Families left stranded when heavy rains carved a deep chasm in a road at Camp du Nord near Ely, Minn., were able to leave Saturday after a St. Louis County crew worked throughout Friday to repair the damaged stretch.

“It divided our camp in half,” said Michel Tigan, vice president of adventure and camp operations for YMCA of the North. But he said campers worked together to repair flood damage.

It was just one of the many problems caused by intense and unrelenting rain across Minnesota on Saturday, as the already saturated southwestern region was again walloped with precipitation. The National Weather Service extended flood warnings across the southern and northeastern areas as well as parts of the metro.

Many waterways will remain under alert through the end of this week, and several rivers were not expected to crest for several days. The Mississippi River’s rise likely won’t ease until Friday, with a predicted crest of 20 feet at St. Paul; the Minnesota River is expected to crest Thursday at about 19 feet at Jordan. Just west of the Twin Cities, the South Fork Crow River is forecast to crest on Monday at Delano at about 19 feet.

The Cannon River is predicted to crest Sunday, matching its 2010 record levels at Northfield. On Friday night, the Dundas Dukes townball team summoned about 50 fans to the field to help with sandbagging and empty concession stands. Entire neighborhoods were submerged west of Waterville, situated between two lakes west of Faribault, where volunteers filled sandbags all weekend.

Sump pumps were running and patio furniture was secured for Edina residents along Minnehaha Creek, where for days the city’s Public Works Department has been delivering sandbags in hopes that water levels won’t approach the historic crest of 17.5 feet a decade ago.

Residents in southwestern Minnesota awoke to flooded yards and closed roads Saturday after heavy rains overnight. The Interstate 90 corridor received 2 to 2.5 inches of rain in the previous 24 hours, according to the weather service, and about 3.5 inches of rain fell northwest of Windom in that period.

Near the South Dakota border, Hwy. 14 east of Lake Benton was closed Saturday in both directions due to flooding. According to the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office, nearly every road in Verdi and Lake Benton townships was underwater in spots. The Blue Earth County Sheriff’s Office on Saturday implemented a no-wake order on several area lake.

Cottonwood County declared a temporary state of emergency on Friday, opening up eligibility for federal and state relief aid, said Paul Johnson, the county’s emergency management director. Preliminary estimates of damage to public infrastructure in the county started in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and could range up to more than a million, said Johnson, adding: “It could be very high water for the next week.”

Residents in the county seat of Windom, where heavy rains have caused the Des Moines River and Perkins Creek to overflow, said they awoke to water flowing into their yards and basements. Heavy rainfall began around 8:30 p.m. on Friday and then tapered off, but continued to fall until 4 a.m. Saturday, residents said.

“All of us are pretty wet,” said Warren Winkel on Saturday morning, adding that he had about 4 feet of water in the basement of his home near Perkins Creek.

Winkel, an 85-year-old retired construction manager, said he’s lived near Perkins Creek since the 1970s and is used to the creek flooding. He built a brick patio with a wall to block the water and seemed confident about his prospects Friday night. But on Saturday he couldn’t believe how fast the water had risen.

“This is by far the worst that I’ve seen,” he said.

Winkel’s neighbor, Yuliana Guerrero, said her family spotted water seeping into their home at 10 p.m. Friday. When the family woke up Saturday morning, they found 3 feet of water in their kitchen and their chairs afloat. The family only recently moved to their house by the creek, and this year’s flood is the first they’ve experienced there, she said.

“This is our second year,” Guerrero said Friday. “(Our) last year!” added her husband, Reyes.

Joe Fischenich, a lifelong Windom resident, said this year’s flooding has surprised him. The creek last year was almost dry, but this year it’s flowing fast and high. Outside his home, volunteers were unloading sandbags to protect his home and the rumble of sump pumps could be heard throughout the neighborhood.

“I’ve never seen it like this,” said Fischenich, who was up until 1 a.m. Saturday stacking sandbags at his home. “Just got to go with the flow.”

At Camp du Nord near Ely, the washed-out road ended up bringing the community of about 170 campers together, Tigan said. While children engaged in camp activities, many parents picked up shovels and rebuilt a culvert, rerouting a stream and moving rock that had washed up against a historic log building.

“I am just so deeply proud of our teams and so in awe of our generous community,” Tigan said.