Got this from our friend Roy Jacobsen, of Writing, Clear and Simple, who lives in Fargo:
If you decide it’s not appropriate for Brandywine Books, I understand; however, if you’d post a request for prayers for the safety of people in the Red River Valley, I’d greatly appreciate it.
They’re predicting a 41 foot crest on Saturday—that’s a foot higher than our last big flood in ’97, and the highest on record. We’re cautiously optimistic, but it’s a near run thing.
It’s appropriate, all right.
From what I hear, they’re having trouble getting volunteers to help with sandbagging up there. I can’t help wondering if that’s partly a result of one of the “lessons of Katrina”–that the federal government is responsible for everything.
For the record, Roy isn’t one of the shirkers. He’s been out filling sandbags, and the weather’s pretty nasty.
I’ll try to remember this the rest of the week. The photos of the current flooding are bad enough. How will Roy’s family fare? Does he live on a hill?
Roy will have to answer that question himself, when he next drops by.
One of the problems is that we got 7″ of snow on Tuesday night into Wednesday. (I’m a hundred miles east of Fargo and Grand Forks, but go there for business on a regular basis.) In fact it continued snowing all day Thursday. Many of the schools that were sending busloads of kids to help were cancelled.
Hill? Anybody who’s been to Fargo would laugh at that idea; indeed, that’s part of the problem. The Red River Valley is the bed of an ancient glacial lake known as Lake Agassiz. It’s almost, but not quite as flat as the Netherlands. One wag put it like this: You can stand on a beer can and see from here to the Manitoba border.
The Red River of the North flows north, into Canada. Fargo is at about 904 feet above sea level. Grand Forks, the next large town along the river, is at 834 feet above sea level and is about 80 miles away, which means that the slope is just under a foot per mile.
That means that the water doesn’t move very fast. Floods take a long time to build, which gives us time to prepare, but the also take a long time to subside. The current predictions are for the river to remain at or near it’s crest (which they’ve upped to somewhere between 42 and 43 feet) for 3 to 5 days. That means that all of the dikes and levees have to hold for a long time.
Another problem is in that flowing north bit. The southern part of the watershed thaws out and starts draining before the northern part does. So things tend to get backed up rather a lot.
Ice jams can be another problem, although we haven’t had to deal with that so far this year. (That’s been a different story along the Missouri River. They had an ice jam extending from Bismarck, ND, to the South Dakota border.)
We live in one of the highest parts of town (comparatively speaking), so the biggest worry I have is a sewer backup. But there are a lot of houses in danger if any of the dikes fail.
Regarding the volunteer situation: Actually, people have been very good about turning out to help. However, we’ve been at this for several days already, and fatigue is setting in. They were a bit short-handed this morning, but they put out another call, and people pulled on their mud boots and gloves and showed up again.
I should also mention that many people have come from other communities to help, and we are deeply grateful for that.
The Red River at Fargo moved into record territory overnight, now over the 40.1 foot flood stage level last seen in 1897.
The temperature this morning is 10 degrees Fahrenheit, which is good and bad news. The cold will slow the snow melt and this lessen the amound of water draining into the river. But it also freezes sandbags into bricks so they don’t mold themselves into a watertight dike. The cold also makes life miserable for the flood fighters who have to work in it, threatening to freeze fingers and toes.