FARIBAULT, Minn. — Another inch and a half of rain fell Thursday night, including in the area around Faribault.

It's just another city that's so water logged, the dam next to the popular Faribault Mill is now damaged.

The city says part of it was eroded by the flood waters and it's now working to stabilize the problem.

"I've never seen my buddy's shop underwater like that," said resident Jim Thompson, who was fishing the Cannon River that runs through the dam. "It’s moving pretty fast and it’s swirling; it's got a lot of strength to it."

Governor Tim Walz says about half the counties across the state are now impacted by this season's relentless rain, pushing rivers to record levels.

"It couldn't hold all the water and this dam has been here forever," said Thompson. "It's definitely way beyond its capacity."

Federal data shows the dam is 159 years old and one of 13 within Rice County. It was last inspected a year ago, and while the Army Corps of Engineers reports it's in satisfactory condition, if it fails fully, it classified the potential hazard as significant. 

That's the same classification as the Rapidan Dam about an hour away, that made national headlines when it recently partially failed. The failure prompted the Department of Public Safety to announce the water levels are now threatening a nearby bridge. 

"To get a full damage assessment of those areas, we need those flood waters to go down to be able to do that," said Department of Public Safety Commissioner Bob Jacobson. "This disaster is not over."

The rivers are slowly receding, but a recent climate assessment study found up to 15% more precipitation fell across the Midwest in the last decade compared to the previous one - putting even more strain on some dams.

There are nearly 92,000 of them across the country with an average age of 63. 

Another dam in Faribault called King's Mill is three time that old and that data shows it's in fair condition with a high potential for hazard if it fails. 

As for the Woolen Mill Dam, Faribault city officials say they notified the state. Although, they don't expect any risk to the public, but are continuing to monitor the area. 

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ST PAUL, Minn. — The last time this much rain forced the widespread cancellation of fireworks was nearly 30 years ago.

But the 4th of July actually has a long history of extreme weather, and some of these events may have shaped your holiday experiences, including the Boundary Waters blowdown in 1999.

"The storm was epical," said author Cary J. Griffith, who wrote a new book this year about the event called a derecho.

The winds toppled 48 million trees in the Boundary Waters with the power of a category four hurricane. There are reports of six foot waves and nearly a half a million acres destroyed. The falling trees also hurt dozens of campers. 

"It maybe happens once every 500 years," said Griffith. "I'm not sure a blowdown of that intensity ever happened in the Boundary Waters."

The 4th of July storm hit on a Sunday, marking a time of year experts say has more hazardous weather than any other major holiday in Minnesota. 

From the extreme heat wave in 2012 when the temperature reached 101 to the washout in 1995 that canceled fireworks across the state that state climatologist Pete Boulay likens to this year's relentless rain.

"When you see the food trucks leave early, that's what I would define as a washout," Boulay said laughing. 

The last three months are now the fourth wettest on record. The swollen rivers, and the people who live around them, are used to them cresting in April when the snow melts — not so much in the summer.

"It doesn't really flood that often on the rivers in June and into July here, and it impacts different things like 4th of July," said Boulay.

There is one weather story that hasn't been told. The State Climatology Office has never confirmed a single instance of snow falling on July 4th in the Twin Cities — and here's to hoping it stays that way. 

"What struck me the most of all that was there were no fatalities," said Griffith about the blowdown back in 1999.

People are lucky to be alive and a landscape will never look the same, but it no doubt is an unforgettable holiday memory. 

"There's still remnants of the blowdown in the forest, there's still fuel there, but it's really grown up," said Griffith. "It's really green, but it looks like a younger forest."

That historic storm laid down timber that would later catch fire in the Ham Lake fire of 2007 that Griffith also wrote about. You can click here to find his latest releases. 

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