Cold weather delays crest as thousands evacuated

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This article was published 28/03/2009 (6015 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

FARGO, N.D. — Thousands of shiv­ering, tired residents got out while they could and others prayed sandbagged levees would hold Friday, as the sur­ging Red River threatened to unleash the biggest flood North Dakota’s lar­gest city has ever seen.

The agonizing decision to stay or go came as the final hours ticked down be­fore an expected crest Sunday, when the ice-laden river could climb as high as 13 metres, nearly a metre higher than the record set 112 years ago. The city got a one-day reprieve Friday night when the U.S. National Weather Service pushed its crest projection back from Saturday to Sunday afternoon, saying frigid tem­peratures had slowed the river’s rise. While the weather service targeted the crest near 12.8 metres, it said feet 13 is still a possibility.

"It’s to the point now where I think we’ve done everything we can," said resident Dave Davis, whose neighbour­hood was filled with backhoes and trac­tors building an earthen levee. "The only thing now is divine intervention."

Even after the floodwaters crest, the water may not begin receding before Wednesday, creating a lingering risk of a catastrophic failure in levees put together mostly by volunteers.

Some 1,700 National Guard troops helped reinforce the dikes and conduct patrols for leaks. Police restricted traf­fic to allow trucks laden with sandbags, backhoes and other heavy equipment to get through. Red Cross workers poured in from as far away as Modesto, Calif.

Homeowners, students and small armies of other volunteers filled sand­bags in freezing temperatures.

Fargo escaped devastation from flooding in 1997, when Grand Forks was ravaged by an historic flood 113 kilometres to the north. This year, the river has been swollen by heavier-than­average winter snows, combined with an early freeze last fall that locked a lot of moisture into the soil. The threat has been made worse by spring rains.

"I think the river is mad that she lost the last time," said engineer Mike Buerkley, managing a smile through his dark stubble as he tossed sandbags onto his pickup truck after working 29 straight hours.

Authorities in Fargo and across the river in Moorhead — a city of about 30,000 people — expanded evacuations Friday across several blocks. About 2,600 households in Moorhead — about a third of the city — were asked to leave their homes. Hundreds more in Fargo were asked to evacuate.

Some residents were roused from their sleep around 2 a.m. local time Fri­day and told to leave after authorities found a leak in a dike.

In the small town Oakport Township, just north of Moorhead, fire crews watched as a fire destroyed an evacu­ated home surrounded by sandbags, but could not get close enough to fight the fire because of the flooding.

— The Associated Press