Red River may have crested! Info, pictures of Ntl Guard in brrrr-land

[uppityperson]

The Red River appears to have crested in Fargo, dipping to 40.69 feet at 10:15 a.m. That’s down from 40.82 feet earlier in the morning. The latest chart by the National Weather Service shows the river will dip and hold level before continuing its descent.

The weather service's latest trend prediction shows a continuing though very gradual decline for the next week, but a spokesman cautioned that forecasters still must evaluate the information.

Even with the gradual decline, which has held for the past seven or eight hours, the river remains very high, above the 1897 record of 40.1 feet, said Mike Hudson, a weather service spokesman. "I think right now we're starting to see the effects of the cold weather," Hudson said.

Snow is expected Monday, and a lot of water is flowing toward Fargo-Moorhead from the south.

If the weather stays sub-freezing, the snow won't melt and add to ground water flowing across the frozen ground into the rivers. While it is nasty being cold and wet, it is betterthan having higher groundwater.


http://www.crh.noaa.gov/ahps2/hydrograph.php?wfo=fgf&gage=fgon8&view=1,1,1,1,1,1


Here is a picture of National Guard:
National Guard personnel walk in the high icy floodwater as the Red River continues to rise, Saturday, March 28, 2009, near Fargo, N.D., as they try to evacuate residents.


Bonus article:
http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/235567/group/home/

The North Dakota Department of Health reported Friday two deaths and 50 injuries related to flood-prevention efforts and flooding.

The two fatalities were cardiac related deaths due to flood prevention exertion.

The 50 injuries were reported to hospitals and clinics statewide. They ranged from wrist and ankle stress to serious motor vehicle accidents due to washed out roads.

Also, 11 flood-related illnesses have been reported as of Friday, including mental health issue, carbon monoxide poisoning, cardiac related events and one report of gastrointestinal illness.

The North Dakota Department of Agriculture is urging livestock producers around the state to contact their county extension agents if any of their livestock have been lost or stranded in the recent flooding. This will allow state officials to plan animal rescue and carcass removal efforts and to get a handle on the number and type of disaster payments that might be claimed under the federal disaster declaration.

A picture of Downtown Fargo across the Red River from Moorhead, MN and a hope for continued holding of dikes and levees:

[liberal N proud]

1. If you were in the National Guard and had to choose

Would you choose this:


Or Iraq?

That water has to be coooooooooooooold

[uppityperson]

4. Latest news from the National Guard...(I'd pick walking in icy water, but brrrrrrrrr)

http://www.areavoices.com/springflood/?blog=47159


As of 11 a.m. today, 1,369 Guardsmen were on duty in Fargo. By the end of today, that total number is expected to exceed 1,900. National Guard Soldiers and Airmen from other states have been filtering in during the past two days, including 326 currently on the ground in Fargo from the South Dakota National Guard.

Rapid Response Teams of engineers are prepared to move in and repair any dike problems from 11 staging areas throughout Fargo. Two of those staging areas are “heavy” — with extra engineer equipment, and a third location has an evacuation team available on site. The last 14 hours have been relatively quiet, with no breaches reported.

Two-person teams of Guardsmen are walking every length of dike in Fargo around the clock to watch for problems. Other Guardsmen in Fargo are dispersed throughout town. For instance, 21 are at the City Shop helping to fuel and maintain pumps, others are manning pumps at locations such as Oak Creek and some are supporting the North Dakota Highway Patrol with 13 traffic control points around town. Air assets are prepared to insert 1-cubic-yard bags of sand should there be a dike breach. 150 bags have been prepositioned at three different locations, and UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crews are currently conducting rehearsals with hoist baskets.

Teams have gone in to evaluate the Sheyenne River ice jams and have considered using demolitions to break up those ice jams. That mission currently is on hold until air temperatures increase enough to ensure the ice won’t refreeze quickly.

[EFerrari]

9. I've never seen ice like that in my life!

:wow:

[OwnedByFerrets]

11. They dont have anyone shooting at them....

no contest.

[underpants]

24. I'd pick the same thing I basically took the oath for.. North Dakota

:patriot:

[sutz12]

2. Well, let's hope it has finally turned.

Prayers go out to our brothers and sisters in the Great Upper Midwest.

[annabanana]

3. Oh I hope that's true!. . .If it stays below 43', there is hope for

some dry land...

[uppityperson]

5. State reports deaths, injuries related to flooding, prevention (no drownings yet)

http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/235567/group/home/

The North Dakota Department of Health reported Friday two deaths and 50 injuries related to flood-prevention efforts and flooding.

The two fatalities were cardiac related deaths due to flood prevention exertion.

The 50 injuries were reported to hospitals and clinics statewide. They ranged from wrist and ankle stress to serious motor vehicle accidents due to washed out roads.

Also, 11 flood-related illnesses have been reported as of Friday, including mental health issue, carbon monoxide poisoning, cardiac related events and one report of gastrointestinal illness.

[uppityperson]

6. Ag department urges ranchers to report stranded, drowned cattle

http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/235564/group/home/

The North Dakota Department of Agriculture is urging livestock producers around the state to contact their county extension agents if any of their livestock have been lost or stranded in the recent flooding. This will allow state officials to plan animal rescue and carcass removal efforts and to get a handle on the number and type of disaster payments that might be claimed under the federal disaster declaration.
(clip)
Brian Zimprich, extension agent for North Dakota’s Ransom County, said the county has suffered heavy overland flooding. That’s bad news for county residents, but even worse news for beef cattle producers, who are in the middle of calving. “We have 50 head of cattle that have been lost due to flood, and there are various unofficial reports of livestock loss, rumored to have died due to flood or bad weather,” Zimprich said. Seventy-five to 100 calves have been lost, many to pneumonia, he said.

“Some of them were newborns and some probably a week or 2 weeks old that have come down with pneumonia or illnesses due to the extreme temperature changes and the wet conditions,” he said. “It’s just not the best situation for calving right now.” Zimprich said livestock animals often will make it safely to higher ground, but have no feed there.

“That was the case in Emmons County, (N.D.) where the water came up quickly and the animals were trapped on a mound,” Vollmer says. “There was some feed there, but it wasn’t enough for the number of days that the animals were out there.”

[MADem]

7. This shit happens to some degree in that region every few years, it seems.

They need to either move the populated areas BACK, or build some proper levees that hem them in and keep the water out.

A History of Flooding in the Red River Basin:

http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/2007/55/pdf/finalWebGIP55.pdf

1700s Large flood in 1776 according to anecdotal accounts; floods in Canada, especially in 1747 and 1762, substantiated by tree-ring evidence.

1826 Flood of record in Canada that destroyed settlements.

1882 Large flood at Fargo, N. Dak./ Moorhead, Minn., and Grand Forks, N. Dak./East Grand Forks, Minn.1897 Largest flood on record at Fargo.

1916 Large flood in Fargo and on upstream reaches; sizeable flood in Canada.

1943 Large flood in Fargo/Moorhead; in an 11-day period, the Red River rose about 23 feet; St. John's hospital was engulfed and 270 families were forced from their homes.

1950 Flood that caused most severe damage ever sustained up to this point--extended time for flooding; major disaster in Winnipeg with one-third of city evacuated.

1965 Widespread flooding caused by heavy rain on frozen ground.

1966 Severe flooding from United States/Canada border to Winnipeg.

1969 Maximum discharge recorded on the Red River at Fargo/Moorhead and Wahpeton, N. Dak./Breckenridge, Minn., and in some areas on the Sheyenne River to this date; first flood to be diverted around Winnipeg by Red River floodway.

1975 Flood that included two peaks, in spring and summer.

1979 Second largest flood after 1897 (to this date) at Grand Forks and in Canada.

1989 Flood that severely damaged the cities of Wahpeton and Breckenridge.

1993 Summer flood caused by a series of intense thunderstorms at various locations throughout the basin.

1997 Major flooding in United States and Canada; largest recorded flood in Grand Forks/East Grand Forks; second largest in Fargo/Moorhead and Wahpeton/Breckenridge.

2001 Significant flooding caused by heavy rains on frozen ground in addition to above-average snowfall.

2002 June flooding in northwestern Minnesota, especially in Roseau, Minn., and northeastern North Dakota caused by intense rainfall.

2006 Spring flooding throughout basin; most cities well prepared because of improvements made since 1997.

[Doremus]

13. x2

Makes no sense. The monetary damages to date could have probably paid for proper levees and then some. :shrug:

[Captain Hilts]

15. Too short-sighted and penny wise, pound foolish. nt

[uppityperson]

18. please read down to posts 16 &17. One thing about disasters is hopefully people get educated

about the area, the disaster, etc. As people may have learned some things about AK by having Palin in the news, perhaps people might learn about the geography of the Red River Valley by reading about this flood.

[Odin2005]

16. It's a result of the local geography

We are on the bottom of a dried up glacial lake and this lake-bed is completely FLAT. Also, it flows northward and so it thaws upstream before it thaws downstream, resulting in ice dams.

[uppityperson]

17. The area is the bottom of a huge lakebed, mostly flat with slight ups/downs

Here is a graph of historic floods.



Frequently there is flooding issues. Here is some info as to why that happens. Yrs that don't have flooding have a higher tendency to have a drought, not good for the bread basket there.

The area is flat, is the bottom of a huge lake bed. It is flat. Nice to bicycle in, but flat with minor ups and downs, and 1 ft can make a huge difference. Lake Agassiz drained 9200 yrs ago. Rivers are cutting through the lakebed, but it is mostly flat. When the ground is frozen and there is extra rain/snow that melts and runs across the ground, it drains into rivers. The rivers rise and drain back across the ground. The Red River runs north, and it is usually colder north, meaning that they get the extra thing of ice dams upstream, blocking the flow.

The hope is that even if it snows another 5 inches in the next few days, temps will stay below freezing. Put 5 inches of snow down over a brazillion acres. Melt that and let it flow overland to the rivers. This is a huge amount of water. The river rises (picking a number) 2 inches. Dikes are topped, water flows out across the land, covering much of the area in 6 inches of water. Back and forth.

I have family who lives in S Fargo right next to a drainage project that collects groundwater flowing north, diverts it around the city into varied other drainage places. They did their 2 hour dike patrol last night, as they will do every night until level drops.

After the '69 and '97 floods, a bunch of houses were removed as they were too close and too low to the river. Dikes were built to handle up to "500 yr floods". This yr the river surpassed that level by 2+ ft.

The dotted line in this graphic is the edges of Lake Agassiz.

[EFerrari]

8. Am I right to think it crested lower than expected?

Everything crossed!

[uppityperson]

10. It crested higher than first expected, this is lower than finally expected.

It can still change, quickly, but so far so good.

[EFerrari]

12. Thanks, uppityperson, and thanks so much for keeping us updated.

:hi:

[Odin2005]

14. PLEASE let this be the crest.

And those dikes BETTER FUCKING HOLD!

[uppityperson]

19. Doing the "keep frozen" chant here for you.

[aquart]

20. Amen.

[uppityperson]

22. I found a picture of the Viking Stave Church, Moorhead, Minnesota

[uppityperson]

23. Water around the boat (in white tent) in Moorhead, Fargo across river

Wet feet will be ok, hoping the building and church don't get damaged beyond that.


http://www.inforum.com/event/image/id/260174/

[uppityperson]

21. Still building dikes, keeping watch.

http://www.areavoices.com/springflood/?blog=47169
Dikes go up on Eighth Street South in Moorhead

A clay dike was constructed on both sides of Eighth Street South, between 30th and 37th avenues south Saturday afternoon, to help contain spillover from a holding pond on the East side of the road.

Water covered the far northbound lane for about a block near Dave’s South-side Tap.

The dikes will be built to protect from a river elevation of 43 feet, Moorhead city engineers said.