Here We Go Again

The Red River has dropped over two feet and is now at 38.8 feet which is still 20 feet above flood stage. Now that the river has dropped two feet, they are now letting some people back into their homes and neighborhoods. So just as things are looking up, what you see in these pictures is what we are receiving now. We could get possibly 8 inches of snow before Wednesday.

We have the Coast Guard here that have actually rescued people by airboat and helicopter. People are still in their houses surrounded by water fighting to save their homes. We have towns that are almost completely shut off from the rest of the world.

With all this snow the river will definetly come up again. They are expecting the river to crest again in April when all this snow starts to melt. At one point a few days ago we had no snow.

The Flood Today

I have no new pictures. I will just try to give you a picture of what is going on here today with words.
Our river is going down. Many people would like to think that the river has crested and that we are out of the woods now. Not true. We have alot of snow to melt yet, and more snow on the way. As much as 6 inches and more to the south. The cold weather has been a Godsend.
All the dikes are built and now we are in stand and defend mode.
This morning at 1:25 am Oak Grove School dike was breeched, within minutes, 4 teams of the National Guard rapid respones team was on site, as was Army Corp of Engineers and the city. They did lose two buildings, and even though they lost 2 it could have been much worse if not for the planning between all the agencies that are here. They were having a hard time getting it stopped. If there is a breech, they now have thousand pound sandbags that are dropped from helicopters to help stop the leak.
We still have alot of water to the south and to the north of us. Harwood which is just north of us is now basically cut off from the rest of the world except for one road that is a major detour out of that city.
We are not out of this. The water is expected to stay at this level for a another week.

Lost Cabinet

As we were standing on the bridge. Here came a cabinet that someone will be missing.

The Road Under Main Avenue Bridge

These pictures are from under the main avenue bridge on March 22. This is where we were taking the pictures today March 28. This Road is now under 22 feet of water.

Woodlawn Park

This is Woodlawn Park. We are looking at this park on the Minnesota side of the river. We are standing on the main ave bridge. Pictures are over the last 4 days

The Red River Today

These are more pictures from the main ave bridge. These pics are from the past four days. The water is getting so high.

We do have good news. With the cold weather the river has now dropped about 2 inches. The other news is we are suppose to get more snow on Monday, but we have alot of snow yet to melt.

The bad news is all that melt will have to come down the Red River Yet.

Red River

These are pictures from the downtown main ave bridge looking west. The first picture is from the 23rd. Second picture from the 24th and the third from today. No explanation needed.

The Red River Today

The first picture was taken March 14. Kids are using the dike to sled. The second picture is taken east of the first picture.

Drain 27

For those of you who have not seen drain 27 yet, this is the canal that runs roughly 2 blocks from our house and surrounds us on two sides. The dike is now finished and it is set to take a 43 foot crest.

The Flood Today

These pictures are from March 24th and 26th. They are pictures of a farmstead 2 miles south of the Wild Rice River. The first picture shows the farmstead on March 24, no water. The next picture is two days later and it is surrounded by water. Yes, that is water right up to the buildings.

Today the weather has turned cold. Tonight it is suppose to get down to zero. I never thought that the weather man would say the low tonite is zero and I would reply,(Thank God). We need the cold to slow the Red River down. The river is suppose to crest tomorrow at anywhere from 41.5 to 42 feet crest. Right now it is sitting at 40.8 feet (flood stage is 18 feet). The rise of the river has slowed down dramatically. Once we reach the crest it may stay high for 3 to 7 days. It is not so much if the dikes can take the high water, but can they take all that pressure for that long.

This the city of Fargo and all of our volunteers since monday have bagged over 3 million sandbags. In the last 24 hours there have been many evacuations of neighborhoods in and outside of the cuty. Dikes have not been breeched, but we ar in uncharted waters. The flood of 1997 reached 39.5 feet. So in all true actuallity we really do not know what is going to happen.

Fargo Flood Pics 2009 (South of Fargo)

These photos are NOT lakes or beaches. This is ALL farmland south of Fargo under a whole lot of flood water.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090327/ap_on_re_us/midwest_flooding

The Flood Today

The last three days of this flood fight have been a long fought fight. Mother nature will throw her fury at us with a 39.5 to 41 foot crest. So the volunteers and the city of Fargo go out and build the dike to handle 41 feet. Than mother nature throws 7 inches of snow at us. The crest goes to a hard 41 foot crest so we go out and build the dikes up again. Now the crest is 24 hours away and once again the crest has gone up again to between 41 to 42 feet. So we all go out and now have twenty four hours to get all the dikes up to 43 feet.
Since monday the Fargo volunteers have filled 2.5 million sandbags and more are needed.
Tonite Moorhead has evacuated nursing homes and parts of the cities. All Fargo residents are put on alert. Be ready to evacuate on a moments notice.

Drain 27

When I first started doing this blog of the flood. I would drive 5 miles south of town to take pictures of the Wild Rice River that was not any bigger than a creek. I knew that this creek would grow into an overland lake. Now the flood has come to me and my family. These pictures are within 2 blocks of my home.

The first picture shows drain 27. The little canal that takes winter melt and rain water away. Now it is full and they are building the dikes on the banks. The water is up to the top of the bank.

The other pictures are of the semi trucks of sandbags, national guard trucks hauling dirt and of course the line of volunteers laying down sandbags

The Fargo Flood

This is drain #27. at one point it is only 2 blocks from where we live. This drain is used for overflow from heavy rains or winter melt. It usually only has either no water in it or just a trickle. As you can see it is now full. The other pictures that you see are the workers building a dike around it to contain it. This is really getting close to home now.

Today I went out and tried to get pictures of the Wild Rice River. Could not make it. Roads trecherous with ice and snow. On my partial way out there. Discovered that they are building dikes on I-29 right on the edge of town and another one about 2 miles out.

We were suppose to have a crest of 39.9 to 41 feet. They have now raised it to 41 feet on saturday. So the city called out volunteers again to raise the height of all the dikes another foot and put dikes in places that they never had to before. So far this week 2.5 million sandbags have been filled so far.

South of town about 8 miles there is a community that is being evacuated. The water is up to the houses. The sheriffs department has had to evacuate families by air boat.

The Mayor today was asked, what are our chances of beating this. His reply, "one out of four".

Saturday is the crest and it is expected to last 3 to 4 days.

I will try to get out and get pictures tomorrow afternoon. The water is now at 38 feet. We have just receive another 7 inches of snow. Only God knows where this will end up.

Our World Today

I cannot go out and take my usual pictures today. So, I opened my door and this is what we woke up to today. The river is still rising fast. The roads are trecherous with the rain we received last night. Then it turned to snow and we now have glare ice and blowing snow. The snow was basically gone.

This morning the channel 11 news crew ventured out 7 miles south of town to report on a levee that broke. The national guard had to rescue a family with two children. Sure they have lost their home. The news crew were not sure if they were going to find a way back to town because of the icy roads and all the water. It is getting dangerous here.

All schools have closed. Malls have closed. There are many communities around Fargo that have no water. There are places that need to boil there water. Lift stations are failing. If you have never been in a flood. Life basically can stop as we know it. Now with the snow it just complicates things more.

Even with all of this the city of Fargo is now 95% done with where they wanted to be for this flood. On Monday the volunteers that have stepped up made 450,000 sandbags. Tuesday the volunteers produced over 500,000 sandbags. One thing that you can say about a flood. All differences that people have with each other, no matter what they are. They are put aside. This has brought 1000s of people together in the same cause. Protect the city at all costs.

The Rising Red

Here are pictures from yestersay and today. I tried to take the same shots so it would give you a good perspective on how much the water has come up. We received good news today. The Red 40 miles south of here has crested one to two feet lower than expected. Which could mean the difference from beating and not beating the flood here. Fargo needed to make at least 300,00 sandbags a day to beat the river. Yesterday, Fargo had 10,00 volunteers step up and made 450,000 sandbags in one day. There are now volunteers coming in from all over North Dakota and Minnesota to help the fight.

The Reds A Risen

These are pictures from the dike. The first picturewas taken on March 14th and the last two were taken today. I think they explain themselves.

The Wild Rice River

These pictures are from the Wild Rice River 5 miles south of Fargo. The first picture was taken yesterday. The second picture is from today. The river has come up far enough that you can see the river starting to drain into the ditch beside the highway. This river passes under I-29 and just south of here the highway is closed because of water over the road and detours being setup all over.

The Rising Red

The Red is still rising and the police were not very happy with me trying to get to the dike to take pictures. These pictures are looking to the west at the dike. If you have seen any previous pictures I was on the dike facing east. where you see the light post. There is a road there. That sidewalk now goes straight to the river.