John Hult/South Dakota Searchlight
Authorities have released the name of the person killed in the only known fatality from the flooding that’s ravaged southeastern South Dakota over the past week.
Merlyn D. Rennich, 87, was killed Saturday afternoon after driving a 2013 Kawasaki Mule all-terrain vehicle north onto a closed section of 480th Avenue from 273rd Street, about 5 miles northeast of Harrisburg. The east shoulder of the road had washed away in the flooding. According to a news release from the state Department of Public Safety, Rennich went backward over the edge of the washout, the vehicle began to roll, and Rennich was ejected.
He was pronounced dead at the scene. The news release said the the information on the death is preliminary, and the Highway Patrol will continue to investigate the crash.
Lincoln County, where the incident occurred, was among those hardest-hit by the flooding, which saw record or near-record rainfall totals and flood stage cresting from the Big Sioux, James and Vermillion rivers, all of which feed into the Missouri River.
The flooding destroyed part of the McCook Lake community in Union County, where the rivers converge at the South Dakota-Iowa-Nebraska border. The planned diversion of waters to McCook Lake, Gov. Kristi Noem said during a Tuesday press conference, spared the towns of Dakota Dunes and North Sioux City from worse flooding.
Noem said the state planned to “send extra resources” to McCook Lake to prevent people from returning to their homes for their property without permission, because the area is too dangerous from washouts and steep drop-offs.
“We got through this whole situation with one loss of life that happened. We don’t want to lose any more,” Noem said. “We certainly don’t want to lose any people from going into a dangerous area that we knew was dangerous.”