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Fargo breathes a sigh of relief

Officials confident of winning flood flight

By: Dave Kolpack

Posted: 03/21/2010 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

M. SPENCER GREEN / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Enlarge Image

Darrell Nelson wades through water caused by overland flooding from the Sheyenne River to check his mail outside Harwood, N.D.

Fargo -- A city used to fighting floods was confident Saturday it had done enough to hold back the swelling Red River -- even as the water inched higher -- but officials stressed it was too early to celebrate.

Homeowners checking on piles of sandbags in their yards and National Guard soldiers inspecting clay dikes said they didn't see any immediate problems. City officials, who weathered record flooding last year that forced thousands of residents to flee, even passed out cigars they said they would light -- but not until after today's expected crest.

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"There's always a battle between people who say it's over when it's crested. ... This is an ongoing problem. Right now I feel all the dikes and sandbags and earthen dikes should stay in place at least until it's down to 30 feet," Fargo Mayor Dennis Walaker said.

City crews were turning their attention Saturday to cleaning up debris -- plastic, plywood, unused sandbags -- from neighbourhoods where dikes were built.

Thousands of volunteers in Fargo and neighbouring Moorhead, Minn., spent the past week filling and placing more than one million sandbags to fight back the rising Red River, and officials and residents said they felt better prepared for this year's floods.

On Saturday, they got some more good news: The National Weather Service lowered its crest prediction for Sunday by another half-foot to 19 feet above the flood stage. The weather also helped -- below-freezing temperatures helped slow the melting of snow. Though the river could still threaten homes and roads, especially if any of the clay levees are breached or if there is heavy rain in April, Walaker said he was not aware of a single public building in North Dakota's largest city that had been damaged by this year's floods.

Moorhead homeowner Randy Bach was up at 6 a.m. on Saturday. But instead of checking the sandbags around his house like he did last year, he took his golden retriever, Roscoe, for a walk and then planned to head to the YMCA to play racquetball.

Last year, he had wade through floodwaters to get to his car that had to be parked on the street. This year, Bach had his driveway all to himself.

"Good news. It's all good news," he said before getting into his SUV.

Last year, thousands were evacuated in the Fargo area and many homes were damaged as the Red River swelled to record levels. Though it did not appear it would cause many severe problems in Fargo and Moorhead, rural areas could see significant overland flooding from some of river's smaller tributaries. Several farms were already surrounded by water or had been turned into soggy fields, and those conditions could continue. National Weather Service spokesman Bill Barrett said Saturday the nearby Sheyenne River was about a foot over flood state. The river is expected to stay at or near its crest level for about a week in most places, officials said.

"Any place affected by the Sheyenne still has a long ways to go in the flood fight," said Cass County engineer Keith Berndt.

National Guard soldiers who watched over the flood dikes in and around Fargo said they were finding no major problems. Staff Sgt. Jason Zumbo, who worked a 12-hour shift overnight, said this year's situation is markedly better than the record flood last year. "It's not so much boring, it's just that last year was a lot worse," Zumbo said.

He noted a snowstorm in the middle of last year's flood made conditions much more sloppy. "This year, you're not walking around with 15 pounds of mud stuck on your boots," he said.

-- The Associated Press

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition March 21, 2010 A8

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