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Red River Flood: Fargo, North Dakota, evacuated, Manitoba on standby

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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?

I've got friends/clients in Fargo. I was there about 6 weeks ago. One of the offices that I do a fair amount of business with sent about half their staff to work on bagging yesterday. I don't know that they'll open at all today. I know that they sell a pretty good amount of excess flood insurance (primary flood insurance is only available through the National Flood Insurance Program in the areas that are going to be effected by this), so they're working to help their friends and clients avoid insured disaster, I'm sure (insured disaster being preferable to uninsured disaster).

I do think it is notable that how quickly the fiscally conservative governor of Minnesota was to extend his hand for federal financial aid to assist people who have chosen to live on a flood plain. It is interesting how quickly some people are to abandon notions of accountability and self sufficiency when they are faced with having to deal the more inconvenient consequences of those notions. That goes doubly for all the "good christian conservatives" who comprise a sizable portion of the Red River Valley's population.

That being said, I feel for those folks. I know people who live in Fargo and I hope that they are doing okay. I moved out of the Red River Valley 2 years before the last big flood. It's a good place to grow sugar beets and develop a formidable amount of disgust for humanity (perhaps that last part had more to do with being in junior high school).

I don't know anyone in Fargo, but I have been flooded out of my home, and I know how awful it is. I hope that the damage is minimal, and that they are able to save what's precious to them.

I live in Winnipeg, and get to watch this while taking a surface Hydrology course. Fun stuff.

Manitoba, particularly Winnipeg, will have relatively few problems with the flood. Most houses have been mounded or ring diked, and many communities have been ring diked as well. Last year, the expansion of the Floodway was completed, which can divert up to 140,000 m^3/s of flow. The flood of 1997, which nearly overcame the capacity of the Floodway, would now be easily handled with minimal disruption to the City of Winnipeg. This current flood should not exceed 1997 levels.

That said, sand baggin will need to be done on many rural home and communities, as well as some low lying areas of Winnipeg. I will probably lend a hand, although there are already many volunteers.

I grew up about 60 miles south east of Fargo, lived in Fargo for 4 years and still have a lot of friends there. I talked to a friend in West Fargo today and she told me as long as the sandbag dikes hold they'll be fine. 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. I'm very proud of my homeland for the way they have banded together to help each other out. They've endured a specially brutal winter this year and now this. Good people up there who deserve a break. Keep your fingers crossed the dikes hold!

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.

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.