My First Flood ... Welcome to Fargo!

As I'm sitting at work today, ever muscle in my body hurts. Saturday afternoon, as I sat in the hot tub at Nate's parent's house and watched their neighbor plowing a path through the snow for a sandbag wall, I had no idea I would spend 11 hours myself sandbagging over the next couple days.

When the Red River in Fargo/Moorhead gets to 18 ft they declare it a flood; the river is currently at 35.41 ft and is projected to reach 40 ft sometime this weekend.

Nate's parent's house sits at 40 ft. There is currently a 3 ft wall behind their house. Two lots down, Nate's aunt & uncle needed a 5 ft high, 10 ft deep, 100 ft long wall. Nate and I are already planning on staying at his parent's this weekend to help with fighting the flood. Looks like the neighborhood will have to do hourly checks of the wall once the flood reaches its crest.


More and more roads are getting closed as the flood water starts flowing over them, or clay dikes are built across them to stop the flood water. Our on-ramp to I-94 west was closed today as they start to build a dike along the river. I'll have to go down to the next on-ramp from now on to get to work. Many fields on my way to work are now lakes, and every ditch, stream and ravine is filled to the top or over flowing. The rural street I work on is already flooded on the other side of the county road. I would not be surprised if the same thing starts happening to other county roads around my work and it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to get to work by the end of the week. (I work out on a farm, 20 miles NW of Fargo.)

Moorhead State University, North Dakota State University & Concordia have been closed all week; they are urging students to volunteer with the sandbagging efforts. The students are lining up waiting for buses to take them to volunteer sites. Many are getting tired of waiting and driving themselves. Many high schools are sending buses of students out to help as well.

The Fargo Dome has been transformed into "sandbag central" as over 2 million sandbags are needed in the F-M area. Police escorts are making way for sand trucks and buses to get in and out. So far they are estimating over 10,000 volunteers, but it is impossible to count since so many just show up and start helping friends and neighbors. It is truly an amazing thing to be part of such a large community coming together to help friends, as well as complete strangers.

On top of everything, we got 3 inches of snow last night and they are expecting a total of 6-8 inches by they end of the day. All the area schools are closed today.

They "say" that since it is getting colder - we will see the crest hold for longer - meaning high levels for more days!

We have had to pass through several Police and National Guard "check points" just to get back to Nate's parents, as they try to keep gawkers and unnecessary traffic out of troubled areas. Now, as of 6:30 last night the roads from both directions getting into Sam and Laneil's place is totally blocked off. They have created clay dikes and have made no way to get cars in and out. We now have to park a block and a half away and walk through someones yard and down the street to get there ... but in mud, rain and snow it is a challenge.


In south Fargo this morning, 5 boat rescues are underway where people's homes are starting to flood and they are getting stuck inside. Sandbagging efforts are about 95% complete. Police and the National Guard are out right now inspecting the dikes. Today and tomorrow they will be needing volunteers to finish up and reinforce any dikes that need it. Yesterday, Dave & Sharon's sandbag wall started to slide with all the rain, they had to add 500 bags yesterday and may be adding more today.

And this is only the beginning ... please pray for safety, wisdom, energy, patience, good sleep, trust ...

I'll keep you updated.