Rising Red River threatens Fargo

Published on Saturday 28 March 2009 19:30

BONE-CHILLING cold slowed the rise of the already record-high Red River yesterday as weary volunteers waited and watched to see if all their hard work had been enough to save the Midwestern US city of Fargo from major flooding.

"Now it's time to stand and defend," said Tim Mahoney, a city commissioner in Fargo.

Millions of sandbags were in place, with 1,700 National Guard troops on patrol, monitoring dikes with the help of volunteers and looking for cracks in the defences. Temperatures were as low as -17C during the night, which stopped snow from melting and feeding the rising river.

Early yesterday, the river stood at 40.81ft – more than 22ft above flood stage – but melting snow as a result of warmer daytime temperatures was expected to cause a further rise.

Even after the river crests, the water may not begin receding before Wednesday, keeping up the pressure on the levees put together mostly by volunteers.

Mayor Dennis Walaker told CNN that the threat would linger long past today's predicted crest.

"We have about eight days of significant concern, and then maybe we can start breathing a little easier."

Authorities in Fargo and across the river in Moorhead, Minnesota, a city of about 30,000 people, expanded evacuations on Friday across several blocks. About a third of the households in Moorhead had been urged to leave.

President Obama yesterday said he was keeping a close eye on the situation and putting the government's full weight behind efforts to prevent disaster.

"We will do what must be done to help," the President said. He repeatedly praised volunteers stockpiling sandbags and building levees, saying "their service isn't just inspirational – it's integral to our response."

Those volunteers had piled sandbags on top of 12 miles of snow-covered dikes, with the frigid weather freezing the bags solid as they worked.

Hundreds more Guard troops poured in from around the state and neighbouring South Dakota, along with scores of American Red Cross workers from as far away as California.

"We've done everything we can," said resident Dave Davis, whose neighbourhood was filled with diggers and tractors building an earthen levee. "The only thing now is divine intervention."

Federal officials are prepared to shelter and feed 30,000 people for a week, said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. More people than that may be evacuated, but she said officials expect most would seek help through friends and family first.

Fargo escaped devastation from flooding in 1997, when Grand Forks, 70 miles to the north, was ravaged by a historic flood. This year, the river has been swollen by a heavier-than-average snowfall, combined with an early freeze last autumn that locked a lot of moisture into the soil. The threat has been made worse by spring rain.

Around Fargo, crews built a contingency dike system as a second line of defence should the river breach riverside neighbourhoods. That placed some homes between two sets of dikes.