North Dakota gets ready for potential flood disaster

North Dakota gets ready for potential flood disaster

www.cnn.com

The fear is that the river could overtake all previous records. As of Tuesday evening, the Red River ran at about 32 feet -- 14 feet above flood stage. A record level of 41.1 feet was set back 1897. One hundred years later a flood sent the river to 39.57 feet, in 1997.

The record level of the river set in the April 1897 flood could be surpassed Friday, said Cecily Fong of the North Dakota Department of Emergency Services.

(visit the link for the full news article)

CNN had a headline that read........

North Dakota gets ready for EPIC flood disaster. They then updated it to the current one.

# City of Fargo prepares for what could be the worst flooding it's ever had

# Up to 10,000 volunteers have come forward since Sunday to aid in sandbagging

# Swollen Red River running 14 feet above flood stage Tuesday night

# Residents have had much less time to prepare than major 1997 flood

In my experience, Emergency Service officials together with meteorologists are really accurate with flood crests so this looks like a 100 year flood hapening right now in the upper midwest.

www.cnn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

I'm a student in the area. I was driving through Fargo,ND on my way back from spring break. Most would consider Fargo to be ground zero of the potential disaster. My thoughts as I drove through were "They're screwed." The water was inches from overtaking most of the interstate through town and a 20 ft section of one exit ramp was completely submerged. Later that night they closed part of interstate 94 because there was just too much water. I almost hydroplaned when a semi truck passed me in the left lane.

This whole week they're busing over students from my school to help set up sandbags. All colleges in the area have canceled classes so students can go help. The national guard is also activated. The best we can do now is try to protect key areas, because on Friday I'm sure the neighborhoods will start to flood.

Just got back from sandbagging Grand Forks. I hear they're upping the dike level in Fargo a couple more feet. They'll need it.

North Dakota aren't the only ones getting ready. Up here in Manitoba, Canada we're getting prepared too. The Red River flows through here also. Back in 97 that flood was a mess. I know I'm not looking forward to another flood but it looks like it's coming. The past 2 days mother nature dumped tons of snow on us so that's definitely not going to help once it starts melting. A couple of my friends posted pictures of the Red River at the Forks and the water levels are getting pretty high.

Canadian military on standby to battle Manitoba flood

The Canadian military is on standby to help in Manitoba's battle against the impending Red River flood, while authorities told 850 people just north of the U.S. border to be ready to evacuate.

Source: www.cbc.ca...

They said today that they do not see the flood waters subsiding any time soon. That it could be a month at least. They also made a comment that they had recieved less snowfall than they did in previous years. I have not heard why it is flooding. Has anyone else? Surely its not just the seasonal snow melt if they had less than before. I know the river was backed up due to a large piece of ice that they had to destroy which thankfully took it down a couple of feet. What happened that was different this year to cause this? Weather everywhere is far beyond the typical spring chaos.

Originally posted by mrsdudara
What happened that was different this year to cause this? Weather everywhere is far beyond the typical spring chaos.

Manitoba has record ground saturation levels in the southern regions from large amounts of precipitation before the ground froze for winter. The ground cannot possibly absorb more water, hence the overland flooding and slow reccesion rates of the floodwater. Fargo is close, so they probably have some of the same issue's.

CNN is now reporting NORTHCOM is sending troops in to assist -

Red River reaches record level, floods Fargo with uncertainty

FARGO, North Dakota (CNN) -- Fifteen helicopters from the U.S. Northern Command along with active-duty military personnel are being sent to Fargo, North Dakota, to assist the state as it prepares for possible record flooding, a U.S. military official told CNN.

The military personnel being sent to Fargo are from a "contingency response force" made up of active-duty troops, the official said.

Source : CNN

hosted.ap.org...

FARGO, N.D. (AP) -- Fargo's fears of a catastrophic flood eased Saturday with word that the Red River apparently crested at lower-than-expected levels, and weary residents turned their attention to ensuring their hastily built levees hold up against an onslaught of ice-laden water expected to stay high for at least a week.

Originally posted by venividivici

FARGO, N.D. (AP) -- Fargo's fears of a catastrophic flood eased Saturday with word that the Red River apparently crested at lower-than-expected levels, and weary residents turned their attention to ensuring their hastily built levees hold up against an onslaught of ice-laden water expected to stay high for at least a week.

They are very lucky they had cooler temperatures preventing more melt runoff.

Good news for Fargo.