Spring Time is Flood Time

[dakotamouse]

You're getting what just went through here. We ended up with better than 15 inches of new snow. Fortunately the high winds we were expecting with it didn't show.

[Miriam C.]

I-29 and I-90 both closed. Did someone delay Spring up there? I guess we best pray for more cold so it doesn't melt huh. Somehow that just goes against the grain.

be safe!

[hotrod]

Karrie just came home from work, they are closing US 10 at noon so they sent her home. Still ook her a half hour+ to go 15 miles. No high winds in that 30 to 50+ range but pretty steady high 20s low 30s mph.

[hotrod]

Went back to work today, pretty much a mess. it looks like a war zone, sandbags, heavy equipment, national gaurd troops watching over dikes..
The basements flooded, there was so much pressure from the water under the buildings that the walls were starting to buckle in with water running thru the cracks.
It will be really nice to get back to a semi normal life but I think thats a long ways away for fargo people. I wouldnt be suprised to see my work move. It is right next to the red river and our oldest section of shop is 105 years old. Its time... It looks like the major flood fight is over for now but now the cleanup begins. That is the hardest on people. alot of those battles are fought inside alone. I havent seen my best bud at work for 2 weeks, he is out on a farm near perley mn. He just got a dike in place , spent since 1997 trying to get one finally.. I hope it was tall enough...
thanks for the thoughts and prayers, all were appreciated. now we need to pull for bigwoods and the folks up to the north, it sounds like the ice on the red wont be off up in winnipeg till mid may. its going to be a mess up there..Hang tough!!! Paul

[Bigwoods]

hotrod,

The ice is a real problem. We are having power outages because big chunks a floating around over land and shearing off power lines. The have send out the Coast Guard in air boats to fix them.

The jam at the Oslo bridge is still 4 miles long. Helicopters tried dropping buckets of water on them, then tried a wrecking ball. The lcals want them to bomb the jams but don't think that will happen.

Our crest is Fri. I will return to work tomorrow but back roads. I-29 is closed due to high water from out exit to the north.

Happy to see the level dropping in Fargo/Moorhead. Hope the predicted second crest, after more snow melt, is not as high as before.

Greg

[dakotamouse]

Blasting the ice jam south of Bismarck is what saved our butts from the Missouri. We aren't out of the woods yet. There is still a large ice dam to the north. As long as water flows slowly around it we should be ok. But if it lets loose ......well that's another story.

Looks like we are in for another snow storm this weekend. Where the
#@!%%* is spring!

[Bigwoods]

Were not out of the woods yet. We had our crest on Sat. I was very pleased with that. Sunday turned out to be a disastrous day. My best friend and teardrop helper has a farm to the north. It is surrounded by a huge dike. He lost the house in '97 to the big flood and now just has a shop and a quonset. He has several resrored tractors and some nice trucks.

He watches as he had 2' of freeboard on the dike in in 2 hours the dike was overrun with water. His entire property fill in with water. All the vehicle were on the highest point in a building and should be OK. He surely lost all his tools or at least will have a big mess to save them. He saw a fuel oil tank floating s he has 300 gallon of fuel oil in there too.

The water level went down just as quick. Probably caused by an ice jam.

The road to our closest town has totally been washed out. There will be no traffic allowed on the highway, even by the guard.


So Oslo is an island town accessible by airboat and helicopter. 300 people with no place to go. I wish them the best.

[Bigwoods]

drafter,

You probably know I-29 is still closed from Manvel to the Grafton exit. You have to bypass on old 81. Can't say I will be over there soon. Two of the 3 bridges in Grand Forks are still closed and will be for a while.

[hotrod]

Thanks for the update bigwoods, its not even in the news down here, seems a little self centered by the FM news community.
The dikes that were opened up here will be closed up again shortly getting ready for a second crest, alot of rumors of 41 ft plus, most think 37/39 ft. Are you getting your mail just out of curiosity? Mail and grocerys..A guy who inspects our large asme pressure vessel work in the shop was down south around the north end of lake traverse and things down there are full to the top. This was last thursday..Sounds like theres more water to come.
Take care and stay in touch as best you can, were still pulling for ya!! I was starting to get worried. Paul

[Bigwoods]

Oslo update. The little island town of Oslo has a road open to the west. You can get to I-29. They were shut off from everyone for about 3 weeks. The Salvation Army brought in 400 Easter Baskets for the towns folk. I hear the road to the East, towards my farmstead, is totally washed out.


Now we get restocked and ready for the second go round. I sure hope and pray the second crest is kinder than the first.


Take Care hotrod. I know they had time to rebuild dikes, but I'm not liking the predictions. I just can't believe it will go higher than the previous crest.

[Ivar the Red]

It's good to hear that you guys are still kickin' up there (or wadding as it were). Be careful...stay dry.

[hotrod]

Im getting tired of walking into fargo from moorehead to get to work.
I know its not far but before the snow was gone nobody moved any snow on the sidewalks and the walking lane on the bridge on main avenue or the NP bridge. So we walked in knee deep plus snow and snowplow droppings for a couple weeks..
Everybody appears to be ready for round 2. Its sounding like a 39 footer.
They say its going to be just as messy as the first...It will all be over soon...
The official pump count at my work is 19 and we used every one of them... lololol Hang tough bigwoods!! Paul

[Bigwoods]

Hello Everyone,

The mighty river is behaving pretty well this week. It has gone down some. The snow is melting as we ready for the second crest.

I know there was water over the Interstate down hotrods way. My wife flew over the area and couldn't believe how much water is coming our way.

Also a fella tried to go on a closed road up by drafter and the water won. Two passengers got out safe, but the 28 yo driver lost his life to the water.

The rescue we had up our way was successful. The man was standing on his hood. A guy told me his new truck has been rolling around a field, pushed by the water and is turning into a large bowling ball.

Hopefully the second crest will pass and the farmers won't have to wait too long to plant. If they get in too late it will hurt our economy for quite a while.

Take care guys and don't drive in flood water.

[hotrod]

Things are starting to dry up some down here..Itll be a couple weeks before anyone will get in the fields tho..