BISMARCK, North Dakota, April 3, 2009 (ENS) -

The worst is over for North Dakota, at least for now. This morning, the level of the Missouri River in Bismarck dropped below seven feet, and emergency officials and residents were able to catch their breath.

Todd Sando, assistant state engineer for the Noprth Dakota Water Commission, told the "Bismarck Tribune" that the ice jam below Fox Island broke up overnight Wednesday.

Sando said Friday the river stage in Bismarck was 6.97 feet, more than nine feet below where it crested at 16.09 feet on March 24, when 1,700 residents fled the floodwaters. The water temperature in the river is rising, he said, and more water is now flowing through the channel, reducing the flood potential.

In Fargo on the Red River, shops reopened Wednesday and residents went back to work. The Red River is still in flood stage, but it appears to have spared the city.

City and emergency officials want to see the river fall to 36 or 37 feet or lower. Late Wednesday, it was down to 36.98 feet - far above flood stage but below the top of the floodwalls, which are topped with five feet of sandbags.
North Dakota National Guardmembers place sandbags to keep flood waters at bay. (Photo courtesy North Dakota National Guard)

Last Friday, hundreds of south Fargo residents fled their homes as the Red River rose to 40.66 feet, its highest level in 112 years and a crack appeared in a sandbag dike.

Fargo must now remove the roughly three million protective sandbags stacked atop the dikes by resident volunteers and the North Dakota National Guard.

Adjutant general of the North Dakota National Guard, Army Maj. Gen. David Sprynczynatyk, said Thursday that the Guard had anticipated and prepared for flooding from the winter snowfalls. "We went through an extensive planning exercise to ensure whatever was asked of us we would be prepared for," he said, adding that even so, the extent of this year's flooding was a major challenge.

Sprynczynatyk was speaking by teleconference with civilian and military Internet bloggers to detail the flood response efforts underway.

"Today was the first time that a National Guard adjutant general has directly engaged bloggers to tell our story in a homeland defense mission," said Jack Harrison, the director of public affairs at the National Guard Bureau.

Sprynczynatyk told the bloggers that 2,400 Guardmembers joined local emergency responders to fly search and rescue missions, conduct sandbagging, manage ice jams and help communities in many other flood response missions.
Army Maj. Gen. David Sprynczynatyk (Photo courtesy North Dakota National Guard)

"It was epic in nature," said Sprynczynatyk. "None of us imagined what the scale of the event would be across the state."

The Blogger’s Roundtable, a social media program at the Department of Defense, hosted the event for several hundred live listeners. The interview will be posted to iTunes for downloading.

As conditions continue to change across North Dakota, state and federal emergency managers have begun reallocating resources while planning for an expected second crest of the Red River later this month. The response is being coordinated by the North Dakota Department of Emergency Services and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is constructing and maintaining emergency levees in Fargo and 15 other North Dakota cities and has provided more than 9.2 million sandbags.

In Washington, DC, U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat who chairs of the Energy and Water Appropriations panel, which funds all federal flood control projects, announced today that he intends to hold an official Senate hearing on improving flood control in Fargo and the Red River Valley.

"After the Red River flood water has subsided in the coming weeks and after the cleanup has begun, it will be an appropriate time to begin the evaluation of the type of additional flood control projects that will be necessary," Dorgan said.
Flooding in Fargo's Riverview section, March 28, 2009. (Photo by Patsy Lynch courtesy FEMA)

"The entire area has put up a great fight, one that will not be soon forgotten," the senator said. "Now is the time to assess what has happened and put in place a flood protection plan that will provide long-term protection for the Fargo/Moorhead area if the Red River Valley floods in the future."

Coordination among various levels of government to achieve better flood protection in the Red River basin began today with new urgency.

North Dakota Governor John Hoeven and Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty announced they will work with city, county, state, federal and congressional officials to get the job done quickly.

The governors were joined by Fargo Mayor Dennis Walaker; Moorhead Mayor Mark Voxland; Cass County Commission Chair Robyn Sorum; Clay County Board Chair Jerry Waller and U.S. Congressman Collin Peterson of Minnesota.

Pawlenty and Hoeven said they are organizing a mission of local, state and congressional leaders to Washington, DC to press the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to quickly complete a current study of flood protection in the Fargo-Moorhead area.

The study is scheduled for completion by December 2010, but the governors say faster work is needed because large scale projects of the kind needed in Fargo-Moorhead require approval by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other federal agencies before work can begin.

"We need the Corps to do more than just study it - we need a plan and a commitment from the Corps for federal funding and project approval so that we can move forward with construction," said Governor Hoeven. "Our budget committed $75 million in state funding for Fargo's Southside Flood Project, which should be incorporated into the plan, and we are willing to commit more if necessary."

Hoeven and Pawlenty say the Corps' plan will include a range of features, such as levees, non-structural flood proofing, diversion channels, floodwall systems and storage and other engineering techniques to stave off flooding.

"Flooding has affected Minnesotans and North Dakotans along the Red River Valley from the river's headwaters to the Canadian border," Governor Pawlenty said. "A comprehensive and equitable plan is needed to protect citizens in both states from future flood events. The good work already completed in East Grand Forks and Grand Forks is proof that mitigation is not only possible, but that it works."

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2009. All rights reserved.

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