As I'm sure you're all aware, this whole area is dealing with flooding. It's not good and it's not over. Fargo/Moorhead is obviously getting the worst right now but they've been putting up one hell of a fight. I think they finally got some welcomed news today though. After their crest prediction was increased 2 days in a row, the weather service announced today that they were fairly certain that the river was finally cresting today and would not reach the 43 foot mark they feared. They can still have fluctuations up to a foot due to wind or ice jams, but at least the rapid rise is over.
A few neighborhoods in Fargo have had voluntary evacuations and 20% of Moorhead was mandatorily evacuated, but for the most part, they were precautionary evacuations and not because everything was covered in water. They are still fighting though and the sandbag dikes are holding fairly well. I didn't realize that when a leak starts in those dikes that they can still fix it. Hundreds of people are on call if any leaks start and backup sandbags are available at the drop of a hat. They are still running sandbag central in the FargoDome so they have enough backups but hopefully they can stop that soon.
It's going to be a long road though. They have torn up the city to put up contingency dikes and do whatever they can to hold the water back. Just today, I saw that they were digging up soccer fields at a middle school to have dirt to build up the dikes again. And even though the river has hopefully stopped rising, that doesn't mean it's dropping very fast. It will probably stay at this level for the next 5-7 days, so those sandbags have a long time to keep holding. Hopefully Fargo/Moorhead has seen the worse, but you never know. We are certainly keeping everyone there in our prayers.
(Please keep in mind that everything I know about Fargo I have seen on our local news, so my info could be outdated already. And I'm still wrangling 2 kids here, so I could have heard something wrong too.)
So far, we are okay up here, but all that water has to come our way. We actually had a crest today and the river went down one or two tenths of a foot, but we still have the major crest to come. All week the crest has been pushed back, and as of now, our crest of 51 feet is expected on Thursday, but could stay around that level until April 4/5. Because we have an awesome dike system that is built to 57 feet, we should be fine, but you can't help but wonder what if. It's not like our dike has ever been tested with this much water before so we're all praying that there are no problems. However, the longer I see the sandbag dikes hold in Fargo, the more confident I feel about our solid, engineered one. There are parts just out of town that are having problems, so they've been fighting with sandbags and dirt, but as a whole, our city is safe.
What no one is looking forward to is the additional 8 inches of snow that is forecasted for Monday. We just got almost a foot of snow this past week and we certainly don't need any more. But since we have the snow, it's almost better for the weather to stay cold because we don't want all that to melt right now.
So please keep everyone who is battling the water in your prayers. They still have a long way to go, so pray for their strength and endurance to keep fighting!
Here's a video that brought tears to my eyes. It really is amazing how everyone has come together! To get the full effect, you need to hear the song, so be sure to pause my song on the playlist below in the right column.
And here are some pictures that I took of the river. These pictures were taken at the same place, the first one last Friday, and the second was taken yesterday. I won't be taking any more though because I guess you can be arrested if you are caught on the dike. And it wasn't until I was back down that I realized how dangerous it is up there, especially with all the snow. If you would slip and fall in the water, you might not be able to get back out because it's so slippery. Anyhow, even with the water covered with snow, you can see the difference.
A few neighborhoods in Fargo have had voluntary evacuations and 20% of Moorhead was mandatorily evacuated, but for the most part, they were precautionary evacuations and not because everything was covered in water. They are still fighting though and the sandbag dikes are holding fairly well. I didn't realize that when a leak starts in those dikes that they can still fix it. Hundreds of people are on call if any leaks start and backup sandbags are available at the drop of a hat. They are still running sandbag central in the FargoDome so they have enough backups but hopefully they can stop that soon.
It's going to be a long road though. They have torn up the city to put up contingency dikes and do whatever they can to hold the water back. Just today, I saw that they were digging up soccer fields at a middle school to have dirt to build up the dikes again. And even though the river has hopefully stopped rising, that doesn't mean it's dropping very fast. It will probably stay at this level for the next 5-7 days, so those sandbags have a long time to keep holding. Hopefully Fargo/Moorhead has seen the worse, but you never know. We are certainly keeping everyone there in our prayers.
(Please keep in mind that everything I know about Fargo I have seen on our local news, so my info could be outdated already. And I'm still wrangling 2 kids here, so I could have heard something wrong too.)
So far, we are okay up here, but all that water has to come our way. We actually had a crest today and the river went down one or two tenths of a foot, but we still have the major crest to come. All week the crest has been pushed back, and as of now, our crest of 51 feet is expected on Thursday, but could stay around that level until April 4/5. Because we have an awesome dike system that is built to 57 feet, we should be fine, but you can't help but wonder what if. It's not like our dike has ever been tested with this much water before so we're all praying that there are no problems. However, the longer I see the sandbag dikes hold in Fargo, the more confident I feel about our solid, engineered one. There are parts just out of town that are having problems, so they've been fighting with sandbags and dirt, but as a whole, our city is safe.
What no one is looking forward to is the additional 8 inches of snow that is forecasted for Monday. We just got almost a foot of snow this past week and we certainly don't need any more. But since we have the snow, it's almost better for the weather to stay cold because we don't want all that to melt right now.
So please keep everyone who is battling the water in your prayers. They still have a long way to go, so pray for their strength and endurance to keep fighting!
Here's a video that brought tears to my eyes. It really is amazing how everyone has come together! To get the full effect, you need to hear the song, so be sure to pause my song on the playlist below in the right column.
And here are some pictures that I took of the river. These pictures were taken at the same place, the first one last Friday, and the second was taken yesterday. I won't be taking any more though because I guess you can be arrested if you are caught on the dike. And it wasn't until I was back down that I realized how dangerous it is up there, especially with all the snow. If you would slip and fall in the water, you might not be able to get back out because it's so slippery. Anyhow, even with the water covered with snow, you can see the difference.
1 comment:
I'm glad that you all are better off up there. I hope that Fargo/Moorhead plans for some permanent flood protection in the near future.
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