Red River cities focus on permanent flood protection

Dan Gunderson and Nathaniel Minor in Minnesota Public Radio: Residents of Fargo-Moorhead are cleaning up sandbags and removing temporary levees after the Red River's crest last week. As it turned out, most of that emergency preparation wasn't needed for this flood. Both cities are now turning their attention back to building permanent levees and flood walls.

Since the record flood in 2009, Moorhead has spent nearly $90 million buying homes along the Red River, replacing entire neighborhoods with five- to six-foot tall berms that serve as permanent levees. That work paid off this year, Moorhead City Manager Michael Redlinger said. "When we were planning for those stages of 39 and 40 feet, it was just a really different flood fight for us this year compared with 2009," Redlinger said.

In 2009, Moorhead used 2.5 million sandbags and eight miles of temporary earthen levees to hold back a 40.8-foot river level, protecting about 300 homes. The same level this year would have required about 300,000 sandbags and a few hundred feet of clay levee to protect about three dozen homes. Flood preparation in 2009 cost $5 million in Moorhead. This year, even if the flood had reached the same level as 2009, city officials estimate the cost would have been about $1 million.

When predictions of a record flood evaporated this year, it meant Moorhead could wait until closer to the river crest to react.

The city has purchased 215 flood-prone homes since 2009 and would like to purchase another 15 to 20 homes...

The Red River of the North rises above its banks and threatens to flood Fargo, ND, in April 2013. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) completed a temporary emergency levee along 2nd Street in Fargo, ND on Apr. 29, 2013. The Corps completed the temporary levee near the city hall to support the city’s efforts in fighting the flooding of the Red River of the North. This is the fourth time in the past five years that the Corps has assisted the city. Photo credit USACE. Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

As Red River ebbs, Fargo plans cleanup

Dave Kolpack in Twincities.com: Residents of Fargo turned their attention Wednesday to cleaning up and protecting against future floods as the Red River began its slow descent from a crest that came in well below early projections.

The Red appeared to hit its peak at 33.27 feet early in the day, spilling from its banks but well short of the 38-foot territory that begins to seriously stress defenses in Fargo and neighboring Moorhead, Minn., home to a combined 200,000 people.

With the river starting a slow decline, a public meeting at Fargo City Hall focused mainly on future flood prevention efforts. Fargo wants a diversion channel that would steer much of the Red around the city, but its nearly $2 billion price tag and resistance from some downstream interests have slowed the project.

"There's good news here obviously in terms of the crest level, but we simply can't afford to rise to the challenge, so to say, every single year," Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar said. "We should have a permanent solution in place and that's what we're here to talk about."...

The new flood wall at Fargo's Oak Grove School, created after the 1997 flood is almost completely covered with snow.  2009 Photo Michael Rieger/FEMA

Flood protection planning for North Dakota

Lindsey D. Fry in in KFYR (Bismarck, North Dakota): North Dakota could see as much as $65 million in federal money to help build permanent flood protection. The funds come in the form of Hazard Mitigation grants, which provide money to state and local governments to implement long-term protection after a disaster.

Senator Conrad said it is desperately needed to begin rebuilding the communities devastated by this summer`s flood. “This isn`t about me, this is about 4,000 families that had their homes destroyed in Minot North Dakota,” said Conrad.

Conrad said right now no community in the country deserves the attention more than Minot and Burlington. But he added certain factors must happen before a successful recovery is made. “If we don`t get additional resources in CDBG, and if we don`t have flexibility to use this hazard mitigation money that will be coming in to this state, we are not going to have kind of recovery all of us want to see,” said Conrad...

The North Dakota National Guard’s patrols one of the mandatory evacuation zones in Minot County on June 22, 2011. The patrols help ensure that all citizens have evacuated their homes and to render assistance in the areas threatened by the rising water of the Souris River that has exceeded major flood stage. (Photo by Spc. Cassandra Simonton, 116th Public Affairs Detachment)

A compact couldn't be worse than the Corps

An editorial in the Bismarck Tribune (North Dakota): The degree to which the Missouri River has been mismanaged became clear when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced it would only reduce the elevation of Lake Sakakawea behind Garrison Dam to 1,837 feet by March 1, 2012. That elevation, slightly below March of this year, means the odds of flooding again next spring remain strong.

Circumstances on the nearly 2,400-mile river -- saturated banks, levees and flood plains, dams near capacity, continued high releases into the fall, ongoing wet weather -- give the corps little choice. Record snow pack, rain events and corps decisions over the years combined to set up this disaster, and now we are nearly out of options in preparing for 2012.

Gov. Jack Dalrymple wants to dump the corps management of the river and replace it with a compact of Missouri River states. Presently, the corps finds itself bound by a congressional act, restrained by Congress, locked in by a master operating manual, pressured by special interests and second-guessed by everyone. Shifting to a compact would be complicated, but not impossible. Once in place, it could be more responsive to the changes by eliminating one or more layers of absentee (Washington) river management.

"It's hard to imagine that it can be worse than it is today. Any compact would establish clearly the priorities of uses," Dalrymple said this week. He's right on that account...

An aerial view of the Garrison Dam in North Dakota, US Army Corps of Engineers photo

Worse flooding to come in Minot, North Dakota

CBS News: With a threat of still more rain looming, Minot [North Dakota] was bracing Saturday for the Souris River to cascade past its already unprecedented level and widen a path of destruction that had severely damaged thousands of homes and threatened many others. The only thing stopping water from rising in parts of Minot this morning are man-made dikes.

"Nobody has even seen water levels at this dimension," said Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D. The Souris - known locally as the Mouse River - surged past record level set in 1881, and kept going. The water has risen more than 4 feet in the past 24 hours, reports CBS Station WCCO correspondent Jamie Yuccas - and it's not over yet.

City officials were expecting the river to peak as early as Saturday evening at some 8 1/2 feet beyond major flood stage and remain there for several days, straining the city's levees to the limit and overwhelming some of them. Forecasters said there was at least an even chance of additional storms in coming days. "A rain event right now would change everything. That's the scariest," Mayor Curt Zimbelman said….

The Souris River swells above the temporary levees here, June 23, 2011. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District’s number one priority is protecting human life and they continue to provide technical assistance to communities affected by historic flooding along the Souris River. (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers photo by Patrick Moes)

Red River begins slow decline in Fargo area

Reuters: The Red River on Sunday had started a gradual decline in the Fargo-Moorhead area after reaching a preliminary crest at the fourth-highest level on record with rain storms coming in lighter than expected. "Fortunately, most of the precipitation is coming in as pretty light," said Greg Gust, warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service.

The Red River rose rapidly last week and appeared ready to threaten the 40.84 foot record crest at Fargo of two years ago. However, the rise had slowed considerably by Saturday. The weather service said Sunday the river had reached a preliminary crest in the Fargo-Moorhead area at 38.75 feet Saturday night with prolonged flooding expected.

The Red River had dipped more than two inches by Sunday morning to about 38.53 feet, the weather service said. It was expected to stay above 37 feet until Thursday afternoon…

Fargo, ND, March 24, 2009 -- US Coast Guard flyover to survey the Red River of the North flooding. Photo: Michael Rieger/FEMA

Red River flood mitigation plan requires state, local approvals

Dave Kolpack in the Insurance Journal: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says it needs formal approval from state and local officials in two states by April 11 to keep alive the latest version of a planned Red River diversion around Fargo and neighboring Moorhead, Minn. The corps on Wednesday outlined recent changes to the project as workers for the agency were building temporary levees around the Fargo-Moorhead area. Residents are preparing to defend against what’s predicted to be a third straight major flood.

A record flood in 2009 forced thousands to evacuate, inundated about 100 homes and caused an estimated $100 million in damages. Last year’s flood crest was the sixth-highest on record. The diversion, which would move water west of the metropolitan area on the North Dakota side, originally was estimated at $1.25 billion. The latest changes have bumped up the cost to $1.7 billion. More than $950 million would come from sources other than the federal government.

Officials representing city and county governments said they expected approval of the updated plan. “We do not want to be the agency that kills this project. That’s the bottom line,” Fargo Mayor Dennis Walaker said.

Even so, some are worried that the higher price tag could make the channel more difficult to sell to taxpayers. “That’s going to weigh heavy on a lot of people’s minds — how we’re going to pay for this,” said Darrell Vanyo, Cass County, N.D., commissioner….

A flooded neighborhood in Fargo, North Dakota, in March 2009. Photo by Patsy Lynch/FEMA

Red River flooding forecasts increase across North Dakota

Brianna Ehley and David Bailey in Reuters: The chances for major flooding at many locations along the Red River have grown, including the expectations for crests at Fargo and Grand Forks in North Dakota, the National Weather Service said on Friday. "This past week has seen a significant amount of additional rain, sleet and snow" in north central North Dakota and the central and southern parts of the Red River basin, the National Weather Service said.

The Red River has a 50 percent chance of cresting in Fargo at 40.5 feet, just short of the record 40.84 feet set in 2009 and 1.7 feet higher than the outlook set three weeks ago, it said. In Grand Forks, the Red River has about a fifty-fifty chance of reaching a crest of 51.9 feet, about 1.5 feet higher than the March 3 forecast, it said.

The National Weather Service said it sees a 10 percent chance for the Red River crest to exceed the record levels of 1997 when it hit 54.35 feet, but a better than 90 percent chance that this year will be the second highest on record….

The Red River in flood in April or May 1997 in Grand Forks, North Dakota and East Grand Forks, Minnesota