Torrential rainfall throughout north central North Dakota added up to around 6 inches for some areas of the Turtle Mountains.

It also led to the closure of one of the area's busiest roadways.

North Dakota Highway 5, which runs between Bottineau and Dunseith,

was shut down for several hours when water began flowing over the road near the border of Bottineau and Rolette Counties.

The closure re-routed travelers North to Highway 43 near the International Peace Garden.

Traffic resumed on Highway 5 early this morning, but it's closure still came as a shock to many drivers.

(Wanda Gravseth, Bottineau Resident) "They told us that we couldn't go through that way, we'd have to go back through Dunseith and up through the Peace Garden and come down because the road was underwater. And I asked the Highway Patrol how much rain they'd gotten here, because I noticed the ditches were plump-full of water, and he said it looked like about 4 inches in less than an hour."


Heavy rain also led to wash outs along several county roads and some rural residents reported periods of pea-size hail.

They say what's even more amazing, is that it all happened within a matter of 2 hours.

(Chassidy Hill, Rural Bottineau Resident) "It was kinda neat. You could see it coming down in sheets just moving across the gravel, it was kinda neat. I was a little worried about my garden, you can ask the kids, I was pacing in the house."


Although the road closures occurred just 10 miles east of Bottineau, the city itself did not experience a single drop of rain. watch the video | save this article / add to your favorites list