i hope our cities make it through this. it's terrible here

[brdhntr]

you've probably seen it on the national news. our fair cities of fargo north dakota and moorhead minnesota are fighting the largest flood this area has ever seen. i spent the morning sandbagging and the afternoon driving people through the flooded streets in the suburban. yesterday was the same. if things hold overnight this area has another 1-2 feet to go before the river crests. then it sounds like it will stay that high for up to a week. dikes just can't take that kind of pressure for long. we have already lost alot of neighborhoods and we aren't even at the crest yet.

 

where i am, we are fine, but a couple blocks away some friends are under water and there is water blocking most ways out for us. it's so bad that this afternoon they started digging up the playground at my kids' school a couple blocks away so they can use the dirt for dikes around some of the government properties. yep, things are bad. the schools closed this week and they're already closed all of next week. we'll see if things can open after that.

 

it stinks that it is so cold for this time of year, but that's actually helping us. we got 7" of snow early this week and if that melts, the river is going to go up another foot or more. since it's so cold, things are staying frozen. this slows the slow the rivers rise and gives us a little more time on some of the dikes. it also means that the fields that were lakes at the begining of the week are now frozen so that aren't contributing to the problem for now.

 

you should see my suburban, the lower half is covered in ice. literally covered in ice, about an inch thick. i have to drive with my left foot on the brakes to dry things out now and then and to keep things from freezing.

 

the national guard is walking the dikes over night in teams of 2. there is alot of miles of dike right now (one dike alone is 18 miles long) so there's alot of guard members taking on the task of watching the dikes. i should be sleeping (i'm beat), but it's my turn to keep an eye on what's going on so my wife can sleep tonight. i also have to be ready to go at a moments notice to help friends and others if dikes start to leak or break. if things go really bad, someone has to be awake to know what's going on and make sure we the kids are safe. they could shut the water and power off at any point now as well. several neighborhoods north of us had their utilities cut early this evening. if the power is cut, at 0 degrees, you've got to find a heat source or evacuate pretty quickly.

 

well, back to watching the tv and listening to the radio (yes at the same time). wish us well. :waving:

[JeepcoMJ]

geeze man.

 

good luck, and god bless. I hope everything works out in the end...

[deziped]

Been watching that on the tube. Pray all comes out well for you and your friends & neighbors & city.

[djag12]

Good luck we are thinking of you. Keep yourself safe.

[BLHTAZ]

WOW... :eek: I had seen some news & pictures of flooding, but had no idea it was that bad. We'll be praying for you.

[mvusse]

Wow, that sux! Wish there was anything I could do to help.

 

Good luck.

[dakal]

:ack: :ack: :ack: :ack: :ack: :ack: :ack: :ack: :ack: :ack: :ack: :shake: :shake: :shake: :shake: :shake: :shake: :shake: :shake: :shake: :shake: :shake: :shake: :shake:

 

sorry man

[Eagle]

I'd say it's a real credit to you that your own house is within an affected zone and yet you are out driving other folks around through the flooding. Kudos to you, Mate. Well done.

 

Probably too late now, but I hope you have a generator and enough gasoline to run it for several days. I've been through a few prolonged power outages, and having a generator makes things a lot easier. In the past, I used a small one and would have to move the generator around to run the water pump, then the boiler for awhile, then the refrigerator for awhile -- one at a time, in series. Over last summer, I finally added an auxiliary panel in the garage with a 240-volt outlet so I can plug in the generator and power the entire house (although we have to be careful what we turn on, because the new generator isn't enough for life as usual).

 

Prayers to you, your family, and your neighbors.

[maddzz1]

gives us a little more time on some of the dikes. :waving:

 

How can you be thinking of things like this in a crisis. Just kidding. Hope you and you family stay safe.

[brdhntr]

wow, this is incredible. i talked with a few friends today. one is in the guard and was patroling some of the dikes last night. she said it's a little scary having the water that high and just hoping the dike holds.

 

another has water 10' from the back of their home. the sandbag dike they have is leaking so they have to man it 24/7 and try to keep the pumps from freezing. they had their kids taken to safe ground 70 miles away and are now ready to continue the fight. the dike is about 5' high and the water is about 3 1/2' up on it. it's amazing that it's holding. i have volunteered to man the pumps and dike so they can get some sleep a couple nights. they have someone for tonight so it will be monday or tuesday. if i can help them keep their beautiful home dry, i will gladly go without sleep for a couple days.

 

there were a couple leaks in some of the dikes over night and today. one of the biggest dikes and the one keeping much of the city dry shifted and started to leak. we were coming from a friends when it happened. there were cops speeding by us and blocking traffic to allow the trucks through. they shut down the main bridge connecting our 2 cities. since all the other bridges are under water, we had to drive all the way across town to the interstate. then we had to drive quite a ways to find an off ramp that was open.

 

several more homes were lost over the night and today, but things are going pretty well overall. some of my hunting buddies were evacuated from their homes last night. their homes are still ok, but the dike is weakening fast.

 

i will say it's incredible how our communities pull together in such a situation. young, old, rich, poor, northside, southside, it doesn't matter, everyone is in this together. there was a dike failing this morning and 2000 people showed in in less than an hour to get it fixed up. that saved about 100 homes and a school. with all the people helping, the dike was back in good shape in under 2 hours.

 

well, it's my turn to sleep. so good night all. we are all hanging in and we will fight as long as we can. ;)

[mvusse]

As long as you keep on fighting I wish you all luck on winning this battle.

 

Hang in there!

[Eagle]

Any updates? I saw something in the news this morning about a levee/dike rupturing and a school getting flooded. Was the breach confined to the school or did that break open Padora's box?

[brdhntr]

a flood wall let go. actually it was the ground under the flood wall and that took the wall with it. it took out a private school on the fargo side called oak grove. it also caused trouble with about 30 homes. they evacuated most of that area. a couple areas to the north (the red river flows to the north) lost the fight so the helicopters and boat have been sent in. the water is moving so fast that they are having difficulties using boats. the helicopters are having to do the rescues and that means that some people won't be brought to safety for a little while. several more neighborhoods were lost and over 150 roads are under water. the road going to my parents new house they built is under water now. the friends house i helped sandbag the other day is now surrounded by water and there is no way in or out (even by boat because of the current). the house is still dry though.

 

i took some time this afternoon to take my kids around and show them history in the making. i did take alot of pic's and will get the link for them as soon as i have time to get it done. there is so much damage, but it's incredible how the water is being held back. in some cases the dikes are above the rooflines of houses and the water is at the top of the dikes. over all i am impressed that more houses aren't under water.

 

i wanted to impress on my kids what an effect this has on animals as well. i showed them several fields around the area surrounded by water with deer stuck on them. they have no where to go, and not much to eat. my kids want to do something to help people. since they love animals, we are going to go walk dogs and feed animals at an emergency shelter set up tomorrow. assuming nothing happens that would put me elsewhere.

 

there is alot of info coming in and alot of errors in reporting right now by outside media (and there is a ton of outside media around). some of the media here can make a quick change to a story to make sure the info is accurate. outside media does what they can but can't break in to stations to give the latest, most accurate news like our local stations can. one of the big things is that this is a larger metropolitan area and the national media just says fargo. some (well most) lost areas are not actually in fargo. they are in areas around the city limits, which is confusing since some are actually surounded by the city limits and some parts in town are not actually fargo. it's really confusing. there was a pic on one of the national newspapers showing some guard soldiers wading through icey water to rescue someone. that was not actually in fargo. big deal, we are all members of the fargo/moorhead metro area. we are all in this together. some of the officials want it known that fargo has only lost a handfull of houses. the other houses are not actually in fargo so technically fargo is doing better than reported. the fargo city officials are doing a much better job of protecting the city than what some people may think do to the lost neighborhoods and houses.

 

the river actually started to go down some, but was back up some an hour ago. because of the freezing temps, all the water that would be going to the river is frozen and not moving. if we can stay cold for a week or so, it will help alot. unfortunately we are supposed to get hit with a winter storm (possibly blizzard level) starting tonight or tomorrow. that's going to possibly add another 4-7" of snow. that means we will have flooding for a while yet, but hopefully not at the level it's at now.

 

the more dangerous issues with the storm are the wind and low visibility. the low visibility is going to make rescues and evacuations very, very difficult or impossible. the wind will cause large waves on the water making more pressure on the dikes and waves may go over the dikes. if the river is at 40' and the dike is at 43', a 2' wave goes over it. :ack:

 

i'm tired, i'm going to bed. :chillin:

[bigd44889]

good luck man we will be thinking of u and your family keep us updated as u can

[brdhntr]

ok, here's an update. because it got so cold, things froze up instead of running to the river and adding to the flooding. unfortunately, we just received 11" of wet sticky snow. the river had been dropping nicely rather than staying at the crest level for the anticipated 3-5 days. the new snow won't effect us for a week or two since it's so cold. so now they expect a second high crest around the 15th. that means we need to keep the dikes up and keep watching them and the pumps for another 3 weeks or so (it will take at least a week to drop after the next crest).

 

so instead of sandbagging yesterday, i spent all day and evening snowblowing out. i did our place and 8 others. now i have to go out and clear the ends of the drive ways and corners since the plow came by. much better than dealing with the flood.

 

first, i'm going to take the family for a ride and check out what's going on in the country and check on the dog club. then we'll go check on some friends. :wavey: