Red River Flood Fight 2009 *pics added almost daily*

[mmeyer]

Pierbridge, thanks for that link. There are some amazing images there. It really makes you thankful for the services of our country and the fortitude of our citizens!

Also, Stu, I saw you in there, good luck to you, it looks like you will be facing a situation just as bad as the folks south of you.

[Paul Waldowski]

Some very moving photos in there

Then I came to the last photo of the boy struggling with the sandbag and I thought how can they possibly lose!

Simply amazing what a community can do when everyone is working towards a common goal.

[Dbl]

Our own Stu McKay made picture 9, although I am sure that is not how you wanted to seen next to a raging river!! Hang in there everyone!

[katch-N-rekeep]

great job...

[jonny_redhorse]

Hang in there Stu!(saw you on your deck near the ice chunk filled river).....I think I'll built my next home on top of a 1,000 foot mountain after looking at these images....Can't help but feel for these people....tough times for sure.....A time where everyone should be looking forward to the warmth of spring,the birds migrating north,the first green emerging from the cold earth...not sitting in a 14' lund serving as an ice breaker huddling with a lifevest on fighting the blizzard conditions in the choopy waves in a farm field...better days are coming!....

[Dan189]

Below is a photo I came across while visiting:

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/03/red_river_flooding.html

This is one of many sites that I spent hours at. On Wednesday we added 1 foot to a stretch of this dike that stretched multiple blocks in south fargo. It was meant even more that one of the houses we were stationed at was a former coworkers. I felt honored to work with neighbors, college students, kids, people coming in from all over the midwest. The white house seen behind the flag opened their garage for hot coffee, sandwhiches, hotdogs, sloppy joes, and snacks, which helped provide energy and a moral boost to save the community. The flood of volunteers was unreal. And now we wait and pray.

[PierBridge]

Great Job Dan!

[eyeguy 54]

Here's another link to some great pics, pic #82 of 88 is abount 50 miles from fargo on the maple river. My mom's stuff is in one of the storage garages. Bummer!

http://valleyfloodwatch.com/featured/valley-flood-watch-2009-picture-gallery/

[Paul]

Ok here are some more from Today. Shots are of Main Ave Bridge and Moorhead's county facilities across the street from my house.

My house is behind the stop sign:

Somethings are worth fighting for, though we could use some help down here:

View from my yard

Little bit of National Media Attention:

Bridge Deck

[CFRay]

Thanks for you work on this set Paul. I'm a NDSU alum and former resident of Fargo. I like your local eye for selecting what to share with us. Good Luck.

[Paul]

Thanks CFray, I just wanted to help people understand. Due to haveing a bad back with 4 bulged disks, my sandbagging was held to a minumum so one of my ways to help was to start this thread and post some pictures. I sandbagged a couple of my neighbors houses when their dikes started to break, and did some minor sandbagging at my own house when I had water pouring through a basement window. Of all the pictures I took during the ramping up stage of the flood fight, my 2 favorites are in the last set. the 10 commandments shot and the b&w shot of the guy who hasn't slept in days trying to save a strangers house. ( I was on the same line for about 8 pallets of sandbags before my back gave up.)

[JeffB]

I farm 35 miles south of moorhead and made it through with out damage so after our creek crested I headed up to moorhead with my bobcat, pallet fork and bucket. I worked in the moorhead country club addition since I had a sister that lived in that area. What a huge effort these people were putting in. I put in four days moving pallets of sand bags. I couldn't believe how fast they were bagging the sand. I didn't have time to spit much less pee trying to keep up with them. I wore my new pheasant hunting vest so I could quickly put sandwiches and beverages people would throw me into the bird pouch. I met a lot of wonderful people through the experience. The people that lived in the neighborhood and volunteers were great and I would do it again even if my sister didn't live there. Every one was thanking me for bringing my bobcat and helping, but in the end I felt like I should have been thanking them it taught me a lot about how good people are and how much better it feels to help out rather than sit in my easychair watching the struggle. For now I am home and left my skid steer for them to use. Good luck all.

[cliffy]

Those are some great pics.....

Just wanted to say thanks again to all of those of you that helped fight the flood and sent "good luck" and well wishes. They seem to have worked. Unless things change, it looks like Moorhead is going to make it out of this flood with limited damage.

On a good note, my wife and I moved back into our house last night..no damage to be found. We got lucky, the city make a couple of back-up dikes that basically made our addition into a dry island. Again, thanks to all for your help in this matter.

Take care

Cliffy

[Steve Foss]

Glad to see you escaped damage, Cliffy!

[Paul]

Cliffy, Glad you your home made it out dry. I was helping one of my neighbors on 9th street on the corner of 9th and 6th and the brown house on the intersection lost its battle. I humped. quite a few 40 lb sand bags on 9th street last weekend. As I was walking back home I was stopped by a State Trooper, (becasue I had my camera around my neck) to give me grief about being there, untill I explained to him I lived in area and was walking home to get some dry gloves and socks. He went over and asked the people working and they vouched for me so when I was heading back, he stopped and apologized for giving me a hard time. Said his orders were to arrest looky lous in site if they were in the way.

I will also echo Cliffy's comments about help from everywhere. I would like to extend a big thank you to the National Guard members, other law enforment members, the thousands of people from surrounding communites and states that came to help us. Thank You Thank You Thank YOu Thank YOu.

[Steve Foss]

Paul, or Cliffy, or anyone there, can you let us know about whether you think a second crest might come, and how high it might be?

[Paul]

Steve, It is not so much if it will come as WHEN it will come. They are saying maybe 2nd week in April. We got a foot of snow Tuesday and Whapeton Breckenridge area got over 20" of snow on tues. Still a lot of water to move into the Valley. THey are predicting only 36'-39' last I heard for second crest. Weahter service will be updateing its predictions next week after this warm spell rolls through this weekend. Right now we have been haveing 34 degree days and 24 degree nights so melt is nice and slow with remaing snow pack.

[B@ssDoctor]

Nice pictures but a sad sight to see. I have somewhat of a odd question and mean no disrepect to anyone, but: I realize the amount of sandbags that are needed to attempt to stop the flooding. But this is somewhat expected in this area. I saw the aqua dikes also and think they are a good idea and most likely not that hard to deploy (although resource/time consuming).

Isn't there a way that the area folks can store the sandbags from year to year? If the material is not strong enough to last 10 years, then make different materials. Or is it the fact of the vast amount of room it would take and the sand bags are wet?

Like I said, no disrespect to anyone but would like a few answers.

[cliffy]

Paul, or Cliffy, or anyone there, can you let us know about whether you think a second crest might come, and how high it might be?

I think mother nature is out to get us this year!!!

At an 11:30 am National Weather Service briefing, NOAA released the following statement.

Warming temperatures in the Red Rive of the North basin will begin melting ice and snowpack, setting the stage for a dangerous second crest in Fargo, North Dakota and Moorhead, Minnesota later this month, according to forecasters with NOAA’s National Weather Service.

After using all available forecast temperature information to assess its impact on the melt of snow and ice that remains in the Red River Basin, the National Weather Service updated the outlook for the second crest at Fargo. Here is what he said about the second crest. “The current National Weather Service outlook indicates a high probability (75 percent chance) of reaching or exceeding 41 feet and a 25 percent chance of reaching or exceeding 42.8 feet. This second crest currently is expected to occur in the latter half of April.

Fargo saw a March record rainfall of 4.62 inches, topping the 1882 record of 2.83 inches, and a record March snowfall of 28.1 inches, topping the 1997 record of 26.2 inches. The current winter season (2008-09) snowfall through April 3 at Fargo-Moorhead was second only to 1996-97 totals. Frigid temperatures have kept this water frozen in place, and it will begin to flow into the river system in the coming weeks. Before the record March snowfall, water content in the region’s ice and snowpack was as much as 300 percent above normal.

“The collaborative effort of local, state and federal governments to protect Fargo last week paid off, but Fargo isn’t out of the woods yet,” said Scott Dummer, chief hydrologist of the North Central River Forecast Center. “It’s critical that we plan for the second crest now.”

Concerns still remain about the first flood wave as it continues to slowly move downstream toward Drayton. Residents can monitor local conditions on weather.gov/water.

NOAA urges residents of Fargo-Moorhead and Red River Valley communities to continue heeding orders issued by local officials. If told to evacuate, do so immediately.

[MNRookie78]

Today my dad and I took a quick flight to see a birds eye view of the flooding in the Oslo, MN area. It was hard to imagine the river being nearly 6-7 miles wide at some points as the media reported, but after seeing it from the air it's very true! Luckily the majority of the farms in that area and the town of Oslo itself have built solid dikes and appear to have no visible water on the home side, keeping the homes safe. Here are a few of the shots he was able to get. The weather and lack of sun weren't the best for good photography, but it get's the point across of how powerful mother nature can be.

The town of Oslo...

This picture shows how WIDE the river is. In the distance you can see snow that hasn't been flooded. Everything tinted gray is flooded area that is now ice due to the cold temps. The flooding continues to the right of the picture for quite a distance.

This one gives you a better idea of how widespread the flooding is. Notice the snow that is not "stained".

This resident needed a boat to get anywhere as you can see at the bottom center of the picture.

There were a few trucks out and about checking on everything.

Hopefully a second crest doesn't happen! As all the pics in this thread prove the residents of the Red River Valley have gone through enough already!

[bassNspear]

awesome shots man!

Hard to look at this as well. Hopefully everythign will be ok and they can get back to normal soon!

[Paul]

Well, It has been hard, business shut down at the request of the city, so no pay checks for some, thousands of pounds of Sand bags still hanging out. And more flooding to come. Here is a neat link to visualize 3.5 million sandbags in Fargo alone.

Sandbag facts

[Paul]

Well preperations began today to move the leavy systems to 45 feet. Unheard of height for the red. They expect by Saturday the river will be down to 31 feet then 50 degree days will start the next onslaught to 43+ feet of water in Fargo.

One gentleman I visited with in Valley City ND on Saturday mornign were they are suffering from the Cheyenne river as well, said that the city was paying $1000.00/day per truck, $30.00/hour per driver, 24 hours a day to build dikes around the river of a town in a huge Gulley protected only by the Bald Hill Dam. This Flood will be costing the tax payers every where milllions if not a billion dollers to fight and repair.

here is a link from CNN from 2 field correspondants. CNN Story

I am sure that if anyone wants to help fight the next crest they will be asking for Volunteers next week again.

[cliffy]

This will be very, very interesting if the NWS's numbers are correct..or even pretty close. I sure hope people dont relax too much thinking the battle is over....cause the 2nd wave could really cause some serious damage. My heart goes out to the people of Oak port Township who have already lost the battle or sustained heavy damage.....Mother nature needs a punch in the gut and told to leave us alone for awhile...

Cliffy

[Paul]

So Cliffy, would you say I was a nut case for still wanting to buy the house on South River Drive? Spent an hour there with our realator again tonight surveying the damage. It didn't turn out too bad, they had 4 inches of water after the city told the bank that their leavy would never be high enough, so they turned off the power and left. bring with it 4 inches of water since the pumps didn't run with out power. Dike held up though.