'Finally': Last home destroyed in 2019 floods removed from Dell Rapids

City, neighbors win judgement to demolish nuisance property ridden with foxes, raccoons, muskrats & rats, according to court filings

DELL RAPIDS — Rick Williams and Judy Peters don’t have to look at a dilapidated home abandoned after historic flooding along the Big Sioux River five years ago anymore — or the critters that had taken the place over.

“It’s finally going away,” Peters told The Dakota Scout, referring to a house next door to her southern Dell Rapids home that was demolished Wednesday morning at the order of the city.

But razing the structure at 105 N. Orleans Avenue — among more than a dozen residences in the neighborhood ravaged by flooding in September 2019— came after a years-long battle between City Hall, the property owner, and neighbors who quickly grew tired of looking at a tarped doorway, broken windows, and a revolving cast of foxes, raccoons, muskrats, and rats that had replaced human residents following the flood event.

Abandoned baby laid to rest, accompanied by police escort