The Associated Press
National Guard
soldiers helped pile sandbags today as rivers fed by melting snow
and rain rose quickly in Minnesota and the Dakotas.
The focus
of attention Sunday was the Red River, which flows northward between
North Dakota and Minnesota and caused devastating flooding four
years ago in Grand Forks, N.D.
Guard soldiers
helped with security, rescues and evacuations at Breckenridge,
Minn., where the river was at 16 feet and expected to crest at
19 feet during the middle of the week. Flood stage is 10 feet
but the city is protected by a system of dikes and pumps.
South of Breckenridge,
guardsmen stacked sandbags at the tiny town of Dumont, as the
Lake Traverse reservoir rose toward the town.
“What
I am hearing is that the effort really saved the town,” said
National Guard Lt. Col. Denny Shields.
On the North
Dakota side of the Red River, Fargo Mayor Bruce Furness put the
city's flood-protection plans into high gear Sunday and said work
would begin immediately on an earthen dike to keep the river out
the downtown district.
The goal was
to build the dike high enough to protect Fargo against 36 feet
of water, the crest the National Weather Service forecast for
Thursday or Friday. Flood stage is 17 feet and the river was at
just over 27 feet Sunday night.
Grand Forks
officials issued a new flood warning Sunday afternoon as the Red
River rose past 36 feet there, up more than 4 feet since Saturday
morning and on its way to a forecasted crest of 43 to 45 feet.
However, the
city had already been shoring up its dike system, which protects
to a river level of 50 feet, said city spokeswoman Christine Page
Diers.
Grand Forks
did not have that dike system during the devastating flood of
1997, when much of the city had to be evacuated and hundreds of
homes were lost.
The Red River
and others streams in the Upper Midwest were being filled by rapidly
melting snow and heavy rain dumped by a storm that swept across
the region Saturday.
Watertown,
S.D., collected 2.27 inches of rain Saturday and about 250 families
left their homes as a precaution against high water on the Big
Sioux River. They were allowed back Sunday morning as the river
started receding. National Guard members also had been sent to
help out there.
Other rivers
in eastern South Dakota were still rising, including the James
River, which was 6 feet over flood stage at Huron. New dikes were
expected to spare the town from a repeat of its 1997 flooding.
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