North Dakota has been declared a federal disaster area by US President Barack Obama because of record spring flooding across the mid-Western state.
Floodwaters from the Red River, which is expected to peak later this week, have closed roads and bridges.
National guardsmen and volunteers are reinforcing flood defences.
The rising waters are also affecting the neighbouring state of Minnesota which, like North Dakota, borders the Red River on its route towards Canada.
In the city of Fargo, North Dakota thousands of volunteers turned out to build sandbag barriers to strengthen flood defences.
Floods 12 years ago caused $2bn in damage across the region
"I live in an apartment, and it doesn't look like it's going to flood over there so I figured, I have the time, the energy, why not come out and help some folks," said one resident, Noah Addy.
Weather experts say the extreme flatness of the Red River Valley means the overflowing water tends to go wide, move slowly and take weeks to recede because the soil is increasingly saturated.
"You will have an extremely wide river," Pat Slattery of the National Weather Service told the AFP news agency.
A waterway that now measures 100 yards wide "might turn into between a mile and a mile-and-a-half", the forecaster added.
The region last suffered a devastating flood in 1997, which left more than $2bn in damage and tens of thousands of people displaced after 570,000 hectares of land were swamped.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7963490.stm
Crossing fingers for the wonderful volunteers that are busy trying to save their cities/homes/etc by filling and placing those sand bags.
Flooding in North Dakota
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Re: Flooding in North Dakota
River levels reached in 1997 could be reached again....41.1 ft was the '97 peak, officials are concerned that 41' is possible.
To give some perspective, the $2 billion in damage in '97 is in line with some well-known hurricane strikes around that time....Georges in 1998 caused 1.115 billion in damage (in '98 dollars) and Opal caused 3 billion in damage in 1995.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/weather/03/2 ... .flooding/
To give some perspective, the $2 billion in damage in '97 is in line with some well-known hurricane strikes around that time....Georges in 1998 caused 1.115 billion in damage (in '98 dollars) and Opal caused 3 billion in damage in 1995.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/weather/03/2 ... .flooding/
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SaskatchewanScreamer
Yep RL3A0 I thought about southern Manitoba too after I submitted the above. Right now its mainly Fargo that's being reported on, in both the Canadian and BBC news, but there is certainly a huge swath of land inside of both States and 1 Canadian province that's going to be effected. Normally I try to include all areas when I post since I'm in a province that is often jumped over when national weather broadcasts are being made and I know how maddening that is. We can be at a sweltering high/bone chilling low and nothing is said about that until it hits a major centre like Winnipeg but most often Toronto.
Maybe a mod can change the title of this thread to Flooding on the Northern Midwest U.S./CDN Plains?
Maybe a mod can change the title of this thread to Flooding on the Northern Midwest U.S./CDN Plains?
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Re:
RL3AO wrote:What about Northwest Minnesota? The river is along the border. Its not just a ND issue.
I wasn't referring to you, I was referring to Obama only including North Dakota.
Maybe theres a reason.
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SaskatchewanScreamer
...... now I understand. -
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Re: Flooding in North Dakota
It was surreal watching the video of the people creating the sandbags while it was snowing out and the dynamite exploding to break up the ice. 
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vbhoutex
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Re: Flooding in North Dakota
Lots of prayers need to be headed that way for those being affected by the probable record flooding and heavy snow/possible blizzard conditions(at least that is what we heard on the news here earlier).
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SaskatchewanScreamer
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SaskatchewanScreamer
People outside Winnipeg's protective dike in Manitoba are moving at full speed too (and some communities there have already been evacuated).
New estimate raises ND flood higher than sandbags
By NATE JENKINS and DAVE KOLPACK, Associated Press Writers Nate Jenkins And Dave Kolpack, Associated Press Writers Thu Mar 26, 7:46 pm ET
FARGO, N.D. – Bad news turned dire Thursday for residents scrambling in subfreezing temperatures to pile sandbags along the Red River: After they spent the day preparing for a record crest of 41 feet, forecasters added up to 2 feet to their estimate.
The first estimate sparked urgency among thousands of volunteers in Fargo, but the second sparked doubts about whether a 43-foot-high wall of water could be stopped. Across the river in Moorhead, Minn., City Manager Michael Redlinger said portions of his city's dike could not be easily raised to withstand a 42-foot crest.
"Now everything's up in the air," he said.
The old estimate was 41 feet by Saturday afternoon, and thousands of volunteers had labored throughout the day to raise the dikes around North Dakota's largest city to 43 feet. City and emergency officials had said they were confident the city would make it, but will now have to build higher.
The National Weather Service said in guidance issued late Thursday afternoon that the Red was expected to crest between 41 and 42 feet, but could reach 43 feet. It said water levels could remain high for up to a week — a lengthy test of on-the-fly flood control.
"Record flows upstream of Fargo have produced unprecedented conditions" on the river, which "is expected to behave in ways never previously observed," the weather service said.
Tim Corwin, 55, whose south Fargo home was sheltered by sandbags to 43 feet, said he wasn't giving up but was pessimistic after hearing the new potential crest.
"I've lived here 40 years and over a 30-minute span I've reached a point where I'm preparing to evacuate and expect never to sleep in my house again," he said.
Even before Thursday's revised estimate, official briefings in Fargo had lost the jokes and quips that had broken the tension earlier in the week. Instead, Thursday's meeting opened with a prayer.
"We need all the help we can get," Mayor Dennis Walaker said.
The city of 92,000 unveiled a contingency evacuation plan Thursday afternoon, but at least four nursing homes already had begun moving residents by then.
"A few of them said they didn't want to go. I said I'm going where the crowd goes," said 98-year-old Margaret "Dolly" Beaucage, who clasped rosary beads as she waited to leave Elim Care Center.
"I'm a swimmer," she said, smiling, "but not that good a swimmer."
Officials in Moorhead earlier had called for voluntary evacuations for several hundred homes on the city's south side.
The sandbag-making operation at the Fargodome churned as furiously as ever, sending fresh bags out to an estimated 6,000 volunteers who endured temperatures below 20 degrees in the race to sandbag.
"I was skeptical as far as volunteers coming out today, but they're like mailmen," said Leon Schlafmann, Fargo's emergency management director. "They come out rain, sleet or shine."
Gov. John Hoeven, heading into a planning meeting in Fargo, urged residents not to let down. "We know they're tired, but we need to hang in there and continue the work," he said.
Hoeven was calling for 500 more National Guard members to join 900 already part of the effort.
Walaker, the mayor, said he was shocked by the new forecast.
"Is this a wakeup call? People can't take many more wakeup calls," he said. But Walaker also said the forecast didn't seem to match what he had seen in the Red's tributaries earlier in the day.
"This is the worst-case scenario," he said. "Right now, I'm going to stick with 41," he said.
As in Fargo, sandbagging was under way in Moorhead, a city of about 35,000 where some homes in a low-lying northern township had already flooded. The city was setting up a shelter at its high school for displaced residents and those who heeded the call for voluntary evacuation.
Moorhead Mayor Mark Voxland told WDAY-TV that the city would just have to raise its protection another foot.
"The problem is we don't have that much time. Every day is a day closer to crest and now we're looking at 36 hours to cresting — we don't know if we have time to add another foot to all of our dikes."
As the struggle continued in Fargo, the threat in the state capital of Bismarck was receding. A day after explosives were used to attack an ice jam on the Missouri River south of the city of 59,000, the river had fallen by 2 1/2 feet. At least 1,700 people had been evacuated from low-lying areas of town before the river began to fall.
Crews were rescuing stranded residents in rural areas south of Fargo. On Wednesday, 46 people were rescued by airboat from 15 homes, and Cass County Sheriff Paul D. Laney said early Thursday that he had received 11 more evacuation requests from homeowners.
In Fargo, the southern parts of the city, mostly residential areas, were seen as most vulnerable, and the city was building contingency dikes behind the main dike in some areas. The river was a bit over 39 feet Thursday evening. The Red hit 39.57 feet in 1997, and the record is 40.1 feet in 1897.
Dick Bailly, 64, choked up as he looked out over his backyard dike at the river.
"It was demoralizing this morning," Bailly said, his eyes welling. "We got a lot of work to do. People have the will to respond, but you can only fight nature so much, and sometimes nature wins."
On a sandbag line behind another house near the river, 65-year-old Will Wright, a veteran of Fargo floods, helped stack bags as water began to seep through his homemade dike. Like others, he said he was confident the dike would hold — for a while.
"The big concern I have is the river crest staying three to five days and it testing the integrity of these sandbags," Wright said.
In Moorhead, both entrances to the Crystal Creek development were flooded, leaving Deb and Scott Greelis thinking about how they and their kids — ages 6, 2 and 6 months — could get out if things get much worse.
"We are pretty much stuck in here," Deb Greelis said. But she said they could haul the kids in a sled to a nearby highway on higher ground if they need to evacuate.
On the Canadian side of the Red River, in Manitoba, ice-clogged culverts, ice jams and the rising river also threatened residents. At least 40 homes were evacuated in communities north of Winnipeg and several dozen houses were flooded as water spilled onto the flat landscape.
"We're in for probably the worst two weeks that this community has ever seen in its entire existence," said St. Clements Mayor Steve Strang.
The region's emergency services coordinator, Paul Guyader, said water levels in the area were dropping but residents are not letting their guard down: The Red River crest threatening North Dakota isn't expected to arrive in Manitoba for another week.
Fargo's rush to sandbag eliminated a complication caused by the subfreezing weather. Sandbags had gotten frozen earlier in the week, making them difficult to stack tightly together; people were seen slamming bags to the ground to break them up.
Now the sandbags are moving too fast to freeze.
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=lo ... .php?tab=1
New estimate raises ND flood higher than sandbags
By NATE JENKINS and DAVE KOLPACK, Associated Press Writers Nate Jenkins And Dave Kolpack, Associated Press Writers Thu Mar 26, 7:46 pm ET
FARGO, N.D. – Bad news turned dire Thursday for residents scrambling in subfreezing temperatures to pile sandbags along the Red River: After they spent the day preparing for a record crest of 41 feet, forecasters added up to 2 feet to their estimate.
The first estimate sparked urgency among thousands of volunteers in Fargo, but the second sparked doubts about whether a 43-foot-high wall of water could be stopped. Across the river in Moorhead, Minn., City Manager Michael Redlinger said portions of his city's dike could not be easily raised to withstand a 42-foot crest.
"Now everything's up in the air," he said.
The old estimate was 41 feet by Saturday afternoon, and thousands of volunteers had labored throughout the day to raise the dikes around North Dakota's largest city to 43 feet. City and emergency officials had said they were confident the city would make it, but will now have to build higher.
The National Weather Service said in guidance issued late Thursday afternoon that the Red was expected to crest between 41 and 42 feet, but could reach 43 feet. It said water levels could remain high for up to a week — a lengthy test of on-the-fly flood control.
"Record flows upstream of Fargo have produced unprecedented conditions" on the river, which "is expected to behave in ways never previously observed," the weather service said.
Tim Corwin, 55, whose south Fargo home was sheltered by sandbags to 43 feet, said he wasn't giving up but was pessimistic after hearing the new potential crest.
"I've lived here 40 years and over a 30-minute span I've reached a point where I'm preparing to evacuate and expect never to sleep in my house again," he said.
Even before Thursday's revised estimate, official briefings in Fargo had lost the jokes and quips that had broken the tension earlier in the week. Instead, Thursday's meeting opened with a prayer.
"We need all the help we can get," Mayor Dennis Walaker said.
The city of 92,000 unveiled a contingency evacuation plan Thursday afternoon, but at least four nursing homes already had begun moving residents by then.
"A few of them said they didn't want to go. I said I'm going where the crowd goes," said 98-year-old Margaret "Dolly" Beaucage, who clasped rosary beads as she waited to leave Elim Care Center.
"I'm a swimmer," she said, smiling, "but not that good a swimmer."
Officials in Moorhead earlier had called for voluntary evacuations for several hundred homes on the city's south side.
The sandbag-making operation at the Fargodome churned as furiously as ever, sending fresh bags out to an estimated 6,000 volunteers who endured temperatures below 20 degrees in the race to sandbag.
"I was skeptical as far as volunteers coming out today, but they're like mailmen," said Leon Schlafmann, Fargo's emergency management director. "They come out rain, sleet or shine."
Gov. John Hoeven, heading into a planning meeting in Fargo, urged residents not to let down. "We know they're tired, but we need to hang in there and continue the work," he said.
Hoeven was calling for 500 more National Guard members to join 900 already part of the effort.
Walaker, the mayor, said he was shocked by the new forecast.
"Is this a wakeup call? People can't take many more wakeup calls," he said. But Walaker also said the forecast didn't seem to match what he had seen in the Red's tributaries earlier in the day.
"This is the worst-case scenario," he said. "Right now, I'm going to stick with 41," he said.
As in Fargo, sandbagging was under way in Moorhead, a city of about 35,000 where some homes in a low-lying northern township had already flooded. The city was setting up a shelter at its high school for displaced residents and those who heeded the call for voluntary evacuation.
Moorhead Mayor Mark Voxland told WDAY-TV that the city would just have to raise its protection another foot.
"The problem is we don't have that much time. Every day is a day closer to crest and now we're looking at 36 hours to cresting — we don't know if we have time to add another foot to all of our dikes."
As the struggle continued in Fargo, the threat in the state capital of Bismarck was receding. A day after explosives were used to attack an ice jam on the Missouri River south of the city of 59,000, the river had fallen by 2 1/2 feet. At least 1,700 people had been evacuated from low-lying areas of town before the river began to fall.
Crews were rescuing stranded residents in rural areas south of Fargo. On Wednesday, 46 people were rescued by airboat from 15 homes, and Cass County Sheriff Paul D. Laney said early Thursday that he had received 11 more evacuation requests from homeowners.
In Fargo, the southern parts of the city, mostly residential areas, were seen as most vulnerable, and the city was building contingency dikes behind the main dike in some areas. The river was a bit over 39 feet Thursday evening. The Red hit 39.57 feet in 1997, and the record is 40.1 feet in 1897.
Dick Bailly, 64, choked up as he looked out over his backyard dike at the river.
"It was demoralizing this morning," Bailly said, his eyes welling. "We got a lot of work to do. People have the will to respond, but you can only fight nature so much, and sometimes nature wins."
On a sandbag line behind another house near the river, 65-year-old Will Wright, a veteran of Fargo floods, helped stack bags as water began to seep through his homemade dike. Like others, he said he was confident the dike would hold — for a while.
"The big concern I have is the river crest staying three to five days and it testing the integrity of these sandbags," Wright said.
In Moorhead, both entrances to the Crystal Creek development were flooded, leaving Deb and Scott Greelis thinking about how they and their kids — ages 6, 2 and 6 months — could get out if things get much worse.
"We are pretty much stuck in here," Deb Greelis said. But she said they could haul the kids in a sled to a nearby highway on higher ground if they need to evacuate.
On the Canadian side of the Red River, in Manitoba, ice-clogged culverts, ice jams and the rising river also threatened residents. At least 40 homes were evacuated in communities north of Winnipeg and several dozen houses were flooded as water spilled onto the flat landscape.
"We're in for probably the worst two weeks that this community has ever seen in its entire existence," said St. Clements Mayor Steve Strang.
The region's emergency services coordinator, Paul Guyader, said water levels in the area were dropping but residents are not letting their guard down: The Red River crest threatening North Dakota isn't expected to arrive in Manitoba for another week.
Fargo's rush to sandbag eliminated a complication caused by the subfreezing weather. Sandbags had gotten frozen earlier in the week, making them difficult to stack tightly together; people were seen slamming bags to the ground to break them up.
Now the sandbags are moving too fast to freeze.
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=lo ... .php?tab=1
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SaskatchewanScreamer
AP News release from one hour ago:
Red River tops historic marker, undermines dike
By NATE JENKINS and DAVE KOLPACK – 1 hour ago
FARGO, N.D. (AP) — The Red River rose to a 112-year high early Friday, breaching a dike south of downtown and forcing authorities to order the evacuations of about 150 homes.
The river had risen to 40.32 feet early Friday — more than 22 feet above flood stage and inches more than the previous high water mark of 40.1 feet set April 7, 1897. It was expected to crest as high as 43 feet on Saturday.
Just after 2 a.m. Friday, residents in one neighborhood were roused from sleep and ordered to evacuate after authorities found a leak in a dike. The leak left the integrity of the dike in question, police Capt. Tod Dahle said.
"It's not like there's a wall of water going through," he said. "It's just a significant leak."
Fargo spokeswoman Karena Lunday said it was the only overnight breech and crews would start patching it Friday morning.
Officials vowed to build the dikes higher, but there was a growing sense the city's best efforts might not be enough.
"We do not want to give up yet. We want to go down swinging if we go down," Fargo Mayor Dennis Walaker said Thursday, just hours after the disheartening news that forecasters had — yet again — increased the projected crest.
The American Red Cross planned to send another 150 people to the North Dakota flood zone to operate emergency shelters. They will join the 85 such volunteers already working in Grand Forks, Bismarck, Fargo and Moorhead, Minn.
Spokeswoman Courtney Johnson said Friday it's not necessarily a sign that the Red Cross is expecting a disaster. "No one living has ever seen something like this," she said. "We preach preparedness. We can't not be prepared."
As evacuations in the Red River Valley continue, the shelters are starting to fill. She said the shelter set up in the Moorhead High School had less than a dozen people Thursday evening — but was up to 29 by Friday morning.
Residents in this city of 92,000 had been scrambling in subfreezing temperatures to pile sandbags along the river and spent much of Thursday preparing for a crest of 41 feet, only to have forecasters late in the day add up to 2 feet to their estimate.
The National Weather Service said in its follow-up statement that the Red was expected to crest between 41 and 42 feet by Saturday, but could reach 43 feet. It said water levels could remain high for three days to a week — a lengthy test of on-the-fly flood control.
The first estimate sparked urgency among thousands of volunteers in Fargo. The second shook their spirits.
"I've lived here 40 years and over a 30-minute span I've reached a point where I'm preparing to evacuate and expect never to sleep in my house again," said Tim Corwin, 55, whose south Fargo home was sheltered by sandbags to 43 feet.
Dick Bailly, 64, choked up as he looked out over his backyard dike.
"It was demoralizing this morning," Bailly said, his eyes welling. "We got a lot of work to do. People have the will to respond, but you can only fight nature so much, and sometimes nature wins."
But the sandbag-making operation at the Fargodome churned as furiously as ever, sending fresh bags out to an estimated 6,000 volunteers who endured temperatures below 20 degrees in the race to sandbag.
"I was skeptical as far as volunteers coming out today, but they're like mailmen," said Leon Schlafmann, Fargo's emergency management director. "They come out rain, sleet or shine."
Gov. John Hoeven called for 500 more National Guard members to join 900 already part of the effort.
Several unusual factors sent the Red River surging to historic heights this year. The winter was unusually cold and snowy, which left a large snowpack sitting on top of frozen ground that couldn't absorb it. Then a warm snap and heavy rain quickly melted the snow and sent it into toward the river.
And it all happened to a river that flows north. When most rivers in the United States melt, they send the extra water south toward warmer, open water. When the Red breaks up, it sends hunks of ice north into colder water that is often still frozen.
Officials ordered the evacuation of another Fargo neighborhood and a nursing home late Thursday after authorities found cracks in an earthen levee. Residents were not in immediate danger, and water wasn't flowing over the levee, Walaker said.
Still, officers went door to door to the roughly 40 homes in the River Vili neighborhood and were evacuating Riverview Estates nursing home. Authorities also asked the 1,000 residents who live between the main dikes and the backup dikes in various parts of the city to leave within 24 hours. That evacuation could become mandatory.
The city was also blocking off its main roadways Friday, so sandbag trucks could get to where they were needed most.
Authorities across the river in Moorhead, also stepped up evacuations Thursday. The city of about 35,000 recommended that residents leave the southwest corner of the city and a low-lying township to the north where some homes had already flooded.
Fargo's largest hospital and at least four nursing homes also moved residents.
"A few of them said they didn't want to go. I said I'm going where the crowd goes," said 98-year-old Margaret "Dolly" Beaucage, who clasped rosary beads as she waited to leave Elim Care Center.
"I'm a swimmer," she said, smiling, "but not that good a swimmer."
In rural areas south of Fargo, crews were rescuing stranded residents. Pat Connor of the Cass County sheriff's department said 70 people had been rescued by Thursday evening, and he expected that number to grow.
The federal government announced a disaster declaration Thursday for seven Minnesota counties. The entire state of North Dakota had received a disaster designation earlier in the week.
On the Canadian side of the northern-flowing Red River, ice-clogged culverts, ice jams and the rising river threatened Manitoba residents. Several homes were evacuated north of Winnipeg and several dozen houses were flooded.
"We're in for probably the worst two weeks that this community has ever seen in its entire existence," St. Clements Mayor Steve Strang said. The Red River crest threatening North Dakota isn't expected to arrive in Manitoba for another week.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/art ... AD976D7MO0
Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Related articles
Red River tops historic marker, undermines dike
By NATE JENKINS and DAVE KOLPACK – 1 hour ago
FARGO, N.D. (AP) — The Red River rose to a 112-year high early Friday, breaching a dike south of downtown and forcing authorities to order the evacuations of about 150 homes.
The river had risen to 40.32 feet early Friday — more than 22 feet above flood stage and inches more than the previous high water mark of 40.1 feet set April 7, 1897. It was expected to crest as high as 43 feet on Saturday.
Just after 2 a.m. Friday, residents in one neighborhood were roused from sleep and ordered to evacuate after authorities found a leak in a dike. The leak left the integrity of the dike in question, police Capt. Tod Dahle said.
"It's not like there's a wall of water going through," he said. "It's just a significant leak."
Fargo spokeswoman Karena Lunday said it was the only overnight breech and crews would start patching it Friday morning.
Officials vowed to build the dikes higher, but there was a growing sense the city's best efforts might not be enough.
"We do not want to give up yet. We want to go down swinging if we go down," Fargo Mayor Dennis Walaker said Thursday, just hours after the disheartening news that forecasters had — yet again — increased the projected crest.
The American Red Cross planned to send another 150 people to the North Dakota flood zone to operate emergency shelters. They will join the 85 such volunteers already working in Grand Forks, Bismarck, Fargo and Moorhead, Minn.
Spokeswoman Courtney Johnson said Friday it's not necessarily a sign that the Red Cross is expecting a disaster. "No one living has ever seen something like this," she said. "We preach preparedness. We can't not be prepared."
As evacuations in the Red River Valley continue, the shelters are starting to fill. She said the shelter set up in the Moorhead High School had less than a dozen people Thursday evening — but was up to 29 by Friday morning.
Residents in this city of 92,000 had been scrambling in subfreezing temperatures to pile sandbags along the river and spent much of Thursday preparing for a crest of 41 feet, only to have forecasters late in the day add up to 2 feet to their estimate.
The National Weather Service said in its follow-up statement that the Red was expected to crest between 41 and 42 feet by Saturday, but could reach 43 feet. It said water levels could remain high for three days to a week — a lengthy test of on-the-fly flood control.
The first estimate sparked urgency among thousands of volunteers in Fargo. The second shook their spirits.
"I've lived here 40 years and over a 30-minute span I've reached a point where I'm preparing to evacuate and expect never to sleep in my house again," said Tim Corwin, 55, whose south Fargo home was sheltered by sandbags to 43 feet.
Dick Bailly, 64, choked up as he looked out over his backyard dike.
"It was demoralizing this morning," Bailly said, his eyes welling. "We got a lot of work to do. People have the will to respond, but you can only fight nature so much, and sometimes nature wins."
But the sandbag-making operation at the Fargodome churned as furiously as ever, sending fresh bags out to an estimated 6,000 volunteers who endured temperatures below 20 degrees in the race to sandbag.
"I was skeptical as far as volunteers coming out today, but they're like mailmen," said Leon Schlafmann, Fargo's emergency management director. "They come out rain, sleet or shine."
Gov. John Hoeven called for 500 more National Guard members to join 900 already part of the effort.
Several unusual factors sent the Red River surging to historic heights this year. The winter was unusually cold and snowy, which left a large snowpack sitting on top of frozen ground that couldn't absorb it. Then a warm snap and heavy rain quickly melted the snow and sent it into toward the river.
And it all happened to a river that flows north. When most rivers in the United States melt, they send the extra water south toward warmer, open water. When the Red breaks up, it sends hunks of ice north into colder water that is often still frozen.
Officials ordered the evacuation of another Fargo neighborhood and a nursing home late Thursday after authorities found cracks in an earthen levee. Residents were not in immediate danger, and water wasn't flowing over the levee, Walaker said.
Still, officers went door to door to the roughly 40 homes in the River Vili neighborhood and were evacuating Riverview Estates nursing home. Authorities also asked the 1,000 residents who live between the main dikes and the backup dikes in various parts of the city to leave within 24 hours. That evacuation could become mandatory.
The city was also blocking off its main roadways Friday, so sandbag trucks could get to where they were needed most.
Authorities across the river in Moorhead, also stepped up evacuations Thursday. The city of about 35,000 recommended that residents leave the southwest corner of the city and a low-lying township to the north where some homes had already flooded.
Fargo's largest hospital and at least four nursing homes also moved residents.
"A few of them said they didn't want to go. I said I'm going where the crowd goes," said 98-year-old Margaret "Dolly" Beaucage, who clasped rosary beads as she waited to leave Elim Care Center.
"I'm a swimmer," she said, smiling, "but not that good a swimmer."
In rural areas south of Fargo, crews were rescuing stranded residents. Pat Connor of the Cass County sheriff's department said 70 people had been rescued by Thursday evening, and he expected that number to grow.
The federal government announced a disaster declaration Thursday for seven Minnesota counties. The entire state of North Dakota had received a disaster designation earlier in the week.
On the Canadian side of the northern-flowing Red River, ice-clogged culverts, ice jams and the rising river threatened Manitoba residents. Several homes were evacuated north of Winnipeg and several dozen houses were flooded.
"We're in for probably the worst two weeks that this community has ever seen in its entire existence," St. Clements Mayor Steve Strang said. The Red River crest threatening North Dakota isn't expected to arrive in Manitoba for another week.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/art ... AD976D7MO0
Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Related articles
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SaskatchewanScreamer
A Canadian release:
The race against a raging Red River TheStar.com - World - The race against a raging Red River
Homeowners sandbag in Winnipeg region, while North Dakota faces record flooding
March 27, 2009
Chinta Puxley
and Steve Lambert
THE CANADIAN PRESS
WINNIPEG–Armed with truckloads of sandbags, neighbour helped neighbour battle the swollen Red River north of Winnipeg yesterday as government officials issued evacuation alerts to 850 people and warned all Manitobans to prepare for three more weeks of "prolonged agony."
The cold weather that has swept across the province is "temporarily" staving off the flood threat, but frozen culverts, ice jams and the rising Red River continue to threaten hundreds of homes.
It was even worse south of the border in North Dakota. Fargo residents, scrambling in subfreezing weather to pile sandbags along the Red, which floods earlier there than in Canada, had been told the river would crest at a record 12.5 metres tomorrow. But later in the day forecasters sprang the dire news that the peak might be even 60 centimetres higher than that.
Manitoba's senior flood forecaster Alf Warkentin said the situation in the province will remain tense for at least another three weeks.
"The cold weather could be an ally in this case, drying up the source of water at least temporarily," Warkentin said.
"But there could be a resurgence of this when the snow finally does melt. ... What this is doing is prolonging the agony."
Ice jams played havoc in the downstream rural towns just north of Winnipeg. (Winnipeg itself is protected to a great extent by its famed floodway, which diverts high waters around the city.)
One ice jam prompted 40 homes to be evacuated in the bedroom communities and flooded several dozen homes. It was partly broken up by yesterday morning, but started to re-form two kilometres downstream, leaving residents worried.
Adding to their concerns, another flood threat is looming for mid-April, when the floodwaters that threaten North Dakota, which is upstream, are expected to arrive in Manitoba.
Officials have said they expect the crest to hit the border around April 5. They've predicted the Red River Valley is likely to experience a flood similar to both 1979 and 1950, but likely not as severe as 1997.
Forecasters have expected the annual flooding in the river basin to be particularly bad this year because of heavy autumn rainfall, which saturated the region's clay soil before it froze.
"It's not a good situation," Warkentin said. "It is a bit worrisome."
Residents in the flooded areas north of Winnipeg were "expecting the worst and hoping for the best" as they cleaned up yesterday after the ice jam moved on.
Lyle Thompson and his friends formed a chain, passing sandbags down the line and placing them in the narrowing band of ground between the water and his comfortable suburban home.
"Last night I made a small dike and I thought I'd be fine. This morning, (the water) went up so far it covered my dock and my wife panicked and I kind of thought we should get sandbagging," he said. "The water probably went up seven feet (2.1 metres)."
Many towns in southern Manitoba are protected by ring dikes, but about 850 people in Roseau River First Nation and Riverside, Man., just north of the U.S. border, have been told to be ready to evacuate on short notice.
Terrance Nelson, a leader from the Roseau River First Nation, said people have already started to clear their basements.
He had no confidence that the ring dike around the reserve will hold – it has collapsed twice since the "flood of the century" in 1997.
South of the border, an estimated 6,000 volunteers in Fargo endured frigid temperatures in a round-the-clock race to pile sandbags to a height of 13 metres to protect North Dakota's largest city from the rising Red River, which is threatening to crest at levels never before seen.
Earlier optimism faded as officials predicted the Red River would reach a record-high crest of 12.5 metres by the weekend. (The river was at 11.6 metres early yesterday.)
Then the news got worse: The U.S. National Weather Service revised its forecast to more than 13 metres.
Mayor Dennis Walaker described a crest that high as "uncharted territory."
The Red's record high at Fargo was 12.2 metres in 1897. In 1997, the city was left underwater by lesser flooding.
Walaker said he was still confident the city would beat the flood, but yesterday afternoon the city of 92,000 unveiled a contingency evacuation plan. At least four nursing homes already had begun moving residents by then.
"A few of them said they didn't want to go. I said I'm going where the crowd goes," said Margaret Beaucage, 98, who clasped rosary beads as she waited to leave the Elim Care Centre.
"I'm a swimmer," she said, smiling, "but not that good a swimmer."
With files from Associated Press
http://www.thestar.com/printArticle/609163
The race against a raging Red River TheStar.com - World - The race against a raging Red River
Homeowners sandbag in Winnipeg region, while North Dakota faces record flooding
March 27, 2009
Chinta Puxley
and Steve Lambert
THE CANADIAN PRESS
WINNIPEG–Armed with truckloads of sandbags, neighbour helped neighbour battle the swollen Red River north of Winnipeg yesterday as government officials issued evacuation alerts to 850 people and warned all Manitobans to prepare for three more weeks of "prolonged agony."
The cold weather that has swept across the province is "temporarily" staving off the flood threat, but frozen culverts, ice jams and the rising Red River continue to threaten hundreds of homes.
It was even worse south of the border in North Dakota. Fargo residents, scrambling in subfreezing weather to pile sandbags along the Red, which floods earlier there than in Canada, had been told the river would crest at a record 12.5 metres tomorrow. But later in the day forecasters sprang the dire news that the peak might be even 60 centimetres higher than that.
Manitoba's senior flood forecaster Alf Warkentin said the situation in the province will remain tense for at least another three weeks.
"The cold weather could be an ally in this case, drying up the source of water at least temporarily," Warkentin said.
"But there could be a resurgence of this when the snow finally does melt. ... What this is doing is prolonging the agony."
Ice jams played havoc in the downstream rural towns just north of Winnipeg. (Winnipeg itself is protected to a great extent by its famed floodway, which diverts high waters around the city.)
One ice jam prompted 40 homes to be evacuated in the bedroom communities and flooded several dozen homes. It was partly broken up by yesterday morning, but started to re-form two kilometres downstream, leaving residents worried.
Adding to their concerns, another flood threat is looming for mid-April, when the floodwaters that threaten North Dakota, which is upstream, are expected to arrive in Manitoba.
Officials have said they expect the crest to hit the border around April 5. They've predicted the Red River Valley is likely to experience a flood similar to both 1979 and 1950, but likely not as severe as 1997.
Forecasters have expected the annual flooding in the river basin to be particularly bad this year because of heavy autumn rainfall, which saturated the region's clay soil before it froze.
"It's not a good situation," Warkentin said. "It is a bit worrisome."
Residents in the flooded areas north of Winnipeg were "expecting the worst and hoping for the best" as they cleaned up yesterday after the ice jam moved on.
Lyle Thompson and his friends formed a chain, passing sandbags down the line and placing them in the narrowing band of ground between the water and his comfortable suburban home.
"Last night I made a small dike and I thought I'd be fine. This morning, (the water) went up so far it covered my dock and my wife panicked and I kind of thought we should get sandbagging," he said. "The water probably went up seven feet (2.1 metres)."
Many towns in southern Manitoba are protected by ring dikes, but about 850 people in Roseau River First Nation and Riverside, Man., just north of the U.S. border, have been told to be ready to evacuate on short notice.
Terrance Nelson, a leader from the Roseau River First Nation, said people have already started to clear their basements.
He had no confidence that the ring dike around the reserve will hold – it has collapsed twice since the "flood of the century" in 1997.
South of the border, an estimated 6,000 volunteers in Fargo endured frigid temperatures in a round-the-clock race to pile sandbags to a height of 13 metres to protect North Dakota's largest city from the rising Red River, which is threatening to crest at levels never before seen.
Earlier optimism faded as officials predicted the Red River would reach a record-high crest of 12.5 metres by the weekend. (The river was at 11.6 metres early yesterday.)
Then the news got worse: The U.S. National Weather Service revised its forecast to more than 13 metres.
Mayor Dennis Walaker described a crest that high as "uncharted territory."
The Red's record high at Fargo was 12.2 metres in 1897. In 1997, the city was left underwater by lesser flooding.
Walaker said he was still confident the city would beat the flood, but yesterday afternoon the city of 92,000 unveiled a contingency evacuation plan. At least four nursing homes already had begun moving residents by then.
"A few of them said they didn't want to go. I said I'm going where the crowd goes," said Margaret Beaucage, 98, who clasped rosary beads as she waited to leave the Elim Care Centre.
"I'm a swimmer," she said, smiling, "but not that good a swimmer."
With files from Associated Press
http://www.thestar.com/printArticle/609163
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Stephanie
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Re: Flooding in North Dakota
I didn't realize until I saw it on CNN this morning that the Red River runs northward.
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HURAKAN
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Re: Flooding in North Dakota
Stephanie wrote:I didn't realize until I saw it on CNN this morning that the Red River runs northward.
Towards Lake Winnipeg
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Stephanie
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Re: Flooding in North Dakota
Thanks Hurakan! 
The reporter described this as being in their own mini-Continental Divide. VERY interesting.
It seems like the re-freezing helped to keep the waters to rise as high as they thought - the river is actually receding now. Hopefully that means great news for Grand Forks up to Winnipeg.
The reporter described this as being in their own mini-Continental Divide. VERY interesting.
It seems like the re-freezing helped to keep the waters to rise as high as they thought - the river is actually receding now. Hopefully that means great news for Grand Forks up to Winnipeg.
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SaskatchewanScreamer
Thanks from me too HURAKAN ....I saw that map but I have problems uploading pics to this site.
******************
One dike breached in Fargo:
US school swamped by flood river
Record-breaking flood waters in the US state of North Dakota have breached a dike at a school, swamping the campus.
Officials warn the Red River in the city of Fargo will stay at danger level for days, despite peaking on Friday and continuing to recede.
Officials say up to 30,000 people could be homeless if defences fail in Fargo, and in Moorhead on the opposite bank.
http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pageto ... 0.stm?ad=1
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano warned up to 100,000 people may need to be evacuated in the area.
Thousands of people have already fled their homes as the Red River swelled to its highest level for 112 years, sending water rising to second-floor level in some homes.
***********************************
Stephenie the overall forecast is improving from the freezing in the south but the north has areas of the Red River around Winnipeg, population est to be 719,200, that are clogged up with ice jams........that area has to warm up and break up for the floodway to work for Winnipeg. The mayor of Winnipeg is already warning those in low lying areas to start sandbagging: "River levels in Winnipeg could reach 6.2 metres as early as April 3 if the ice hasn't moved out of the city and officials aren't able to raise the floodway gates, Warkentin said." Manitoba is lucky this year however that they didn't have record snowfall nor did Saskatchewan or Alberta (all of which have rivers that also drain into Lake Winnipeg).
....I saw that map but I have problems uploading pics to this site. ******************
One dike breached in Fargo:
US school swamped by flood river
Record-breaking flood waters in the US state of North Dakota have breached a dike at a school, swamping the campus.
Officials warn the Red River in the city of Fargo will stay at danger level for days, despite peaking on Friday and continuing to recede.
Officials say up to 30,000 people could be homeless if defences fail in Fargo, and in Moorhead on the opposite bank.
http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pageto ... 0.stm?ad=1
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano warned up to 100,000 people may need to be evacuated in the area.
Thousands of people have already fled their homes as the Red River swelled to its highest level for 112 years, sending water rising to second-floor level in some homes.
***********************************
Stephenie the overall forecast is improving from the freezing in the south but the north has areas of the Red River around Winnipeg, population est to be 719,200, that are clogged up with ice jams........that area has to warm up and break up for the floodway to work for Winnipeg. The mayor of Winnipeg is already warning those in low lying areas to start sandbagging: "River levels in Winnipeg could reach 6.2 metres as early as April 3 if the ice hasn't moved out of the city and officials aren't able to raise the floodway gates, Warkentin said." Manitoba is lucky this year however that they didn't have record snowfall nor did Saskatchewan or Alberta (all of which have rivers that also drain into Lake Winnipeg).
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Re: Flooding in North Dakota
Stephanie wrote:I didn't realize until I saw it on CNN this morning that the Red River runs northward.
Neither did the met on CNN who last week said "this still has to make it to the Gulf of Mexico".
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Stephanie
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Re: Flooding in North Dakota
RL3AO wrote:Stephanie wrote:I didn't realize until I saw it on CNN this morning that the Red River runs northward.
Neither did the met on CNN who last week said "this still has to make it to the Gulf of Mexico".
The mets should know about the rivers they are talking about. He/she probably assumed (like me) that it flowed southward like the Mississippi.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed SaskatchewanScreamer that there's no significant flooding up there around Lake Winnepeg.
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