2009 Flood Update #2
Life is slowly returning to normal in the Red River Valley. The Red River crested at 40.82' on Saturday and has been receding since. The river is currently at 36.64' which is below most of the sandbag dikes, but not below the miles of clay dikes that have been built in conjunction with, and on top of, the permanent dike system. The highest crest in recorded history was 40.1’ in 1897.
Yesterday many of the residents who have been asked to evacuate their homes have been allowed to return. Many of them, however, have found themselves climbing or driving over contingency dikes in-order to simply reach their homes. Over 2000 senior living community residents are slowly returning to the community along with the 180 patients that were evacuated from both of MeritCare's campuses. For the last several days, non-essential businesses have been asked to stay closed to help with the flow of traffic. Yesterday they were told that it's ok to reopen all businesses at 8 am tomorrow morning. Praise God, life is slowly returning to normal in the valley.
As I'm sure many of you can imagine, our communities are physically, emotionally and mentally exhausted from this amazing fight that we put up. Tuesday we received 10" of heavy wet snow. We are praying for a slow melt so the river systems do not become overwhelmed with this new precipitation. We are expecting the river to crest again sometime late next week due to this new precipitation. However, we are hopeful that the crest will not be anywhere near the 40' mark, but more like 37', if not less.
Five giant pumps have arrived from western Colorado to help pump out the water that has arrived from overland flooding as well as the snow melt that is unable to make it into the river due to the river level and dikes. Two of the pumps arrived by truck late last week while the remaining three pumps had to be flown in by the military as the trucks hauling them got caught in a blizzard in Montana. These particular pumps pump at a rate of 65,000 gallons/minute and at a rental cost of over $600/pump/day. The constant hovering noise of the Coast Guard and National Guard choppers is still present as they continue to fly up and down the river with a careful eye looking for leaks or potential problems.
The clean up over the next several months will be a huge task for our communities. We received help from thousands of friends, family, neighbors and complete strangers in-order to help us prepare for the inevitable amount of water that was headed our way. Many of whom I'm sure won't be returning to help with the cleanup process. Can you blame them? In all, the communities of Fargo and Moorhead put together over four million sandbags within a weeks time. The soccer fields at two Fargo schools have been completely destroyed. The clay from the fields was excavated to help build dikes within the neighborhoods that surround the schools.
Without the vision and determination of our cities officials, I’m certain we wouldn’t have had the positive outcome we have. Once the state and federal agencies stepped in, they urged our local officials to call for a city-wide evacuation. In their defense, they didn't want an outcome like Katrina had the dikes been breached. What those agencies didn't quite understand is that if you evacuate everyone, who would have been left to make the four million sandbags that were needed to eventually save our communities? Here we are today... safe, dry and thankful for our local officials who stepped up to the plate with the utmost determination to protect our communities. Fargo's Mayor, Dennis Walaker has been deemed a hero throughout this journey. Walaker said, "As long as we were continuing to hold our own, I wasn't willing to abandon the people."
We cannot stress how thankful we are for those who kept us in their thoughts and prayers. We truly believe that God's hand was in full force during the past few weeks. Praise be to his glory! We ask that your thoughts and prayers be directed towards those who have not been so fortunate during this battle and have lost homes or have had damage due to flooding.
God Bless!
Nick, Ann and Kaleb
Yesterday many of the residents who have been asked to evacuate their homes have been allowed to return. Many of them, however, have found themselves climbing or driving over contingency dikes in-order to simply reach their homes. Over 2000 senior living community residents are slowly returning to the community along with the 180 patients that were evacuated from both of MeritCare's campuses. For the last several days, non-essential businesses have been asked to stay closed to help with the flow of traffic. Yesterday they were told that it's ok to reopen all businesses at 8 am tomorrow morning. Praise God, life is slowly returning to normal in the valley.
As I'm sure many of you can imagine, our communities are physically, emotionally and mentally exhausted from this amazing fight that we put up. Tuesday we received 10" of heavy wet snow. We are praying for a slow melt so the river systems do not become overwhelmed with this new precipitation. We are expecting the river to crest again sometime late next week due to this new precipitation. However, we are hopeful that the crest will not be anywhere near the 40' mark, but more like 37', if not less.
Five giant pumps have arrived from western Colorado to help pump out the water that has arrived from overland flooding as well as the snow melt that is unable to make it into the river due to the river level and dikes. Two of the pumps arrived by truck late last week while the remaining three pumps had to be flown in by the military as the trucks hauling them got caught in a blizzard in Montana. These particular pumps pump at a rate of 65,000 gallons/minute and at a rental cost of over $600/pump/day. The constant hovering noise of the Coast Guard and National Guard choppers is still present as they continue to fly up and down the river with a careful eye looking for leaks or potential problems.
The clean up over the next several months will be a huge task for our communities. We received help from thousands of friends, family, neighbors and complete strangers in-order to help us prepare for the inevitable amount of water that was headed our way. Many of whom I'm sure won't be returning to help with the cleanup process. Can you blame them? In all, the communities of Fargo and Moorhead put together over four million sandbags within a weeks time. The soccer fields at two Fargo schools have been completely destroyed. The clay from the fields was excavated to help build dikes within the neighborhoods that surround the schools.
Without the vision and determination of our cities officials, I’m certain we wouldn’t have had the positive outcome we have. Once the state and federal agencies stepped in, they urged our local officials to call for a city-wide evacuation. In their defense, they didn't want an outcome like Katrina had the dikes been breached. What those agencies didn't quite understand is that if you evacuate everyone, who would have been left to make the four million sandbags that were needed to eventually save our communities? Here we are today... safe, dry and thankful for our local officials who stepped up to the plate with the utmost determination to protect our communities. Fargo's Mayor, Dennis Walaker has been deemed a hero throughout this journey. Walaker said, "As long as we were continuing to hold our own, I wasn't willing to abandon the people."
We cannot stress how thankful we are for those who kept us in their thoughts and prayers. We truly believe that God's hand was in full force during the past few weeks. Praise be to his glory! We ask that your thoughts and prayers be directed towards those who have not been so fortunate during this battle and have lost homes or have had damage due to flooding.
God Bless!
Nick, Ann and Kaleb
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