North Dakota Residents Brace for Possible Flooding

Flooding is certainly nothing new to the residents of Fargo, North Dakota, and the current situation is no exception. The big Red River is set to crest this coming weekend at an estimated twenty feet above flood level, so area resident volunteers are working alongside city, county and state officials filling over 1 million sandbags and counting.

While some non-residents are quick to say that Fargo residents should ‘just move out’ due to what sometimes seems like a constant threat of floods, most long-term Fargo residents simply shrug it off. Some will even tell you that the very same thing could be said for people living in San Francisco-seeing that it is situated in an earthquake-prone area. One thing is for sure and you can even bet money on it–many residents of both localities say that their respective city is simply where they call home and that they could not imagine living anywhere else.

So, for now, all eyes are on the weather-and what weather it has been. A recent spring snow storm barreled through the area and dumped twelve inches of fresh snow on an already fully saturated ground, making for some nervous anticipation inside the city limits as well as in surrounding towns and villages. Those people with homes in high risk areas are contemplating their choices. Should they evacuate now, sandbag their homes and stay or should they just wait and see? The answer is a bit of all three it seems. Some residents are busy building makeshift rainwater barriers on their property, others are pulling out small water craft while some are packing there bags and heading out of town. Take a drive through the most threatened neighborhoods and you will see numerous signs taped to front doors notifying officials that the homeowners have evacuated-listing the family member names and the date the family fled.

Some backyards along the mighty Red River look like lakeside property as the river banks have been swallowed up and are out of view. Officials in Fargo are pushing Washington to award them with millions of dollars in federal aide so that they can build new levies for next year’s floods. In the sandbagged areas, rubber hoses attached to sump pumps are removing the little water that is seeping through the dikes and putting it back into the swelled river-removing it as fast as it comes in.