Reply #18: AP: Cracks in levee force evacuations in Fargo, ND

[L. Coyote]

Cracks in levee force evacuations in Fargo, ND
By NATE JENKINS and DAVE KOLPACK – 18 minutes ago
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hw95ek5Sllmi4SoQ_N4HJvwHE0ZAD9764PO01


FARGO, N.D. (AP) — Officials ordered the evacuation of one Fargo neighborhood and a nursing home late Thursday after authorities found cracks in an earthen levee built to protect the area from the threat of the rising Red River.

Residents were not in immediate danger, and floodwaters was not flowing over the levee, Mayor Dennis Walaker said Thursday night. The evacuation was being enforced as a precaution.

Officers were going door to door to the roughly 40 homes in the River Vili neighborhood and were evacuating Riverview Estates nursing home. Authorities also called for the voluntary evacuation of about 1,000 people who live between the main dikes and backups in various parts of the city. That evacuation could become mandatory, officials said.

Authorities across the river in Moorhead, Minn., also stepped up evacuations Thursday. They recommended that residents leave the southwest corner of the city and a low-lying township to the north.

Fargo residents have been scrambling in subfreezing temperatures to pile sandbags .............