The board of commissioners knew that dam was bad and did nothing about it. You all should be helping that family they not only lost their home but also their business

Digs a ditch on the opposite side of the river? ?

💔💔💔💔💔💔💔

Wouldn’t a home owner and business owner have insurance? Wow I am a cancer patient my husband broke his neck in a car accident the bank refused to give us 2 or 3 months to get claims and disability insurance going. No they foreclose on us. We struggled and saved bought another house and forced to move 800 miles north to a family doctor that would not be prejudiced against a cancer survivor needing strong pain control after an oncologist who assured me radiation to the head was perfectly safe. I lost all my teeth never eat solid food again, am legally blind and nerve damage deep inside the skull unfixable had brain surgery was lucky to survive it. NO ONE helped us absolutely NO ONE! I have lost my faith that humans care fir one another. My son got $30,000. and never paid me back and a ragdoll breeder in Canada took 13 purebreds from us when we were losing our house and never paid us as agreed. I have put their lying thievery coveretessness at God’s feet! We desperately need shingles but absolutely no one on this earth is going to give a crap about us! Cancer patient and veteran with broken neck. Jesus said live thy neighbor….haven’t seen any of that in our lives!!

🎉😢😮papasava

The home and pie shop were once part of the original buildings BEFORE the dam was built. They were auctioned off and moved above the dam flooded area.

hail goddess frigg so powerful gods n community help themPLZ

Dumbest idea ever.

I hope this family gets the help they need to rebuild. I lost my cabin and slate quarry in one of the big PG&E fires in California. At first, the news cameras showed up, and so did the politicians playing for the cameras. They made many promises to help us all be "made whole again." Then the news cameras disappeared. So did the politicians and their promises. The politicians didn't do a damn thing to help any of us. I hope it's different for these people.

Very sad and tragic. I thought that America was that magical place where heritage is always saved be it by divine hand or by the community coming together. This shows that mother earth is more powerful than all. I wish this family and community all the luck to rebuild and have good times and rebuild a history to last. Sending all these wishes from across the seven seas🙇‍♂️🙇‍♀️🙏

The dam store

Never been there, but for some reason I cried watching this video. Much love to y'all.

So, is that a silent H? Or HR? I always pronounced it Herr-ruska. Czech community; help plz

They decided to demolish it, and willfully did so. Most insurance policies would deny any claim in such a situation. I hope they thought that through.

Gabions, people, gabions, might have saved a lot of that river bank.

Damnit.

They demolished the store to keep debris out of the river, and left debris all over. Lowest bidder or what?

Well they better start thinking about taking that dam out otherwise that water is going to cut a bigger path and go a different direction than they're prepared for. What the land under that store was not stable at all. And it's going to get worse if they don't remove that dam right away before they don't have a chance too.

5 hrs from where i live and if theres a vacant building with there last name on it iy should be the new dam store,it should be the new god of course xd out dam store witj the n xd out too,even a bit up the path from the other place,it should happen really that town has to have a little to throw at a place for the damn place

Too bad for them and the community. Sorry.

Anyway, its good for everyone to have another place like it was set up.

Glad to see they're getting plenty of thoughts and prayers...

That river gonna go where it wants. So for the lose God Bless.

Lucky family. Literally everyone else in America who is forced to sleep outside is now a criminal, thanks to the Supreme Court Ruling on homelessness. But hey, thank God this One Family won't face any of that.

🙌 Someone should set up a go fund me 💯 !!

🙏🙏😢

🙏💔🙏

They should have removed the debris surrounding the dam and not have erode that far out.

They can Always rise up

The city is to blame. They could have gotten a piece of machinery to pick out the logs that were backing it up.

Where did the dam store go

No more pies,

so sad.

Why demolished the building?...the dam wasn't taking care of so look like the state must paid

God bless this family,I haven't heard yet what was the root cause of the breach.

why didnt the county or state remove the trees before it got to the point home was lost state county wake up or the governor get national guard there, Do not understand the concept wait till its to late poor management from county state and governor.

Those buildings were where the holding pond for the dam was until about a century ago.

So if one family member dies in a car accident and another gets injured, does the survivor get shot dead?

Ridiculously foolish to demolish the store. Stay tuned to find out if the river would have took it.

The government screwed up and they should take care of all the logs that fell down in the pass that was down the river and they just added up and dam did not like it.

UPDATE: I DONT think that their insurance company will pay for a perfectly good building that they DECIDED to demolish. If if had been damaged/came down via a flood, thats another story. I wd NOT have torn down the building. The ins co may pay for their house, but i severely doubt it will pay for the store building. not a good decision.

Wonder if that was the correct decision. Pretty sure it's gonna affect any insurance claims, let nature take it.

Unity in motion in Divine compassion towards one another in divine Love

Not sure why they tore down the store, yes they lost a house, but the store was going to be ok as the rapid river flow slowed a lot

Poor dam design and maimtanance

And you don't maintain your dams / bridges / roads and all other infrastructure. They just keep pushing it down the road where the money goes no one knows . Fyi more storms and flooding coming to all. Should be a wakeup call check all drainage and due what you can see something say something be cautious of elderly neighbors that might need help. We all praying for all that way

It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature