MPR’s Laura McCallum reports on a stressful week for residents of Southwest Fargo, where homes in the 500-year floodplain are threatened by rising water. Most of these homes are far from the Red River, and residents never imagined they'd be scrambling to protect their homes from overland flooding.
The Red River flood of 1997 was a major flood that occurred in April and May 1997 along the Red River of the North in Minnesota, North Dakota, and southern Manitoba. The flood was the result of abundant snowfall and extreme temperatures. It was the most severe flood of the river since 1826. Water spread throughout the Red River Valley and affected the cities of Fargo and Winnipeg…but the greatest impact was in Grand Forks and East Grand Forks, where floodwaters reached more than 3 miles inland. Damages in the Red River region totaled $3.5 billion. As a result of the 1997 flood and its extensive property losses, the United States and state governments made additional improvements to the flood protection system in North Dakota and Minnesota, creating dike systems.
Transcripts
text | pdf |
[GENERATOR WHIRRING] LAURA MCCALLUM: A generator pumps water back over a dike that divides stunning two-story homes from the bloated Rose Coulee. Normally, a small creek meandering through six developments in Southwest Fargo,
Dick Adamson is one of several volunteers anxiously awaiting more sandbags to shore up the dike. Adamson lives a couple of blocks away. So if this dike fails, his home is in the water's path.
DICK ADAMSON: I think it would hit all of hit all of Rose Creek at that point. You can see how high it is. It's up another foot above here. So that's all going to empty all that. There's only one place to go.
LAURA MCCALLUM: A boy who lives nearby bikes past to check out the situation. Eric [? Kleebe ?] is taking a break from helping his mom move their belongings out of the basement. He sounds wise beyond his 10 years when he talks about the flood.
[? ERIC KLEEBE: ?] This is phenomenal. We've never had a flood like this. I've never seen this kind of water. For the past years, I've lived here, I went through the '89 flood, so it was scary, too.
LAURA MCCALLUM: Most residents of Southwest Fargo never thought overland flooding would threaten their neighborhoods. Rapid snowmelt forced up the level of the wild rice river this week, filling coulees and ditches, and pushing against hastily constructed earthen dikes and sandbags.
PAT ZAVORAL: No one knew the volume of water in the snow,
LAURA MCCALLUM: Fargo public works director Pat Zavoral.
PAT ZAVORAL: But what you have is you have square miles of water that fill in these drainage systems, and then just flow right over the top of the drainage system, and the rest of the land that's around it. And that's what we're seeing.
LAURA MCCALLUM: Margaret Harris's Home sits at the junction where Rose Coulee flows into the Red River. And she's gotten used to being awakened in the middle of the night by heavy equipment or sandbag delivery.
Harris is trying to put the effects of a 500-year flood in perspective.
MARGARET HARRIS: This used to flood naturally. And now, all of a sudden, there's all these houses. And you tell the creek, you can't come up here anymore. It doesn't work that way. Nature has its own way. And we just have to bow to it, and we have to learn to live with it because it was here first.
LAURA MCCALLUM: Harris says, while it's devastating for residents with flooded basements or damaged property, she's thankful people are safe. She and her neighbors will continue to reinforce their dikes, try to get some sleep, and hope for the best.
In Moorhead, I'm Laura McCallum. Minnesota Public Radio news.