Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Red River Flood: Fargo, North Dakota, evacuated, Manitoba on standby

Baraka_Guru · 03-27-2009, 05:10 AM

Quote:

Rising river prompts evacuation orders in Fargo, N.D.
Water levels excede record set in 1897
Last Updated: Friday, March 27, 2009 | 8:55 AM ET
CBC News

The mandatory evacuation of more than 190 homes in two Fargo neighbourhoods and an area nursing home have been ordered in North Dakota as the swollen Red River broke a 112-year-old flood level record on Friday.

Fargo police ordered residents living in about 150 houses in a neighbourhood south of the city's downtown to evacuate at about 2 a.m. on Friday after a "significant leak" was found in a dike at a crook in the river, said police Capt. Tod Dahle.

Though the water wasn't rushing toward the homes, the integrity of the dike is in doubt and that causes an immediate threat, Dahle said.

Officers knocked on doors and used a phone system to alert residents to leave the area.

Everyone had been evacuated by about 3:30 a.m., Dahle said. Area residents were being told to move farther west, local media reported.
Cracks found

Officials also ordered the evacuation of the area around the River Vili neighbourhood late Thursday after cracks were found in an earthen levee.

No water has yet breached the levee, officials said, and the evacuation is a precautionary measure.

Officials went door-to-door to about 40 houses and ordered residents to leave the area. The Riverview Estates nursing home was also evacuated.

Another four nursing homes in the region have reported moving their residents voluntarily due to the floodwaters and Fargo's Merit Care Hospital transported 180 people to facilities in other towns.

Authorities have also told 1,000 residents living between the main dikes and the backup dikes in various parts of the city that they must be prepared to leave their homes in the next 24 hours.

The river level reached 12.3 metres by early Friday, breaking a previously recorded high of 12.22 metres in April 1897.

'We do not want to give up yet. We want to go down swinging if we go down.'— Fargo Mayor Dennis Walaker

Forecasters expect the Red River to crest at about 13.1 metres some time between Saturday and Tuesday. North Dakota and seven Minnesota counties have been declared a disaster zone by the U.S. government.

With the river now more than six metres about flood stage, there appears to be a growing sense in Fargo that despite best efforts, it may not be possible to build dikes high enough to hold back the river.

There is fear the flooding may prove as disastrous as in 1997, when tens of thousands of people were forced to flee their homes in North Dakota, Minnesota and southern Manitoba. In the United States, 11 people died as a result of the 1997 flood, which caused an estimated $4.1 billion US in damage.

The higher-than-expected flood waters have seen residents and officials stepping up sandbagging operations in an effort to build higher dikes that may save Fargo from flooding.
'Go down swinging'

"We do not want to give up yet. We want to go down swinging if we go down," Fargo Mayor Dennis Walaker said Thursday.

Main roadways around Fargo, a city of 92,000, were blocked off on Friday so sandbag trucks could more easily navigate the area.

Local residents and 6,000 volunteers have been scrambling in subfreezing temperatures to pile sandbags along the river. They spent much of Thursday preparing for a crest of 12.5 metres, but later in the day, forecasters said the river may reach up to 13.1 metres.

"Record flows upstream of Fargo have produced unprecedented conditions" on the river, which "is expected to behave in ways never previously observed," the U.S. National Weather Service said.

The news is demoralizing, said Dick Bailly, 64.

"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."
70 rescued

More than 70 residents living in the rural areas around Fargo have had to be rescued and transported out of the area, said Pat Connor, an official with Cass County sheriff's department.

"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 13.1 metres.

North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven urged residents to continue on with their efforts.

"We know they're tired, but we need to hang in there and continue the work," he said.

More than 1,400 National Guard members are in the area to aid the sandbagging efforts and to respond to the emergency situation.

River levels are expected to remain high for at least a week after the river crests, according to the weather service.

Across the river in Moorhead, residents living in the southwest corner of the city and a low-lying township to the north have also been told to leave and shelters set up for displaced residents.

In Bismark, the threat seem to be lessened after explosives were used to break up an ice jam on the Missouri River.

Rising river prompts evacuation orders in Fargo, N.D.

The Red River flooding has broken a 112-year record today, and now Fargo, North Dakota, has been evacuated and the area has been officially declared a disaster zone.

Those along the river in Manitoba are watching carefully, as they wait downstream. They are also all too familiar with the problems the river flooding can cause.

I hope for the best for all those involved: residents and helpers. I cannot fathom what destruction such flooding can cause. It must be distressing.

I'm only now starting to learn about the current situation (no pun intended). I will be following this periodically.

Does anyone live in the area?
Does anyone have family or friends there?