pek1
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I can't believe no one's posted a thread on this yet.
Red River reaches record level, floods Fargo with uncertainty - CNN.com
FARGO, North Dakota (CNN) -- The Red River rose to 40.2 feet early Friday, breaking a 112-year-old record and creating a quandary for emergency officials who can no longer rely on historical data to guide their response.
The water rises Thursday in Fargo, North Dakota. Forecasters say the Red River will crest Saturday.
Hundreds already have evacuated Fargo neighborhoods, hospitals and a nursing home. Officials across the Red River in Moorhead, Minnesota, also were urging residents to leave.
The river topped the 1897 record of 40.1 feet about 4 a.m. CT (5 a.m. ET), said National Weather Service spokesman Patrick Slattery in Kansas City, Missouri.
"It's expected to continue rising," he said. Forecasters have said the river will crest Saturday.
Record levels for the river mean uncertainty for officials and volunteers who are scrambling to mitigate the flooding in the area, Slattery said.
Emergency responders can extrapolate the effects of the rising river, he said, but they cannot know for sure what works because they have never witnessed the river so high and therefore have no previous data with which to work.
"You get above record levels, you don't know. You have nothing to reference it to," Slattery said.
The effectiveness of sandbagging and temporary levees, as well as the direction and extent of the flooding, are among the mysteries, he said. "At some point, especially when you're dealing with record levels, you reach a point when there's nothing else you can do," Slattery said. "Start alerting people to be ready to get out of there."
City officials evacuated a neighborhood of about 150 homes early Friday after they found cracks in a levee. Capt. Tod Dahle said the residents were evacuated because the neighborhood lies between a primary and contingency levee.
Fargo Mayor Dennis Walaker said late Thursday that about 100 people were evacuated from a nursing home and another 40 people from a nearby neighborhood. No one was in immediate danger, officials said.
MeritCare Hospital and MeritCare South University Hospital announced late Thursday they would begin evacuating 180 patients. Emergency services were to stay open, but patients were being transferred to hospitals in and out of state.
"We do not want to give up yet. We want to go down swinging if we go down," Walaker said. "Does that put fear in everybody's heart? I hope it doesn't. We have to do everything possible to be successful. And I think that's what everybody is committed to."
The evacuation of the 150 homes in the Fargo neighborhood was ordered after "longitudinal cracks were found in the earthen levee built to protect the area from floodwaters," according to a city news release.
Fargo resident Kristy Fermstad spoke at a City Commission meeting late Thursday with tears in her eyes. She expressed fear that the river behind her home would spill over by morning.
"If we wait until tomorrow morning, it's too late," she said, pleading for help from the city. Commissioners assured her that a portable dike would be constructed in time to safeguard her neighborhood.
The city plans to raise dikes to 44 feet on the south side of Fargo, and contingency dikes were being built in case of a major breach.
"We are going to use all our resources to make [the changes] happen," Fargo Deputy Mayor Tim Mahoney said.
A number of streets were closed Thursday to allow more room for sandbag delivery and emergency crews. Officials advised residents to stay off roads in North Dakota's most populous city if possible.
Sandbags are used to bolster dikes in residential areas around Fargo, while the city dikes are reinforced with clay.
Across the river in Minnesota, officials urged residents in part of Moorhead to leave "immediately, tonight or in the morning," Clay County emergency center spokesman Dan Olson said.
He called it a "directed evacuation," rather than a mandatory one. It also would apply to large parts of nearby Oakport Township, he said. The emergency center is setting up a call center where evacuees can register to be tracked.
Olson added that 500 "vulnerable adults" were moved earlier Thursday to Moorhead High School, about 45 feet above the Red River. He expected more to arrive overnight.
The National Weather Service has said the Red River at Fargo could crest at 42 feet, with the potential of hitting 43 feet. The weather service calculates flood stage as the point at which the "rise in water surface level begins to create a hazard to lives, property, or commerce." The flood stage at Fargo is about 18 feet, the service said.
A 1997 flood saw the waterway hit 39.6 feet, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Anyway, I've been off from classes almost all week, although I had a math class on Monday. After that, all classes were cancelled. It is absolutely pandemonium here.
Red River reaches record level, floods Fargo with uncertainty - CNN.com
FARGO, North Dakota (CNN) -- The Red River rose to 40.2 feet early Friday, breaking a 112-year-old record and creating a quandary for emergency officials who can no longer rely on historical data to guide their response.
The water rises Thursday in Fargo, North Dakota. Forecasters say the Red River will crest Saturday.
Hundreds already have evacuated Fargo neighborhoods, hospitals and a nursing home. Officials across the Red River in Moorhead, Minnesota, also were urging residents to leave.
The river topped the 1897 record of 40.1 feet about 4 a.m. CT (5 a.m. ET), said National Weather Service spokesman Patrick Slattery in Kansas City, Missouri.
"It's expected to continue rising," he said. Forecasters have said the river will crest Saturday.
Record levels for the river mean uncertainty for officials and volunteers who are scrambling to mitigate the flooding in the area, Slattery said.
Emergency responders can extrapolate the effects of the rising river, he said, but they cannot know for sure what works because they have never witnessed the river so high and therefore have no previous data with which to work.
"You get above record levels, you don't know. You have nothing to reference it to," Slattery said.
The effectiveness of sandbagging and temporary levees, as well as the direction and extent of the flooding, are among the mysteries, he said. "At some point, especially when you're dealing with record levels, you reach a point when there's nothing else you can do," Slattery said. "Start alerting people to be ready to get out of there."
City officials evacuated a neighborhood of about 150 homes early Friday after they found cracks in a levee. Capt. Tod Dahle said the residents were evacuated because the neighborhood lies between a primary and contingency levee.
Fargo Mayor Dennis Walaker said late Thursday that about 100 people were evacuated from a nursing home and another 40 people from a nearby neighborhood. No one was in immediate danger, officials said.
MeritCare Hospital and MeritCare South University Hospital announced late Thursday they would begin evacuating 180 patients. Emergency services were to stay open, but patients were being transferred to hospitals in and out of state.
"We do not want to give up yet. We want to go down swinging if we go down," Walaker said. "Does that put fear in everybody's heart? I hope it doesn't. We have to do everything possible to be successful. And I think that's what everybody is committed to."
The evacuation of the 150 homes in the Fargo neighborhood was ordered after "longitudinal cracks were found in the earthen levee built to protect the area from floodwaters," according to a city news release.
Fargo resident Kristy Fermstad spoke at a City Commission meeting late Thursday with tears in her eyes. She expressed fear that the river behind her home would spill over by morning.
"If we wait until tomorrow morning, it's too late," she said, pleading for help from the city. Commissioners assured her that a portable dike would be constructed in time to safeguard her neighborhood.
The city plans to raise dikes to 44 feet on the south side of Fargo, and contingency dikes were being built in case of a major breach.
"We are going to use all our resources to make [the changes] happen," Fargo Deputy Mayor Tim Mahoney said.
A number of streets were closed Thursday to allow more room for sandbag delivery and emergency crews. Officials advised residents to stay off roads in North Dakota's most populous city if possible.
Sandbags are used to bolster dikes in residential areas around Fargo, while the city dikes are reinforced with clay.
Across the river in Minnesota, officials urged residents in part of Moorhead to leave "immediately, tonight or in the morning," Clay County emergency center spokesman Dan Olson said.
He called it a "directed evacuation," rather than a mandatory one. It also would apply to large parts of nearby Oakport Township, he said. The emergency center is setting up a call center where evacuees can register to be tracked.
Olson added that 500 "vulnerable adults" were moved earlier Thursday to Moorhead High School, about 45 feet above the Red River. He expected more to arrive overnight.
The National Weather Service has said the Red River at Fargo could crest at 42 feet, with the potential of hitting 43 feet. The weather service calculates flood stage as the point at which the "rise in water surface level begins to create a hazard to lives, property, or commerce." The flood stage at Fargo is about 18 feet, the service said.
A 1997 flood saw the waterway hit 39.6 feet, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Anyway, I've been off from classes almost all week, although I had a math class on Monday. After that, all classes were cancelled. It is absolutely pandemonium here.
