N. Dakota Floods

bradk · Mar 26, 2009

Anyone from the area? I got a call the other day from a customer trying to get his dad's truck started and moved to higher before the floods came.

Been seeing tidbits on the news,doesn't look good! Also heard on the radio that people with out-standing court fines in ND can work them off by sandbagging.

Jon Hagen · Mar 26, 2009

Yep, towns near a river like Bismarck and especially Fargo have some pretty bad flooding.
Last nights evening news showed all those "rotten" teens who have spent long hard days hefting sand bags to help out. They show that like every generation, they are capable of more than just walking around a mall.
Have not heard about working off fines, but the news showed folks in their orange "county jail" coveralls wirking the sandbag lines, said they were allowed to volenteer as long as they were not predators or other Bad arse types.
No flooding in my immediate area, but oh lordy we got snow. big fear here is that we will have very late wet planting season in this prairie pothole region. We had that from 95-2000 and sure don't want a repeat.

Wayne in MN · Mar 26, 2009

Try the link I added; It will give you some on the spot info.
My spring tillage & planting efforts for a farmer in the flood area are likely to be a bit difficult & late this year!
Lakes Radio

Anonymous-0 · Mar 26, 2009

Just got off phone with cousin in Fargo , What a mess ! He has been hauling sandbags on flatbed for 3 days now . ^ inches of snow last night . Ice everywhere . power is in question lot of places nowq as sub stations are shutting down . They are worried some of the ice chunks will damage sandbag levee's

in-too-deep · Mar 26, 2009

I drove out there the other night and filled sandbags for about 5 hours, slept a few hours and helped a couple more hours the next morning. Pretty impressive operation with LOTS of volunteers including the Nat"l Gaurd and a ridiculous amount of sand and equipment. If you want to help, just go to the Fargodome and you can fill sandbags there or they"ll bus you to where you"re needed, either filling at a city garage or out making dikes.

Andy Motteberg · Mar 26, 2009

The flooding is pretty bad up there.

MTB · Mar 26, 2009

http://www.bismarcktribune.com/floods/

Anonymous-0 · Mar 26, 2009

I grew up in ND and was at UND in Grand Forks in the 1980's and threw sandbags along the Red for a few days, mostly at night in freezing rain. It is the kind of misery North Dakotans love to share. My relatives in Bismarck seem to think it is mostly behind them and the ones in Fargo are not so sure. I farm in the SW part of the state and in that area we think all the water is a blessing, it was been dry. What bothers me is I saw pictures of guys wearing Sioux shirts filling sand bags at the Fargodome, I think it would be best if NDSU would wash away.

JakeE · Mar 26, 2009

scott were you at there?

Anonymous-0 · Mar 26, 2009

I was living in Brannon Hall at the time. During the flood I was north of Highway 2 on the ND side working with the sandbags. Were you there ?
Just got off the phone with my best friend in Fargo, the situation has gotten worse, looks real bad. I was kidding about NDSU washing away.

Tom in TN · Mar 26, 2009

I've never been in a flood before, so I can only imagine how bad this is.

Has this river ever flooded before?

Sorry for the people and animals effected.

Tom in TN

Anonymous-0 · Mar 26, 2009

Hi Tom. there are many rivers flooding in ND this year but only 2 of real concern, and they have flooded before. The Red River is the border with MN, it flows north and ends up in the Hudson Bay. Fargo and Grand Forks are the biggest cities on this river, both have large sister cities on the MN side that are threatened also. The Missouri River flows south through Bismarck and joins the Mississippi River near St Louis and ends up in the Gulf of Mexico. What happened this year is that they had a lot of snow and very cold temperatures that kept the snow from melting all winter long. When it got warm, and it got and stayed warm fast, the snow melted fast, and ended up in the rivers and creeks fast, it all went downhill fast overflowing the riverbanks. South of Bismarck they had a huge ice dam that backed water up more. There has been, over the last 130 years or so, a lot of draining of the wetlands and tiling of fields that speed this process along. Everyone knew this was comming so I don't think there is going to be to much suffering. If Fargo does flood there will be no government breakdown, abondon residents or crime spree like happened in New Orleans. The upper plains are a very dynamic place, always changing. Where I hunted pheasants in the grass last year may be a lake I hunt ducks in next year.

JakeE · Mar 26, 2009

no moved away to michigan when i was 13, we had a farm on the south east corner of long lake just east of moffit by hi-way 83, i remember in the early 50s before they had the garison dam built the whole south side of bismarck would be washed away, and 83 soth by moffit was always covered in water, were you live now?

Ande · Mar 26, 2009

We are straight north,150 mi from Fargo,and I live 20 miles west of the Red River of the North,we will see every ounce of the water they are dealing with,hopefully all our rivers will have drained off,so folks here wont be flooded

Curt W · Mar 26, 2009

not good news today. expecting the river to crest closer to 43 feet instead of 41. hope those frozen sandbags actually hold.

Anonymous-0 · Mar 26, 2009

Hi Scott, The largest city on the red river is Winnipeg Mb.Population about 800,000.Best of luck to all in N.D. and Mn.

Tom in TN · Mar 26, 2009

Thanks Scott for that explanation. What a difficult time for all involved.

Tom in TN

Anonymous-0 · Mar 26, 2009

Hi Jakee, I left in the mid 1980's after some Army time and College. I live about 9 months a year in surburban San Francisco working as a firefighter/paramedic/hazmat specialist and about 3 months a year on a farm south west of Hettinger. 4 to 5 trips a year. If my memory serves me well Moffit was about 10 miles south of Bismarck. My sister lives off of 83 north of town. I wish you still had your farm, I would like to come visit you. What did you do in Michigan? Some of my best friends are from Battle Creek and as a kid I remember visiting my with my family my dads college friend in Bloomfield Hill(?). I thought Michigan was a great place.

Anonymous-0 · Mar 26, 2009

Pacer 54, you are absolutely corrrect, and Winnipeg is not only my favorite city, it is my wifes home town. Also it has best fishing in the world, all 800,000 people are friendly (the city is larger than the population of ND) , and they build tractors that are second to none. I have never heard of any flooding problems there, perhaps that is just the way the US news reports things. If my wife starts talking to me, (I must have commited some imiganary offense...again, out of 800,000 I got the only unfriendly one) I will ask her. For the people of ND and MN I will thank you for wishing them the best, I do.

JakeE · Mar 27, 2009

i workrd 25 years for american airlines,also was the teck- director at milan dragway just west of detroit, also was the division director for the international hot rod association, and helped a farmer friend in the spring time, was into tractor pulling for many years with of course farmal M,s and H,s. now i have a bunch of cub cadets just finished restring a 149 and found a 12 hp massy lawn tractor that i will do this summer , my dad and a brother are buried in a little town called braddock, my grand parents buried in strawsburg just of 83 in the south , i dont get back except for celebrations and funerals.i bought a lod 715 combine a few years ago and my wife said i was more excited about it than my new corvette, when i was in the navy years ago i was stationed at hunters point ship yard for a short time, will talk later. thanks

JMS/.MN · Mar 27, 2009

Couple of days ago, the messiah declared that this is further proof of global warming! Apparently does not know that 10,000 years ago, the glaciers left Lake Agassiz, which later drained and left the Red River Valley, some of the most productive but flat land on earth. It has been flooding ever since- look at a MN map with elevations listed for those towns. Land drops about 6 inches in 30 miles. Been flooding hundreds of years before drain tile was invented. Or wetlands drained. Last Fall, the Valley had excessive rains, some fields too wet to harvest, ground froze....now.. extra heavy winter snow, quick spring melt with the ground still frozen so no absorbtion, too much water in a short time.

Anonymous-0 · Mar 27, 2009

Yes JMS, what we know as the Red River Valley has been flooding before all the wetlands were drained and all the drain tile was installed, and in 10,000 or 1,000,000 years or so when all humans are gone, all the wetlands are back, and all the drains long pluged, and it will still flood. Only differencs is that now over a million people live on that flood plain and the drained wetlands and drain tile make the floods come more often and more extream. Or perhaps you don't think water runs down hill.

N. Dakota Floods

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