People, animals flee floods in NE Minnesota city

DULUTH, Minn. – Floods fed by a steady torrential downpour have forced residents to evacuate their homes and animals to flee their pens at a zoo in a northeast Minnesota city.

Police spokesman Jim Hansen says officers helped staff at the Lake Superior Zoo in Duluth to catch escaped animals, including a polar bear, after up to 8 inches of rain fell on the area late Tuesday.

Zoo officials said Wednesday that some barnyard animals died, but that none left the zoo grounds.

Elsewhere in Duluth, Interstate 35 and downtown tunnels are closed and authorities say conditions are too dangerous for driving due to sinkholes and washouts.

Hansen says about a dozen homes in Fond du Lac have been evacuated.