I live in Fargo and it has been a long week. The city itself has not been evacuated (though Federal officials have been strongly pressuring our local officials to do so) , only select areas have and even then it has been voluntary. The river crested on Saturday and has been dropping steadily since then but the danger has not passed. There is still a chance of major breaches up and down the river corridor. So far the breaches have been relativly small and response crews have mangaged to either quickly seal the breach (ideal) or build a contengency dike behind the affected area which unfortunately results in the houses (usually 1 or 2) in front of it to be left for loss.
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It's hard to listen to the frustration in her because there has been flooding 4 of the last 12 years and no permanent solution has been put in place. Be it a diversion or tearing down all the houses around the river and building a permanent dike, something needs to happen.
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I understand her frustration and many have echoed it but unlike Grand Forks there was no federal money offered to Fargo to help build a permenant solution after the '97 flood. The estimated cost for providing permenant flood protection for Fargo/Moorhead is $500 million. Without federal help there is no way we can afford it. Fargo has tried for several years to come up with their own affordable solution but it does not have the power to force people to sell their homes along the river. They have bought out several homes over the years but unless/until al of the homes in the areas needed to build sell out there is not much they can do. They have even tried eminent domain to claim some of the homes but each time it has been shot down by the courts.