News Cut Category Archive: Disasters

School bus safety

Posted at 12:30 PM on October 6, 2009 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters

It's a horrifying moment when news comes that a school bus has been involved in a crash, as one was today in Mendota Heights.

A usual question after a school bus accident is: "Why aren't there seat belts on school buses?"

The National Association for Pupil Transportation says they aren't needed:

Because of its superior size and extensive structural and other safety equipment a school bus tends to come out best in most crashes. Instead of seat belts, school buses use a passive approach called "compartmentalization, "well padded, high back, energy absorbing seats. Simply stated, the goal of this approach is to package children like eggs. It has performed extremely well in providing a high level of safety to the many sizes of children who ride school buses, ranging from pre-schoolers up to high school football players riding to games in full gear.

The National Highway Safety Administration says school buses are seven eight times safer than cars or light trucks.

The school bus occupant fatality rate of 0.2 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled (VMT) is considerably lower than the fatality rates for passenger cars or light trucks (1.44 per 100 million VMT). The relative safety of school buses was addressed in 2002 by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in "The Relative Risks of School Travel: A National Perspective and Guidance for Local Community Risk Assessment."[5] It found that there are about 815 fatalities related to school transportation per year. Only 2 percent are associated with official school transportation, compared to 22 percent due to walking/bicycling to or from school, and 75 percent from
passenger car transportation to or from school.

Which means that if you give your kid a ride to school, he/she is at greater risk than if he/she took the bus.

(MPR Photo/Tom Weber)

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After the fire

Posted at 3:11 PM on September 17, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters

Once the flames are out , not much attention is paid to wildfires.

The flames are out in the Los Angeles area's Station Fire. That's the one that threatened the Mount Wilson Observatory and most of the communication towers in the Los Angeles area.

(h/t: Boing Boing)

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2,996

Posted at 4:36 PM on September 10, 2009 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Crime and Justice, Disasters, War

I stumbled upon this idea today. Project 2,996 encourages bloggers to sign up, get the name of a person who died on September 11, 2001, and write a blog post about that person each year on September 11. Unfortunately, the project probably isn't going to succeed this year; only 1,082 names have been assigned. Perhaps, we're moving on.

Coincidentally, I've had an item on my to-do list for a few years. See, at MPR, we're losing some of our digital (online) history. Some of our early multimedia work was in a now-dead format. And there isn't enough time or resources to preserve some of this history in a usable format.

I created this piece below in RealPlayer format -- by hand with flat html and xml files, that's how long ago it was -- during the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York. Nobody uses RealPlayer anymore. For quite awhile, I've intended to try to recreate it in a proper format. Today seemed like a good day to do it.

Here's the scene: Members of the Minnesota delegation toured the World Trade Center site. Relatives of some of the WTC dead picketed nearby, because the human remains were taken to a dump. The two groups never met, so I created this piece that contrasted the relatively "sanitary" tour they were given, with the gritty reality of the families. In the process, I was introduced to two families.

The original photos are long gone, so I had to recreate the slideshow using the former size standard -- a whopping 225 pixels. I've added a couple of new images.



Whatever happened to the issue? A federal judge tossed out the families' lawsuit last year. The landfill -- said to be the world's largest -- is being turned into a park.

Family and friends still write on a Web site dedicated to the memory of Wayne Russo. The most recent was just yesterday.

As for Matthew Horning, the 2,996 Project assigned his memory to a blogger who wrote her piece today.

Photo: Construction cranes work above the Freedom Tower at the World Trade Center, Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2009 in New York. Friday will mark the eighth anniversary of the attacks of September 11, 2001. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

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The ongoing 9/11 attacks

Posted at 12:25 PM on September 10, 2009 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Crime and Justice, Disasters

Tomorrow is the 8th anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center complex and people are still dying from it.

Watch CBS Videos Online

CBS has provided an outstanding report on the health effects of people who responded to the attacks, many of whom have been denied health, retirement, and funeral benefits by bureaucrats.

"Nobody wants to recognize that my husband served 500 hours down at ground zero giving other people closure and digging for other people and his illness is a direct result of that," the widow of a fireman who died well after the attacks. "Nobody's given me any closure. I have a two-and-a-half year old son to raise by myself now. So it would be nice if somebody admitted it. That was one of his dying wishes."

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Wildfires' star

Posted at 11:53 AM on September 2, 2009 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters

In the news business, just about everything can be turned into a controversy. It appears the wildfires in California provide just one example.

The big star of the last 24 hours has been this thing: A 747 tanker that drops fire retardant on the wildfires:

James Rainey, the media critic for the Los Angeles Times, suggests the cool tools are overshadowing the people on the ground:

This week's coverage reminds me of the skewed perspective we get at the start of a Middle Eastern war. The airwaves brim with breathless video-fueled accounts of laser-guided bombs walloping a faceless enemy. We don't see so much of soldiers slogging it out on the ground or the ugly aftermath of combat.

Well, whatever. The 747 is still pretty cool. The Web site, Wildfire Today (who knew?), profiled the plane's innards during its stop in Spain in July.

There's money in the wildfire-fighting business. The company that owns the 747 charges $29,500 an hour.

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Wildfires update

Posted at 4:18 PM on September 1, 2009 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters

Here are a couple of new links you may be interested in for coverage of the California wildfires.

KPCC's coverage has been consolidated here. Here's a really great slideshow (via Flickr) organized by KPCC with pictures from its audience members.

KTLA is providing an occasional live online feed from its news helicopter. The feed is occasionally difficult to access (presumably because of bandwidth) but is impressive and unfiltered.

For Twitter users, the California Fire Information feed is a very helpful feed. You can also find information on its Web site.

Sky and Telescope Magazine is providing a live blog of efforts to save the famed Mt. Wilson Observatory.

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Wildfires on film

Posted at 2:02 PM on August 31, 2009 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters

California is where disaster and art always seems to intersect.

And so it is today with the wildfires that have hit the western states. A massive fire in the Angeles National Forest nearly doubled in size overnight, threatening 12,000 homes today in a 20-mile-long swath of flame and smoke and surging toward a mountaintop broadcasting complex.

Video blogger Eric Spiegelman posted this:

Time Lapse Test: Station Fire from Eric Spiegelman on Vimeo.

Here's Spiegelman's Vimeo page.

Our sister-station -- KPCC in Pasadena -- has its broadcast antenna on that mountain. Audience members have been sending in their own photos. Many are quite beautiful in their depiction of the disaster.

(AP Photo/DAN STEINBERG)

Update 2:52 p.m. I asked MPR meteorologist Paul Hutter, who also writes the Updraft blog, whether we'd see the effects of that smoke in some fashion in these parts. Here's his reply:

1) Is there enough volume of smoke to reach the Midwest? Looking at the GOES 1km visible satellite today over So Cal I see the plume just north of L.A. from what I assume is the La Canada area. The plume is drifting northward. The question is does it have enough volume to reach the Midwest in a significant way? My guess is most of it will dissipate unless increased smoke volume is generated by the fires. http://weather.cod.edu/analysis/loops/satmaster.pl?S_California

2) Will the flow between 10k and 20k feet reach the Midwest? It looks like the general trajectory over the next few days will move smoke over the central and northern Rockies, then eastward around the ridge toward Minnesota. If there's enough smoke, it could get here. If it does, it should create redder sunsets. http://www.nco.ncep.noaa.gov/pmb/nwprod/analysis/namer/nam/12/fp0_024.shtml

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The last beam

Posted at 3:44 PM on August 24, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters

The last beam removed from the wreckage of the World Trade Center was the first artifact installed today as part of a Sept. 11 museum on the west side of the site.

Click on the image below to read some of the graffiti written by recovery workers in pit of the site. The graffiti stays.

Find the online version of the museum here.

(AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

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Ethanol promoter killed in plane crash

Posted at 2:06 PM on August 17, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters

A plane that crashed near Tea, South Dakota yesterday, was part of a squadron of private pilots that touted the benefits of ethanol by flying airplanes that use it. Todd Eslick, a corporate pilot, and a 12-year-old were killed when the RV-8 experimental aircraft crashed on Sunday. Witnesses said the plane's engine sputtered shortly before it crashed.

The Vanguard Squadron is sponsored by ethanol manufacturer POET.

It's not known, however, if the plane that crashed was running on ethanol.

Update 4:17 p.m. - The plane did use ethanol for fuel, according to the Argus Leader.

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After the accident

Posted at 4:06 PM on August 14, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters

(In this Sept. 21, 2007 file photo, Los Angeles firefighters survey the scene of an accident between a commuter train and an SUV in the Highland Park area of Los Angeles. Most railways offer counseling to engineers who have already literally stared death in the face, as well as to those who can be nearly certain it'll happen to them one day. Psychologists liken the memories, the distress, the sense of isolation, the nagging fear that a deadly event may occur at any moment to the post-traumatic stress syndrome associated with soldiers returning from war. (AP Photo/Nick Ut, File))

A story out of Chicago by the Associated Press is unrelated to another light-rail accident in Minneapolis in which one person was killed, but it sheds some compelling light on the often-innocent victims of accidents: the train engineers.

What makes the deaths so traumatic is how personal they can be, with engineers often seeing the expression on a person's face before impact. Details can be etched in their minds. Lough remembers the man he hit in 1992 who wore a black jacket, his hands in his pockets.

Bodies are typically torn apart, so the unshakable memories include gruesome scenes of the aftermath. Shoes often remain in the exact spot where people were struck because the impact lifts them of their footwear.

"You often know where they were standing by where their shoes are," said 55-year-old Gordon Bowe, who, as a Metra conductor, is responsible for walking back to survey the carnage after an impact.

People who want to kill themselves find trains to be an effective way of doing it. In Chicago, the engineers even have a term for it -- Metracide. Said one engineer:

'This is a coward's way to die,"' she thought after her train screeched to a halt. "'You don't want to do it, you want me to do it -- you want me to end your life.' But after the anger, there's remorse."

Seven people have been killed on the Minneapolis light-rail system since it opened in 2004. More than 800 people were killed by trains in the U.S. last year.

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Controllers in the crosshairs

Posted at 2:39 PM on August 14, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters

I mentioned in Five at 8 this morning that an air traffic controller in Teterboro, New Jersey has been suspended because he was on the phone with his girlfriend when a helicopter and plane collided over the Hudson River, killing all nine people.

Morning news reports said the phone call didn't have anything to do with the crash, but a news release from the National Transportation Safety Board seems to say otherwise.

Here's the release:

The tower controller advised the airplane and the pilot of another helicopter operating in the area of each other and instructed the pilot of the airplane to remain at or below 1,100 feet. At this time, the tower controller initiated a non-business-related phone call to Teterboro Airport Operations. The airplane flew southbound until the controller instructed its pilot to turn left to join the Hudson River. At 1152:20 the Teterboro controller instructed the pilot to contact Newark on a frequency of 127.85; the airplane reached the Hudson River just north of Hoboken about 40 seconds later.

At that time there were several aircraft detected by radar in the area immediately ahead of the airplane, including the accident helicopter, all of which were potential traffic conflicts for the airplane. The Teterboro tower controller, who was engaged in a phone call at the time, did not advise the pilot of the potential traffic conflicts.

The Newark tower controller observed air traffic over the Hudson River and called Teterboro to ask that the controller instruct the pilot of the airplane to turn toward the southwest to resolve the potential conflicts. The Teterboro controller then attempted to
contact the airplane but the pilot did not respond.

(Edited)

As noted above, immediately after the Teterboro tower controller instructed the airplane to contact Newark tower on frequency 127.85, the Newark controller called the Teterboro controller to request that they turn the airplane to a heading of 220 degrees (southwest) and transfer communications on the aircraft. As the Newark controller was providing the suggested heading to the Teterboro controller, the pilot of the airplane was acknowledging the frequency change to the Teterboro controller.

The Teterboro controller made two unsuccessful attempts to reach the pilot, with the second attempt occurring at 1152:50. At 1152:54, 20 seconds prior to the collision, the radar data
processing system detected a conflict between the airplane and the helicopter, which set off aural alarms and a caused a "conflict alert" indication to appear on the radar displays at both Teterboro and Newark towers.

During interviews both controllers stated that they did not recall seeing or hearing the conflict alert. At 1153:19, five seconds after the collision, the Teterboro controller contacted the Newark controller to ask about the airplane, and was told that the pilot had not called. There were no further air traffic control contacts with either aircraft.

The National Transportation Safety Board cautions against drawing any conclusions, but it would appear likely that the crash, which had caused politicians and others to call for more restrictions on the airspace above New York, is instead going to lead to questions about the ability of air traffic controllers to police that for which they already hold some responsibility.

Earlier, the union for controllers called suggestions they had anything to do with the crash "absurd and insulting."

Ironically, the situation comes hours after the federal government and the union reached an agreement on a new contract for the controllers after contentious negotiations.

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The plane crash in Eden Prairie

Posted at 2:10 PM on August 12, 2009 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters

The newsroom is working on the plane crash in Eden Prairie today. You can find the particulars here.

I don't -- yet -- have permission to post the images of the plane from the people holding the copyright, but here's one from the 1980s. And another. (Received permission tonight. Thanks to Gary Chambers! Gary says he last saw the plane parked at Flying Cloud's Air Expo last month. Its left engine was undergoing maintenance.)

It's obvious that it had a life as a commuter in Florida before it was restored to its original splendor.

The registration of the plane is a little spotty. The FAA, officially, says the registration -- N3038C -- is "in question"

The last time it had a trackable flight plan via online sites was in 2006.

Of course we don't know what happened and won't -- officially -- for months, but we can take the current evidence and reach an educated view of what might have been factors in play. Reports say the plane was in trouble right after it took off. That suggests an engine problem. It was returning to the airport and crashed north of it, and witnesses said it was wobbling just before it crashed, which indicates it had stalled (in aviation, stalling doesn't refer to the engine, but to the inability of the wings to provide lift because the airplane had slowed to the point where enough air wasn't flowing over the wings to provide the lift, and it simply falls).

Quite often, flight instructors advise against trying to return to the airport when a plane has an engine problem but to land "straight ahead." Attempts to turn back and land on a runway frequently fail. This is why "safety zones" are created around airports. Building is restricted around an airport just for such occasions as today.

A controversy about the need for those, for example, is currently brewing in St. Paul, where residents say it's too restrictive.

At the time of the crash, the winds at Flying Cloud were from the south, indicating that the plane may have taken off on runway 18.

In the picture below, this is the runway that intersects the two, right to left (click for larger image).

The one area that doesn't have a safety zone is runway 18. The airport is on the edge of a bluff overlooking the Minnesota River. Ahead is Valleyfair Amusement Park and Canterbury Downs racetrack, both of which would've been full of people today. (The main parking area for the PGA Championship at Hazeltine is Canterbury.) At the approach end (on the right in the picture above), there's nothing but trees and a lake.

Today's fatalities were the second and third general aviation accident fatalities in Minnesota this year. In June, a pilot was killed when he landed in a late-night rainstorm at Crystal airport. Today's were the first deaths at Flying Cloud airport since 2001.

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Why midairs happen

Posted at 5:16 PM on August 8, 2009 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters

How can two aircraft collide with each other in New York City airspace as two did Saturday over the Hudson River? Aren't air traffic controllers keeping them apart?

No.

There's a section of New York where pilots can fly without being under the control of air traffic controllers. It's no different than the area around Minneapolis-St. Paul, where there has also been the occasional mid-air collision.

As former CNN anchor -- and pilot -- Miles O'Brien notes, it's not inherently unsafe, but it does require pilots to pay attention to what's around them.

One of the busiest spots in this busy corridor is right near the Heliport at 30th St. on a pier on the Manhattan side of the river. The tour choppers there come and go frequently. They take off, go straight across the river and then turn down to the south for a trip to the statue. The chopper involved in this collision was doing just that. The plane was flying south - unsure what speed or altitude.

But here is an important point: it was a Piper PA-32 - A Cherokee Six or Saratoga (the sort of plane John Kennedy Jr. flew to his demise). It is a low wing airplane with a rather long nose. In level flight, downward visibility for the pilot is not so good. So the ascending chopper might very well have been completely obscured by the wing and engine cowling.

Why would private pilots fly in this busy corridor? The Statue of Liberty, and the breathtaking views, of course. Who wouldn't want to see those sites by air?

This is not, by the way, the same area where former New York Yankee Cory Lidle died in a plane crash. That was the East River corridor of New York, where airspace restrictions create a boxed-in canyon for pilots, forcing them to turn around in tight quarters.

There is no similar situation over the Hudson River.

Why did the aircraft crash? After an extensive investigation, the answer is likely to be the obvious one: They just didn't see each other.

(Photo: Flying the New York VFR corridor, by Ted Chang)

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Bridge probe boss leaves NTSB

Posted at 12:25 PM on July 21, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters

Mark Rosenker told President Barack Obama he's quitting the National Transportation Safety Board today.

At least in these parts, Rosenker was a controversial figure, partly because of his career in politics. He oversaw the NTSB investigation into the collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis. In the aftermath, he was the federal face of the bridge collapse.

He often clashed with Rep. James Oberstar during the bridge investigation.

He's the second board member in two days to resign.

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The Air France report

Posted at 3:45 PM on July 2, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters

The French version of the National Transportation Safety Board -- the BEA -- released preliminary findings in the crash of the Air France Airbus off the coast of Brazil last month. You've probably heard about it on your favorite public radio station newscast.

Here's the full English version of the report, which says the plane did not break up in flight, but hit the ocean at a high speed belly first.

The pictures of some of the wreckage are somewhat stunning because they're far bigger than what we usually see in plane crashes.

It seems increasingly unlikely the "black boxes" will ever be found. Without them, we may never know why this flight crashed, when so many others in similar situations have not.

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Northwest flight may have had similar problems as doomed Air France jet

Posted at 5:02 PM on June 25, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters

As investigators continue to focus on faulty airspeed indicators as the cause of the Air France crash off the coast of Brazil, the National Transportation Safety Board says a Northwest Airlines Airbus 330 may have had a similar problem.

In a release late Thursday, the NTSB said the Northwest jet was flying between Hong Kong and Tokyo on Tuesday when it apparently had faulty readings for airspeed and altittude. "The aircraft landed safely in Tokyo; no injuries or damage was reported. Data recorder information, Aircraft Condition Monitoring System messages, crew statements and weather information are being collected by NTSB investigators," the release said.

Investigators in the Air France case are trying to determine if icing on the external speed sensors called -- called pitot tubes -- caused incorrect airspeed readings and allowed the crew to fly the plane far beyond its capability to to withstand an in-flight break-up.

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The cockpit view

Posted at 8:14 AM on May 16, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters

Earlier this week, the National Transportation Safety Board held hearings on last winter's crash of a jet near Buffalo, and appeared to lay the blame at the feet of the pilot. It -- and we in the media -- pointed out the few seconds the pilot had to do something about a plane that was dangerously close to falling out of the sky, but he had not been "trained." So he pulled up, made the problem worse, and he and all aboard died.

Let's get the perspective from inside the cockpit. The semi-anonymous blogger who writes "Blogging at FL250" provides plenty of compelling analysis.

There was plenty of pressure to be had in the last thirty seconds of Colgan 3407. That the stick shaker was a complete surprise is self-evident. We don't know where the Captain's attention was in the moments before stick shaker activation; perhaps looking at the wingtips to see how the deice boots were coping, perhaps around the cockpit to see if anything had been missed during the rushed descent and approach checks. Maybe the long day had got to him and he was simply zoning out. It doesn't really matter; it's very unlikely he had any clue that the stick shaker was coming before it went off.

It is difficult to explain to those who have never flown airplanes with stick shakers just how jarring their activation is - even in the sim, much less the real world. The whole idea behind them was to have one signal in the cockpit that is so overpowering and unmistakable that the crew cannot possibly ignore or misinterpret it. Both yokes shake so heavily that you can feel it even if your hands are nowhere near the yoke. Loud clattering noise fills the previously quiet cockpit. The autopilot disconnects with the accompanying lights and aural warnings. In the Q400's case, this is a loud horn that repeats over and over until you acknowledge it by pressing the autopilot disconnect button on the yoke. The Colgan crew never did so - they had their hands full enough already - and that sound must have surely contributed to the chaos and confusion that filled that cockpit in the last 30 seconds.

According to Matthew Wald of the New York Times, the NTSB may recommend a change it recommended after the crash that killed Sen. Paul Wellstone in Virginia/Eveleth -- more warning equipment. But some pilots apparently think more flashing lights, horns and gizmos only add to the distraction pilots face.

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A question of safety

Posted at 11:52 AM on May 12, 2009 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters

In February, I wrote about the similarities between the Colgan Air (flying as Continental Express) crash near Buffalo and an Express II (flying as Northwest Airlink) crash in Hibbing in the '90s, noting that the big airlines -- in the name of "branding" -- don't exactly go out of their way to make it clear to paying passengers that when they leave a big airliner and get on a smaller plane, they're changing airlines and entering a different world.

Why that fact matters is tragically apparent today as the National Transportation Safety Board holds a hearing into the crash and releases cockpit transcripts. Fact: Sometimes the pilots aren't very qualified to transport you safely from one place to another.

The Washington Post reports:

First Officer Rebecca Shaw, in conversation with Captain Marvin Renslow, expressed wariness about the possibility of being promoted to captain without proper training.

"I've never seen icing conditions," Shaw tells Renslow. "I've never de-iced. I've never seen any-- I've never experienced any of that. I don't want to have to experience that and make those kinds of call[s.] You know I'd have freaked out. I'd have, like, seen this much ice and thought, 'Oh, my gosh, we're going to crash."

It gets worse. The captain in the crash had never received any training in the "stick shaker," the device that warns pilots when the plane is dangerously slow and near "stalling" -- falling out of the sky.

As I reported in February, the captain had over 3,000 of flight time. But nobody ever got around to teaching him about a critical safety device?

Matthew Wald, writing over the weekend in the New York Times, described a "safety net" that gets tighter with every crash. The problem is: It doesn't. The way pilot Marvin Renslow slipped through the cracks -- poorly trained and flunking flight tests -- reads almost the same as the way Marvin Falitz, the pilot of the ill-fated Northwest Airlink flight in Hibbing, slipped through. The only difference seems to be the passage of 16 years.

It would be unfair, of course, to say that regional airlines as a rule are unsafe. But there are troubling -- more than troubling -- signs that systemically, they've got a problem.

Local regional pilot "Sam," who writes the excellent Blogging at FL250, pointed to the crash of a regional jet on its way to Minneapolis (without passengers but with joyriding pilots) in 2004 as the "canary in a coal mine."

When I wrote that post about regional airline safety, I regarded Pinnacle 3701 as a "Canary in the Coal Mine." That accident was a quintessential regional airline accident. I don't think it could have happened at the today's major airlines. Once upon a time the majors suffered a string of similarly senseless accidents, but they ended up taking the lessons to heart, changed the way they did a lot of things, and ended up with a safety culture where reckless and careless behavior simply isn't tolerated. There were a lot of lessons the regional airlines could've taken from Pinnacle 3701. Nobody really changed anything of importance, though. Maybe two lives and a destroyed airplane and house weren't enough to grab their attention. Maybe it was too easy to write the pilots off as two loose cannons and miss the broader implications of their behavior.

Then there's the 2003 Air Midwest accident that crashed in Charlotte, apparently because a mechanic had never worked on that kind of plane before. The NTSB said the FAA was aware of the training deficiencies, but had not addressed them.

A long-standing problem in airline safety in the United States is the NTSB doesn't have the authority to force the FAA to do anything.

In the meantime, there are more efforts to help you find out that chocolate mulch can kill your dog, than to require airlines to tell you you've stepped onto an airline with questionable safety.

(Note: The NTSB Web site is down, but when it returns, you can find the Colgan Air documents here.)

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The St. Charles evacuation

Posted at 6:04 PM on April 17, 2009 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters

(Photo courtesy of KAAL TV)

2:03 p.m. The Winona Daily News is reporting that St. Charles, Minnesota is being evacuated at this hour. "A massive fire at North Star Foods is approaching several large chemical tanks, and smoke pouring over the town may already contain chemicals. Authorities say no one is allowed in the city limits," according to the paper.

(h/t: News Cut reader Aaron Perleberg)

2:06 p.m. - Here's the Web site for North Star Foods. It's a turkey processing company.

2:11 p.m. - The Google view of the area:

2:17 p.m. - The Rochester Post Bulletin says the fire started in an oven. It also reports residents are already concerned about the future of a major employer in the city. Some photos are also available on the site.

2:20 p.m. - Data on St. Charles. The population is under 4,000

2:27 p.m. - Why are there chemicals in a turkey/chicken processing plant? "Anhydrous ammonia is often used in the refrigeration systems inside poultry plants. But if large amounts leak, it can cause serious respiratory problems and even death," according to the Charlotte News and Observer.

2:30 p.m. - Information on the state of Minnesota's anhydrous ammonia program from the Department of Agriculture. Here's an outline for emergency response to situations involving anhydrous ammonia.

When anhydrous ammonia gas or liquid comes in contact with the human body three types of injuries may result:

1. Dehydration. Is the result of ammonia's great attraction for water. Anhydrous ammonia will extract water from body tissue.
2. Caustic burning. Is the result of the strong base formed when ammonia combines with water from body tissue. Once ammonia extracts water from body tissue it forms ammonium hydroxide that can chemically burn tissue.
3. Freezing. As liquid ammonia vaporizes it pulls heat away from body tissue causing frostbite in an instant. Released liquid anhydrous ammonia has a temperature of -28°F.

There is no antidote for ammonia poisoning. First aid consists of decontamination, maintaining open airway, and respiration support followed by rapid transport to an advanced medical care facility. After decontamination no special protective clothing is required for those caring for the injured.

Be aware that children are much more vulnerable to ammonia injury because of their larger surface area to body weight ratio. Also, a child's respiratory system will suffer the affects of ammonia exposure more so than an adult because children have a greater lung surface area relative to their body weight.

2:44 p.m. - Holly Rognholt, customer service specialist with the city of St. Charles, says people are being asked to go to the county fairgrounds for evacuation. She talked with MPR's Mark Zdechlik. Listen

2:47 p.m. - Here's a University of Missouri extension service document on how to fight fires involving agricultural chemicals.

2:51 p.m. - Civil defense sirens are sounding in St. Charles, according to the Winona News. Some very compelling photos are available on the Post Bulletin Web site.

2:59 p.m. - More pictures from the ABC TV affiliate in Austin.

3:07 p.m. - Background: The last time ammonia caused an evacuation of a city in Minnesota was 2007, when about 100 people in Lake City had to leave their homes because of a leaky railroad tank car.

3:15 p.m. - I know it's a long shot but if there's a St. Charles reader/listener who has taken some pictures, please send them to me via this form or email to bcollins@mpr.org.

3:24 p.m. - MPR's Mark Zdechlik is talking to a St. Charles resident, one of our Public Insight Network members. I hope to have it posted here within a few minutes.

3:41 p.m. - Here's the interview with Tom Ames, the St. Charles superintendent of schools, who was closing up a school when reached by MPR's Mark Zdechlik. Listen

4:39 p.m. - The Post Bulletin has video. It also appears residents will not be let back into the city tonight, according to the Winona Daily News.

4:53 p.m. - Is it time to reconsider the law that prevents Minnesota cities from being able to order mandatory evacuations? Counties can, but cities can't. We saw that up in the flood zone in Moorhead. Walt Kelly of the Winona Emergency Operations Center told MPR News, "You cannot have a mandatory evacuation so they are collecting if anybody refuses or says they are not going to leave they are taking identity information and address and next of kin just in case it is serious they do want people to leave."

5:03 p.m. - Sorry TV copters, the FAA has made St. Charles a "no fly" zone:

ZMP MN.. FLIGHT RESTRICTIONS ST CHARLES, MN. EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. PURSUANT TO 14 CFR SECTION 91.137(A)(1) TEMPORARY FLIGHT RESTRICTIONS ARE IN EFFECT FOR CHEMICAL FIRE WITH ANHYDROUS AMMONIA TANKS NEAR. ONLY RELIEF AIRCRAFT OPERATIONS UNDER DIRECTION OF FAA AND MARK DARNELL - OLMSTED COUNTY SHERIFF ARE AUTHORIZED IN THE AIRSPACE AT AND BELOW 3000 FEET AGL WITHIN A 3 NAUTICAL MILE RADIUS OF 435645N/0920359W OR THE ROCHESTER /RST/ VOR/DME 062.0 DEGREE RADIAL AT 25.0 NAUTICAL MILES. FAA AND MARK DARNELL - OLMSTED COUNTY SHERIFF TELEPHONE 507-285-8580 IS IN CHARGE OF ON SCENE EMERGENCY RESPONSE ACTIVITY. MINNEAPOLIS /ZMP/ ARTCC TELEPHONE 651-463-5580 IS THE FAA COORDINATION FACILITY.

5:33 p.m. - MPR's Sea Stachura has arrived in the St. Charles area. She was on All Things Considered a few minutes ago. I'll encode the audio and post it here.

6:00 p.m. - Here's Sea's report with Tom Crann on All Things Considered. Listen

6:01 p.m. - According to Minnesota's Department of Homeland Security, the ammonia tanks are being emptied into hazardous material containers. Officials say they do not now expect the tanks to explode.

Please check the MPR Web site for the latest through the evening.

6:11 p.m. - I'm not exactly sure what this is telling us, but NOAA has released an animated image showing the smoke plumb.

Watch the animated version here.

And this National Weather Service radar image shows the smoke being detected.

9:32 p.m. -Thanks to Chelsa Kern of Dover for these shots:

These were taken around 11:30 Friday morning...

And Craig Hilmer of St. Charles took this picture around 1:30 on Friday afternoon.

9:38 p.m. - The fire is nearly out, according to MPR's Jess Mador.

Many, many thanks to the News Cut readers who helped us out on this story!

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Update from Riverview Circle

Posted at 3:18 PM on April 1, 2009 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters, Floods

This update from Riverview Circle in Moorhead by way of Donna Morse:

Wanted to give you a bit of an update as to what is happening here since you left...

The water continue to go down and it is now off of our sandbag walls. Todd has pulled the pumps that were pumping the water from behind the sandbags back into the river. It's still really quite around here and very little traffic. Occasionally we see an military, police, city, or fire vehicle pass, yet other than that, traffic is next to none. They have lifted the evacuation ban on this area this morning so I'm sure we will begin to see more movement. Sad to say, I heard this morning that there were looters in this area last night. Guess they didn't get away with anything and are being tracked down. Was hoping we weren't going to see any of that, yet if it's limited to this once that will be great!

Other than that, we continue to keep the basement dry. Coming home from work on Monday, I found that Todd couldn't take the mess any longer and had the kitchen and living room back to somewhat normal. He even got the garage cleaned up enough for the car to be put in. We are both hoping to get back to a routine. I started cleaning and wiping things down...can only take dirty for so long...guess it's 2 weeks!

Again, thanks for covering our story, Bob. I truly appreciated working with you and having a documented piece of history is a great bonus. Please make sure to come back for a visit (or move here). ..I know the Brummers and Johnson's feel the same. You are a great reporter and truly brought our story to life for so many that read it. Those that meet you and work with you are blessed for it!

Hugs to you...Donna

Meanwhile, John Brummer reported (yesterday, but I missed the email because I was out) that the water is off his sandbags now, too. He celebrated with his granddaughter, Addie.

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The Red River from above

Posted at 5:22 PM on March 31, 2009 by Than Tibbetts (1 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters, Floods

NASA's Earth Observatory has released an image of the swollen Red River taken on March 28th when the river was at its record crest of 40.82 feet.

Head over to the Earth Observatory site where they have a 5 MB high-res version of the photo.

A second image shows you just what would happen if the levees and dikes weren't in place in Fargo-Moorhead. Beyond the city limits, the river is blown out well beyond its banks.

You really get a sense of how vast and flat the landscape is on either side of the river.

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Riverview Circle has been saved

Posted at 12:10 PM on March 30, 2009 by Bob Collins (9 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters, Floods

If not quite normal, it was at least quiet on Riverview Circle in Moorhead today. John Brummer's stairs to his backyard continue to reappear. Inside the house, John is putting things away and preparing for a trip to Mississippi this weekend. His daughter is heading there for some additional National Guard training.

There was no answer at the Johnson house. If there's any justice at all, they're sleeping.

Donna Morse has gone off to work. "Fighting these things takes money," Adam Stewart says as he works in the garage. Donna's brother, Mike, is heading back to Colorado by a southern route to avoid the coming blizzard, which nobody seems that concerned about.

The Woodbury Fire Department -- my hometown crew -- arrived today and has been assigned these houses to monitor. As I talked to them, I learned more about the critical point at which this battle was won.

According to a Moorhead firefighter, it's the moment that I captured on video. This one:

(Update 4:05 pm Tues 3/31 - I just realized that in this video above, you'll see a firefighter in blue pointing and deploying other firefighters. He's the one who told the story to us.)

All of the firefighters were supposed to be going the same way the rest of us were. But as you can see, they refused to leave. "We heard a splash and saw the sandbags going," the firefighter said to me and the Woodbury crew. A metal rod, used to reinforce the dike, was bent over, triggering the possible calamity. I didn't realize at the time I was filming the exact spot where the wall was collapsing.

If you were listening to All Things Considered last Friday, you heard it happening, too.

When the breach was plugged about 1:30 a.m., he says he turned to his friend and acknowledged that maybe that wasn't such a smart thing to do. Maybe. Protocol and common sense says the firefighters shouldn't have stayed to fight. But they did. Because they did, 1,500 homes were saved.

For me, the most memorable moment, however, happened on Thursday, when the Morses, their family, some neighbors, and friends were trying to reinforce the dike. I was passing sandbags when I dropped a sandbag, ruining the rhythm that a 'bucket brigade' requires. A moment later, I stumbled on the stumps of some bushes. "I'm not helping anybody at all, here," I said. "You're doing fine," someone else said.

Later in the day, over at John Brummer's house, a young teen was straining under the weight of lifting huge sandbags to begin the brigade. He'd just emptied a pickup truck full and now he was working on a pallet. His face contorted with pain with every bag. "Are you OK, kid?" someone said. "I'm good," the kid said.

The river is still up to the sandbags and still presents a threat, but residents are allowing themselves to relax and in some cases leaving home and going to work.

So this is a good time for me to leave work and go home. I'm bringing an autographed sandbag with me.

(I hope the neighborhood will post updates over the next few days in this spot. I'll try to keep this last post from scrolling off the page. Meanwhile, to read all of the dispatches from Riverview Circle, go here.)

Update 3:54 p.m. Tue. 3/31/09 - John Brummer has a message in the comments section below. I'm taking a few days off (it turns out I'm not as young as I used to be). When I stopped in to MPR on Monday evening, I did an interview with Tom Crann for All Things Considered. (Listen) I'll be back here in a few days.

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Monday flood meeting

Posted at 8:01 AM on March 30, 2009 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters, Floods

Highlights from the 8am flood meeting in Fargo

* Fargo Mayor Dennis Walaker is reading from a statement. I've been too busy to hear what's been said or written about him but he emphasized that "the buck stops with me," and he accepts full responsibility for what he's said.

* Walaker addressed people who were upset about his good-natured ribbing of the University of North Dakota, which lost a hockey game. Seriously. Some UND supporters paused long enough to get upset about a joke. So today Walaker is wearing a "Fighting Sioux" cap.

* Walaker said his "thrill" today was meeting Al Roker.

* City Commissioner Tim Mahoney says it's unsettling not to get a call at 3 a.m. anymore, but "things are calming down." But the river is only four-tenths of a foot below the high-water mark of the historic 1997 flood.

* Here's the latest river projection:

* A blizzard is heading this way. 8-12 inches is expected. A lot of streets weren't plowed from the last storm.

* Bruce Johnson checked in (by way of comments below) and reports good things on Riverview Circle:

Hi Bob, It is in the middle of the night and I am in the garage taking a break from managing the pumps in our back yard. This is the first time I have had time to go to your blog and see your good work. All of my family in Nebraska are concerned about what is going on up here so I will get them on your site! It is quiet out here tonight. I just talked with 5 firemen from Duluth that are walking the dike. They were told they can go home and get some sleep in a half hour. Last night we had firefighters and national gaurd walking thru the yard every 10 minutes or so. This is a good sign. We have food and coffee in the garage but this is the first night nobody is hanging out in here. I have the fire pit glowing with a nice fire outside. I am down to 2 pumps and they are not runing full time so the seepage is really slowing down. Time to check the dike and pumps. Keep up the good work! Bruce

* The wind is kicking up and will affect outlying areas.

* Schools are closed on both sides of the river. No date for reopening yet. Buses aren't available for students because they're being used for emergency purposes.

* By noon, they'll suspend sandbag-making.

* The focus is shifting to relocating medical cases and special needs back to the area. That will be done over 3 days probably starting at mid-week.

* A doctor again cautions that people need to maintain humor. "One of the things returning warriors talk about is the 'new normal,'" he said. "For those who don't get back to feeling normal, ask for help, talk among yourselves. It's a very good gauge for telling whether you're getting on track. The houses are not the family. Continue to work on the relationships."

//end

It looks the river will fall below the Riverview Circle sandbags on Friday afternoon, a day earlier than predicted yesterday. I have had a touch of food poisoning (dinner, not from my friends in Moorhead!), and will try to hobble back to the neighborhood late this morning, check in with everyone and then if all is calm, probably head back to the cities. I plan on returning on the weekend.

(See all News Cut flood dispatches)

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Saving Riverview Circle: The calm before the calm

Posted at 5:36 PM on March 29, 2009 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters, Floods

There is no high drama to tell you about on Riverview Circle today. People are sitting in garages with "hot dish" and BBQ and coffee and beer -- as the Johnsons were doing at lunchtime, or standing in driveways at the Brummer household, or in the backyard kicking ice and shooting the breeze at the Morse home.

The Brummer's railing on the stairs down to what once was -- and will soon be again -- their backyard, has reappeared.

An Excelsior firefighter, walking the dike, stopped to chat with Todd Morse and I awhile ago. He's been here since Friday, staying at the high school, but mostly has been out in these neighborhoods. About three dozen firefighters from Carver County are here and most are going back tonight. Why? He has to go back to work tomorrow.

That's the thing with the sacrifices many of the out-of-town volunteers; they've got real jobs to get back to on Monday. For this guy, it'll be a long drive back, and a short night's sleep.

I'm hearing more of that from residents now -- talk of work and real life resuming.

Today, from what I hear, a resident from up the road took a kayak down the river. Three Coast Guard Sea Fury helicopters made sure he got the message.

Meanwhile, the furniture has been taken off the counters at Todd and Donna Morse's house. It's true that anything can still go wrong, but the reality is that the amount of pressure the water has exerted on this sandbag wall is markedly reduced.

The face of the neighborhood doesn't tell the story of this week as well as the hands of the neighborhood. John's are raw from 8 days of near-steady work.

Others have rings of Band Aids, the wounds of a battle nearly won. My hands are embarrassingly healthy.

I won't be the one to jinx things by saying the 'flood is over,' because it certainly isn't. But barring unforeseen events overnight, by tomorrow evening, I'll probably be making the trip home, too.

Somewhere in the Morse house, there's a bottle of champagne that will get opened when the water drops below 37 feet. The latest river projection suggests that will be sometime between 1 and 2 o'clock next Saturday afternoon.

(See all News Cut flood dispatches)

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Saving Riverview Circle: The water hazard

Posted at 1:19 PM on March 29, 2009 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters, Floods

Fargo Mayor Dennis Walaker today urged people to keep their humor to keep the stress down. They didn't have to tell John Brummer and his son, Danny, this morning. John was unfazed by the obvious water hazard that's appeared in the last week in their Moorhead neighborhood.

Sunday has brought a sense of relief to Riverview Circle, but not a sense of victory. Not quite yet anyway, or at least not to the extent where people seem willing to jinx their improving fortunes by exhaling.

The water flowing into the street has slowed remarkably. Compare the amount coming out of the pump hose with previous pictures (also note the dark ring on the trees showing the dropping water level).

But that's not entirely good news. The slower flow means it's hitting the bottom of the dike and potentially creating a weak spot. With help from Moorhead firefighters, firefighters from other cities, the Morses next door, and the Brummer family, a solution is devised.

Adam Stewart places a ladder out in the river, and landscape lumber is used to hold the hose farther out.

With that done, the neighbors, family, and firefighters haul sandbags -- many of which are unfortunately frozen -- to reinforce the dike. The best weapon the Red River Valley has against the flood has been its own ingenuity.

Out front, reunions are taking place. Donna Morse hasn't seen, John Brummer's wife, Jeanie, since all of this started.

Bruce Johnson stopped over for an update from the Morses.

Bruce left shortly thereafter. "I have to go check a pump," he said.

And other neighbors are emerging to catch up on one another's status.

I stopped over to the Johnsons first today. I had intended to bring doughnuts to all three families, but the stores are mostly out. The Johnsons got my meager offerings today. Vikki's parents have arrived today, the basement is still dry, and they were able to get some sleep.

The neighborhood is still very quiet.The one portable toilet on the street has been removed. "That's a good thing," Vikki says. It means someone -- somewhere -- thinks the sewage and water system will hold up.

Firefighters are walking the street in groups, as other fire vehicles -- I saw one from Savage awhile ago -- drive the riverfront. They've worked incredibly hard. And deserve a break and a check-in to see how their own families are faring.

Nobody thinks this fight is over. But a few moments of humor, an occasional bit of relaxation, and the well-timed visit from a neighbor is an account from which the Riverview Circle folks can withdraw when and if the river makes its next move.

Update 1:44 p.m. - The latest river projection is very encouraging. The level was expected to go up today, now it's projected to go straight down.

At the current level, this side of the street may be out of danger by next Saturday. The river may drop much faster than expected earlier today.

(Please note: I know a lot of folks are coming to this blog for the first time. Our navigation isn't very good for following a single-theme over many days. So if you'd like to follow all of the flood posts, go here. Start at the bottom and work your way up. And thanks for stopping by!)

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Fargo flood meeting - 3/29

Posted at 8:24 AM on March 29, 2009 by Bob Collins (6 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters, Floods

A dike failed at Fargo's Oak Grove school (Story at Fargo Forum, registration required) . Crews had to fall back to a contingency dike. The city was able to "save" the sanitary sewer system in that section of the city, but the damage inside the school -- four or five buildings involved -- may be significant. This happened around 1:30 a.m. The school and homes in the area "are now lost to the flooding."

At a news conference, Mayor Dennis Walaker says "we are different here in the valley," and says evacuations are not automatic and they will not give up neighborhoods. The CEO of the school, Bruce Messelt says one of the school's dike patrols found the leakage in the school's permanent flood walls. The wall was constructed after the 1997 flood and is built of steel. The water came from underground and not from the wall itself.

(This shows why these seemingly small leaks are so worrisome to people here.)

The buildings are below the river at this point and basements and the first floors are filled, including at a performing arts hall and a gym. "Our buildings can be rebuilt, our students can recover, but God's faithfulness will never be questioned," he said.

Here's this hours river projection:

(I'm trying to figure out a way of visually showing the changing projections)

The NoDak Naitonal Guard says it has 1,350 people in Fargo. 450 are deployed elsewhere in the state.

West Fargo students are heading to the Fargodome today for sandbagging, but they recommend other people call ahead to see if they'll need any volunteers. 701-476-4000.
They want to have 500,000 sandbags on hand just in case.

Rep. Earl Pomeroy tells the story of yesterday N. Dakota "Fighting Sioux" hockey game, in which New Hampshire tied the game with one-tenth of one second. "It ain't over 'til it's over," he said, talking about residents who want to go back home because the water is coming down.

"Thank you for that example," Mayor Dennis Walaker of Fargo said sarcastically, obviously a hurting Fighting Sioux fan.

FEMA official says the presidential disaster declaration puts them into the lifesaving operations but the next phase involves "individual assistance." Sheri Thomsen of the Red Cross said there are three shelters open. They've set up a Web site for people to let loved ones know where they are. Look for the "Safe and Well" link here.

About 2,000 people "living independently with medical conditions," people in nursing homes, and hospitals have been evacuated so far since the flood started.

The Guard's Blackhawk helicopters are going to start dropping - 1 ton sandbags into the water to try to break the current from hitting the dikes.

Mayor Dennis Walaker urges people to use humor where possible. "You have to break up the stress." Rep. Earl Pomeroy used last night's loss by the University of North Dakota hockey team, when the University of New Hampshire tied the game with one-tenth of a second left (and won in overtime). "It ain't over 'til it's over," he said to residents who want to go back to their homes now that the water has dropped slightly

"Thank you for sharing that story," Walaker said. Apparently he's a fan of the rival (and Fargo-based) North Dakota State University.

(At following news conference) "We've had an awful lot of pressure to evacuate the city," Walaker said. "And we're not going to do that. This is where we make our stand. We're not going to abandon our city. We've invested too much in this process to walk away now." He rubs his eyes, and walks away from the microphone.

Maybe he heard Dale Connelly's Radio Heartland last night. The show started with Mavis Staples singing "We will not be moved."

// end

My plan today: I'm heading, again, to Riverview Circle. I've been staying in Rothsay for the last few nights. Roger, who runs the Comfort Zone Inn, provides excellent Ole and Lena jokes. We need more Ole and Lena jokes right around now.

But it takes awhile for me to get back in the area, and I usually have to stop and restock some of my provisions, and then it takes me a fair amount of time to quickly check how everyone's doing, and write a post. So I apologize in advance that it may be a few hours until I get to post the next update, but let's just assume no news is good news.

(See all of News Cut's flood dispatches here)

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Saving Riverview Circle: Periods of panic

Posted at 7:25 PM on March 28, 2009 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters, Floods

(Update 9:44 p.m - I've embedded some video below)

When you're in the "maintenance" portion of a flood, you have periods of relative calm punctuated by panic. Within the last few hours, we've had two such panic periods, both coming at the same time.

Seepage got pretty severe at one point of John Brummer's dike. But there was no immediate help. Moorhead shut down the volunteer center, and the city doesn't need any more, and we're told there are plenty of sandbags somewhere. But not here.

John's wife, Jeanie, ran down the street looking for help. Fortunately, the Ramsey County Sheriff's Department was there. They came running...

So did several SUVs of firefighters from Moorhead and cities as far away as Roseville.

And so did the Morses and other neighbors. This is John's wife leading the charge..

John had one pallet of sandbags in the driveway, but they were frozen. A frozen sandbag does you no good.

A second problem was going on in John's basement. A drain has stubbornly refused to be plugged, and two ShopVacs weren't keeping up. So Ed Dorsett and I headed to Fargo for drain plugs.

Go into any store here and boots, drain plugs, bottled water, and sump pumps are lined at the front. A clerk at Lowe's said they hadn't stocked up on drain plugs and were short until a day or so ago.

When we returned, an hour later, a third problem had broken out. That leak in the next-door neighbor's house -- the one John was talking about with the National Guard earlier today (see previous post) -- had alarmed fire officials. And they ran to the area. A flatbed brought the sandbags, and the fork life operator (this guy is another of the unsung heroes of this street) was bringing them off as fast as the firefighters could stack them.

After two hours of furious work, the flow was slowed, and a sump pump was keeping up with things. A Moorhead firefighter adjusted it and headed for the next emergency, leaving Riverview Circle empty.

Down at Bruce and Vikki Johnson's house, things have been moved out of the basement. The front step features a freezer (or refrigerator) and a suitcase...

Bruce is concerned about a big leak at the corner of this peninsula, so we walk down to take a look, and it's coming in faster than it's leaving. Water has poured in the back windows of a nearby house.

(If the video above doesn't play, go here.)

This, as it would turn out later, would be the next moment of high drama for the combined fire departments and law enforcement people.

Meanwhile, up at Highway 75, the "contingency dike" that threatened to ring in the neighborhood never developed into much. While some Minnesota State Troopers stopped vehicles, by late afternoon, the neighborhood was wide open, if empty.

Someone asked for pictures of the houses down the street where the emergency dikes were built yesterday. This is where everyone was running to in that video I posted yesterday during an evacuation.

The sun is setting over a Red River that's lost ground today. But the night watch has begun, and the threat is far from over.

(See all News Cut flood posts)

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Saving Riverview Circle: Rest when you can

Posted at 4:13 PM on March 28, 2009 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters, Floods

Not more than 20 feet from the hot tub at the home of Donna and Todd Morse, son Hoss is taking a well-earned break. He's been the overnight guard of the dike that's keeping the Red River from this neighborhood. Last night, he and the family built the dike up nearly another foot. He'll be back on duty tonight.

The river level is dropping and much of the attention in the neighborhood today is inside. Drains in basements are giving the Red a way in, but the neighbors are ready.

Next door at the Brummer house, a St. Paul heavy equipment operator, Matthew Siede, is vacuuming up the water as it comes up through a sandbagged drain. Matthew went to the FargoDome -- Sandbag Central -- but they've got all the heavy equipment operators they can use. Here, a filled ShopVac, qualifies as heavy equipment.

At the Morse house, they've discovered a drain under a cabinet has been the source of some flooding. Donna's brother, Mike, and family friends and relatives have moved sandbags inside to direct it to a still-working sump pump.

That's the thing with this river. It wants into this neighborhood, if not through the dikes, then up through the drains. As this photo from the Brummer household shows, any possible way into the house, has to be considered a threat:

John Brummer's wife, Jeanie, is making cookies. The Salvation Army has just delivered sandwiches, water, coffee and hot chocolate. I talked with one volunteer from Fergus Falls. She's been here since Sunday.

John Brummer is trying to convince someone, anyone, to pay some attention to a stream that's coming from under the dike on the far property line. His son, wearing a black T-shirt on this cold day, is constantly walking the dike, looking for trouble.

A couple of Army National Guard soldiers, down from Crookston, are walking the dike and offer a sympathetic ear but make clear that carrying sandbags isn't their current mission.

At the Johnson home across the way, Bruce says he's concerned about the dikes on this side of the peninsula. Over on this side, Todd Morse says he's concerned about the ones over there.

It's a gloriously sunny day in Moorhead. Water is dripping from the snow melting on the roof. Every drop of melted snow is a threat.

Out back of Riverview Circle, ice flows -- a big concern -- occasionally hit-- and smash-- small branches sticking out of the water; they're connected to big trees underneath.

The stick I've been using to measure the river, is now floating on top of it.

Yesterday, I used the stick to show the river wasn't going up. But it turns out it was actually frozen in the ice, and the ice was rising.

But the ice rings around the trees are telling a better story than all the equipment at the weather service, or my stick: the river is dropping.

It's relatively quiet in the neighborhood, except for the pump that's been throwing water back at the Red, and the occasional National Guard, Border Patrol, or TV news helicopter, none of whom are seeing -- accurately -- how it is the flood of any century is being frustrated by a small army of people who are pausing to take a breath, and getting ready for the river's next assault.

The tide may have turned. And the people of Riverview Circle -- the ones who are still here -- are growing more confident, that they'll beat the flood.

So far, they are.

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Saving Riverview Circle: Getting ringed in

Posted at 11:42 AM on March 28, 2009 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters, Floods

I'm back in Riverview Circle, riding in a pickup over very icy and rutty roads. I'm riding with Ed Dorsett of Moorhead, who goes to the same church as Todd and Donna Morse. We're heading to the store to get some ShopVacs and a marine plug. The plug is for John Brummer's boat, which he's preparing, just in case.

The neighborhood is about to be mostly cut off. They're building a dike along Highway 75. We understand one road will be kept open for now,

We've just passed rows and rows of fire trucks from out of the area -- Roseville, Grand Lake, Elko, for example.

Things are quiet in the neighborhood.

I checked in with Vikki and Bruce Johnson. Their dog is back home with them and they were able to get a little sleep last night. That look in Bruce's eyes captured in a post downstream, is still there today. He's concerned about the dike down at the Brummer and Morse side of the street, and one downstream from their home.

"I hope you're able to stand there (in the hall) two days from now," he said.

Indications are I will. Todd Morse, who's sitting with an icepack on his knee ("I'm at least mobile," he said ) just showed me the river forecast which is a much brighter picture than even 6 this morning. The crest will -- if they're right -- not last as long and be lower than expected.

Snow is due tomorrow.

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Flood update - 3/28/09

Posted at 8:03 AM on March 28, 2009 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters, Floods

From the safety of Rothsay, I'm watching the daily flood meeting in Fargo

8:04 a.m. - A lot more emotion at the meeting this morning. "The eyes of the nation are upon you. People can still make a difference in this country with their attitude and hard work. We can win it. We will win it. And it's because of the extraordinary people in the community. Go get 'em!" Sen. Kent Conrad said (at least I think it was Kent Conrad; it was hard for me to tell.)

8:07 a.m. - Fargo Mayor Dennis Walaker apologized to Greg Gust and the National Weather Service for criticism he's leveled over flood predictions, especially over the projections on the Wild Rice River.

Gust says for the next week, the river could be "bouncing a few inches either side of 41 feet." That sounds like a lowering of the projection. But he says "a little ice in the wrong place," could change things significantly.

Snow and wind are possible in future days, but it won't affect the river. "But the wind is the factor," he said.

8:11 a.m. - Tim Bertschi of the Army Corps of Engineers, says "folks will see less contractors working but you'll see them working through the week." Says most of the levees will be completed today.

"It's not over yet," Walaker says.

"It's not even halftime, yet," Bertschi responds.

8:17 a.m. - Pat Zavoral, the city administrator, says people in Fargo should call the city engineering department if they see a leak. "Unless it's an absolute gusher," he says. National Guard is patrolling the levees in NoDak. That's not the case in the Moorhead area I've been in. The Moorhead Fire Department, and many other fire departments, are in charge. The Guard has a different mission, apparently, and is on standby in their trucks and Humvees around the neighborhood.

8:20 a.m. - Travel ban on most Fargo streets (University Drive, for example) has been lifted.

8:22 a.m. - Mark Bittner, city engineer, speaks about the 'architecture of sandbag dikes.' "Sandbag dikes are built to leak. Expect to have some leakage. If it's just trickling out, just keep pumping. If it's leaking too bad, we'll support you with additional pumps." In Moorhead yesterday, people were burning out sump pumps pretty quickly.

Adide - If you haven't seen Donna Morse's photos of the advancing Red in her back yard last week, please go here. I hadn't had a chance to see what their backyard normally looks like until late last night. It's unbelievable.

8:26 a.m. - Zavoral said they had to dispel a rumor yesterday that they were issuing a mandatory evacuation. Gen. Dave Sprynczynatyk of the NoDak National Guard says thee are 1,850 Guard members on the Fargo side.

On the Minnesota side, MPR's Tim Nelson just sent along this:

The Minnesota National Guard is activating yet more soldiers to aid in the flood fighting efforts in the Red River Valley. The Guard said late last night it was sending 50 soldiers from the Duluth-based 1st Squadron, 94th Cavalry to Camp Ripley to prepare for duty in Moorhead this weekend. They join nearly 500 members of the Minnesota Guard's Moorhead-based 2nd Combined Arms Battalion, 136th that were activated last week. The calvary unit is the fourth to report for flood duty. The St. Paul-based 133rd Airlift Wing and Duluth-based 148th Fighter Wing are on the scene with high-tech communications trailers to provide emergency phone, radio and data communications if regular systems are knocked out or shut down.

8:33 a.m. - "Significant challenges" finding places for people with health issues who need evacuation. All the nursing homes are filled. "Where's my mother?" Mayor Walaker asks.

8:35 a.m. - No plans to disconnect any electrical grids, the utility company says. Xcel official says things are going well.

8:46 a.m. - "We do a mandatory evacuation, you better get out of that area," City Commisisoner Tim Mahoney says.

8:47 a.m. "The focus has been on Fargo. The focus has been Moorhead. We are the focus of all the press, but we can't forget about the other areas," Walaker said. "Our concerns go out to those people to whom we can't provide services. We try to treat everyone the same. Our response is to our city."

//end

9:27 a.m. - Heading back to Moorhead. I'll post a quick update when I get there.

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Saving Riverview Circle: Taking punches. Throwing punches

Posted at 10:45 PM on March 27, 2009 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters, Floods

Flood fatigue. It's been only one week since Moorhead residents like Vikki and Bruce Johnson of Riverview Circle first learned they had to start preparing for the worst. That's two fewer weeks than they had in 1997. You may recall earlier in the week, Bruce said that when they were out sandbagging last Saturday, the river was so far away they wondered why they were out there.

Photographer Jeff Thompson took this picture Friday morning and I think it captures everybody and everything pretty well.

I was relieved to hear from Vikki (in comments in the thread upstream) this evening:

Hey Bob, Bruce and I are fine. Bruce stayed behind when we evacuated earlier today. I went back home around 8 tonight. Our dike is strong and our pumps are working. Brian Cole, Moorhead Orchestra teacher is manning our pumps so Bruce can sleep! Another one of those theatre guys to the rescue! The battle is not over - the river has not won! We will continue to fight on!

Vikki and I talked earlier today. I encourage you to listen. Listen

A few minutes later, Donna and Todd Morse were planning their strategy for the day.

When the big equipment isn't moving, the volunteers aren't around, and when the sun goes down, I imagine it can get pretty lonely. So reader Jeff Olsen's picture tonight provides a good reminder that plenty of people are still sending help.

Shortly after the evacuation, I was on All Things Considered. (Listen)

Driving over to Rothsay (the only motel I could find a room available), I saw three empty buses from the Twin Cities, a lot flatbed trucks, and some construction equipment heading toward Fargo-Moorhead.

The sun was out Friday although it was cold. There were many more helicopters and airplanes in the sky today, one of them was a Civil Air Patrol damage assessment flight (turn down your speakers) :

The latest projection for a crest looks like this (See updates here)

The crest stays through April Fool's Day.

It looks like I'll be back up on Riverview Circle later on Saturday morning. It may be the last day I'll be in the area. I've got to restock and then return. These people can take a punch. And they can throw one.

Until I get back up there, I hope family members will continue to post updates below. Vikki, Bruce, Todd, Donna, John and Jeanie and their families have a lot of friends they've never met.

(Read all of the dispatches from Riverview Circle here)

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Saving Riverview Drive: 'Dad, we've got to go!'

Posted at 5:34 PM on March 27, 2009 by Bob Collins (18 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters, Floods

If the message above says "this video is no longer available, go here.

I was helping John Brummer set up a sump pump behind his sandbag dike when we heard sirens. "That's not good," he said.

"It must be just sandbags," I said, because the police had been escorting flatbeds full of sandbags earlier this week.

"Dad, we've got to go; mom's grabbing her purse," her son said. And John didn't wait, running for the car. I headed to the Morses who were already heading for their SUV, Todd going back inside to get a critical piece of equipment: my laptop.

A levee had broken -- or was intending to -- up the street, we were told (Note: We don't know that this is the case, we only know what we were told) . I headed in that direction. Volunteers and residents were streaming out. Firefighters were streaming in.

Up near Highway 75, more sirens. State troopers and local police escorted more flatbeds of sandbags in.

Just minutes before that, things seemed to be going well, despite some obvious hardships, one of which is the lack of pumps. Sump pumps would burn out quickly. Water started coming into the basement of Todd and Donna Morse's house. This gentleman in the black is a mechanic who worked all day practically rebuilding this pump.

But when it was hooked up and started, it immediately blew a seal. There was no time to try to open it up again, so Todd and his family and friends tried to minimize the damage and pump out what could be pumped out.

Update 9:44 p.m. As you can tell from the comments below (family members, please keep the updates coming!), the problem has been repaired and the people are still at it. I've found a motel in Rothsay and I hope to return on Saturday.

Photographer Jeff Thompson, just sent this picture from Fargo, and says it's "spooky quiet" there.

9:48 p.m. - Vikki Johnson has checked in (comments below) and reports she and Bruce are fine.

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Riverview Circle comes alive

Posted at 3:39 PM on March 27, 2009 by Bob Collins (8 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters, Floods

Left for dead this morning, Riverview Circle is coming to life. Down the street they're building sandbag dikes around the front of several houses, whose dikes in the back yard are in peril. That means truckloads of sandbags are heading back in to the neighborhood for the fight.

And -- even more encouraging -- volunteers are being allowed in:

Next door, John Brummer is feeling better. With the sandbags being brought in, and an obviously high-ranking fire department official intervening, a pallet-load of bags has stemmed the flow from the uncovered city drain. There's hope.

The man nearest the camera, by the way, is one of the unsung heroes of Riverview Circle. I know him only as "Dean from the fire department." He's been here with these few houses every day and every moment since the dike work started. He can make things happen, and he has.

Here is the problem they've been dealing with over at John's. The storm drains run from the street, though John's driveway and into the river. There's a "check valve" installed that prevents water from coming back through the storm drain system when the river comes calling. But the valve is located between the street and this manhole cover, not between the manhole cover and the river.

Why did they do it that way? "We didn't think the river would get this high," one of the firemen speculated.

Todd Morse came in a few minutes ago, long enough to check everyone's favorite Web page, the hydrology report.

"They're still projecting 42 feet," he said. I couldn't tell whether he was encouraged or disappointed by that. I checked the measurement outside a half hour ago. The river has not gone up at all today; but it hasn't gone down either.

"I'll take that," Adam Stewart said to me. "Thank God it's cold." And it is. The water that's getting through -- by whatever means -- is freezing fairly quickly. But the sun is out, the volunteers are coming , the heavy equipment is moving, and the sense is that all is not lost.

By the way, we are all very cheered by your best wishes. Chad, commenting upthread, said he felt like a jerk sitting in his cubicle. I know what you mean. Every now and again, I come in from sandbagging or trying to help out in order to post, and I feel guilty that I'm inside and everyone's outside working. But these people -- the Johnsons, the Brummers, and the Morses -- have been entirely gracious allowing me to intrude, and they'd be last the people to tell you you're a jerk for being in a cubicle, and doing what you can to help -- even if it's just sending best wishes and good thoughts.

(See all Riverview Circle posts so far)

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Riverview Circle fights City Hall

Posted at 2:50 PM on March 27, 2009 by Bob Collins (10 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters, Floods

That river of water that's pouring out of John Brummer's driveway, and threatening Riverview Circle in Moorhead is not coming from the sandbag dikes that he and the neighbors have been building since last Saturday.

It's coming from a storm drain the city put in after the flood of '97, and he's waiting for the city to come and cap it. He's been waiting a long time.

Meanwhile, up the Circle a few houses, the city is building a dike in front of houses quickly. They're being sacrificed for the good of the city that has scurried to what passes for higher ground in these parts.

Here in the Morse household, people munched on pizza while watching the news conference out of Fargo. Gov. Pawlenty, Sen. Klobuchar, and Rep. Peterson are on the TV now, but there's nobody here watching. They're back outside and have rejoined the battle.

(Go here to see all the posts from Riverview Circle.)

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Saving Riverview Circle: The trickle

Posted at 1:35 PM on March 27, 2009 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters, Floods

The three families who stayed behind to fight the Red River in the southern Moorhead, Minnesota neighborhood of Riverview Circle, are mostly on their own. Some firefighters with the Moorhead and Callahan Fire Departments are with them.

But up at the sandbagging station outside the Johnson's home, the "volunteers" now are all family members of Todd and Donna Morse and John Brummer next door. A family friend who works for the Morses, Adam Stewart, is loading sandbags into a truck. "Yesterday my wife was teaching college boys how to make sandbags," he said, adding, "God, I love that woman!"

The concern is a trickle-turned-river from the dike a storm drain that's growing. There's tremendous pressure on these sandbags right now and Todd and his relatives and friends are throwing sandbags into the water, entrapped by a black tarp.

The stench of mineral spirits permeates the Morse house. A pump with bad gas isn't working and the carburetor is being cleaned to try to coax it back to a useful life.

John Brummer has sandbagged around his house. His son his here and his daughter, a member of the Air National Guard, has arrived, but I overheard a Moorhead firefighter say, "that's an awful lot of water to be coming from a dike." (As it turned out, it's not coming from the dike.) Abut a half hour later, I also overheard him report to another fire official, "we think we're getting ahead of it out at the street where a city pump has been hurling water back at the Red for the last four hours. He added, however, "if we don't get this fixed....we could be in trouble."

After Mark Seeley's appearance on Midday, I called him and asked him to talk to John and from I understand, there was some encouragement that at least as far as water levels beyond the dike, it's not getting noticeably worse. Beyond that, much of the information you're hearing on MPR and reading on the Web site, isn't getting through here; there's no time to listen to the radio.

In that way, perhaps, Riverview Circle is cut off in more ways than one. Occasionally, I duck inside to file a blog update or video, and feel guilty that I'm not back outside helping. I check the comments and find messages from around the country for these three families -- and the Red River Valley at large -- and their eyes brighten when I relay them.

If clinging to hope and three families' refusing to quit is all it took to beat back a flood, the Red River would be a punch-drunk loser.

But it takes more. The unanswered question, however, is how much more?

(To see all of the flood posts, go here)

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Saving Riverview Circle: 'We had it licked'

Posted at 11:31 AM on March 27, 2009 by Bob Collins (7 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters, Floods

I'm in the Morses' house, we're getting water behind the dike now. Next door at John's house, there's a small group trying to make sandbags, lots of water coming through there. No volunteers, sandbags or sand being allowed in the neighborhood. I'll go over there to help out as soon as I finish this post.

An ice ring has formed around a tree out back here...indicating that the water MAY actually be going down.

Lots of people -- well, what few people are here -- are upset that the city/county gave up on this neighborhood. "We had this thing licked," Todd Morse's father said to me a few minutes ago.

There was a pump that the city dropped off earlier this week to be used to pump water behind the dikes. But it wasn't being used. Todd told them to pump out the water from the street where it's getting deeper and icing over (Memo to self: Move my car!).

"You're worried about water in the street?" one cop said. But of course this is the way the river works in this area, the flood comes from behind you when you're looking at what's out beyond the dikes.

Here are the pictures Donna gave me to upload. Her brother, by the way, has just pulled in. He drove all night from Colorado Springs.

Here are Donna's pictures going back to last weekend:

(See all News Cut flood dispatches)

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Saving Riverview Circle: Waiting

Posted at 10:24 AM on March 27, 2009 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters, Floods

I'm probably going to be doing quick posts today, so forgive me if they don't all make sense.

I stopped by Vikki and Bruce Johnson's this morning. They're still here but are prepared to leave if need be. "The neighborhood is quiet," Vikki said. I've got an interview with her and I'll try to post it soon. Bruce will be on Midday this morning with Gary Eichten. They've been getting calls from the media today, who apparently picked up their story via News Cut. So I apologized for that.

I'm currently in the kitchen of Todd and Donna Morse. The fire department is out back looking at the dike. Their son and his wife, where they stayed last night, have shown up to help sort things and it's been difficult for them.

Donna has given me 142 pictures she's been taking so that I can resize them and get them posted for her -- and you -- so their relatives from other places can follow them.

John Brummer is back working this morning although I haven't been over yet, other than to check out a steady stream that's coming down the driveway.

The National Guard is in the area. I'm told that Hoss asked them for a pump and some help with a weak spot. "That's not our mission," came the reply. And, of course, it's not. They're here to get people out.

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Saving Riverview Circle: Video after the evacuation

Posted at 8:03 AM on March 27, 2009 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters, Floods

Most people appear to have left. I stopped back in at John Brummer's house and, indeed, they're all gone. Water streaming down the driveway and into the street. By way of comments, I've learned that Vikki and Bruce Johnson are still there, so I'll try to stop by.

Note the quiet.

(See all News Cut flood dispatches)

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Requiem for Riverview Circle

Posted at 7:07 AM on March 27, 2009 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters, Floods

I made it onto Riverview Circle a little bit before sunrise. The police roadblocks were gone. The sandbag stations were abandoned. There were no giant piles of sand, signifying that everything the city brought, the residents used. And still, it wasn't enough.

The National Guard humvees have been replaced by troop trucks, indicative that there are still more people that need to get out.

At the Morse's house, son "Hoss" was trying to warm up. Hie was in bare feet with his pants rolled up, his waders were wet from trying to help a neighbor whose basement was being overtaken by the Red River, which had found its way in through a drain. The sump pumps burned out trying to save it.

Everyone out at the Morse house was gone. I told him I was sorry for what his family was going through, he smiled -- as everyone has this week -- and said "what are you going to do."

This neighborhood, and this city, which is getting far too little recognition as the media makes its mad dash to Fargo, did in five days, what it took three weeks to do in 1997, and they've done it better, and they've made the dikes higher.

I think a lot of people though that if it all went south, it would do so with water flowing over the top of a dike, and people still trying to stop it. But it didn't end that way.

The street outside John Brummer's house has about a half foot of water on it, again from the drains. Hoss says John evacuated last night, but I have not been able to confirm that.

Over at Bruce and Vikki Peterson's house, a light burned in a front room, and I think I saw Vikki at a computer, but I couldn't tell for sure, I stepped in water outside their house and water poured into the last pair of dry boots I had. Compared to Riverview Circle, I've got it good.

Update 7:38 a.m. - Now that the sun is (almost) up, I stopped by John Brummer's house.

Water is streaming down the driveway. Nobody is home. Only the sound of birds punctuates the neighborhood. A pallet of sandbags still sits in the driveway. They never made it to the wall.

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Saving Riverview Circle -- A view from the air

Posted at 5:13 AM on March 27, 2009 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters, Floods

I'm sorry I haven't had a chance to post this before. But this Googlemaps view gives you a better idea of what Riverview Circle has been battling. Click for a larger view. The pushpin is 3521 Riverview, the home of the Morses. John Brummer's house is just above that, and Bruce and Vikki Anderson's is in the cul de sac across the street. You can even see the swimming pool in the Morse's backyard, that has been well documented on the News Cut site below.

The water is right up to the backyards now and you can see why there's been an evacuation. As soon as there's a breach, the Red River is going to try to run straight, rather than around the neighborhood, and it's going to cut almost directly through the Morses' property, over to the Johnson's and then back to its normal route toward downtown Fargo.

And here's the houses in better times -- Morses on the left, John Brummer's on the right.

I'm not sure when I'll be posting again. I have a cellphone modem and I'll be living out of the car for a few hours while I try to figure out where to go. Apologies in advance if things aren't quite as detailed as they've been the last few days. I'll be on with Cathy Wurzer on Morning Edition this morning.

Here's a link to all of the News Cut flood posts so far.

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To the shelter

Posted at 4:58 AM on March 27, 2009 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters, Floods

MPR's Ambar Espinoza sent this picture along late last night. A trickle of flood victims has started showing up at a Red Cross shelter at Moorhead High School. More will start showing up today.

It's ironic, actually, that Moorhead has been the community where the neighborhoods are being swallowed up first, because it's also the one that is universally ignored in most of the flood coverage. Fargo is bigger, lower, and has all of the news media. The fight is still going on there and it will, no doubt, be well documented.

Maybe they'll have better luck than the people of Moorhead.

(See all of the News Cut flood posts from Riverview Circle)

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Saving Riverview Circle: The fight ends

Posted at 7:25 PM on March 26, 2009 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters, Floods

A little before 8 tonight, the word came. An evacuation of this neighborhood -- including the motel where I've been staying -- is now mandatory. The fight is over. We're now flood refugees. Since I'd already written a lengthy piece, I'll post it as written.

There is the message we got:

As of 3:00 PM today, the National Weather Service issued a revised forecast that the Red River will crest at 42 feet on Saturday, March 28th. Based upon this prediction, the City of Moorhead local Law Enforcement officials direct that ALL residents within the area South of I-94 and West of 8th Street evacuate the area immediately.

Please seek shelter with family or friends outside of the flood zone to conserve emergency resources. A Red Cross public shelter is available at Moorhead High School, 2300 4th Avenue South.
Bring your identification and a 7 - 10 day supply of medications.
Bring baby supplies if you have an infant.
Pets will NOT be accepted at the Red Cross shelter. Animal shelter may be available at the Doggy Depot (3224 8th Street South, 218-236-DOGS) and the Mutt Hut (1214 Main Avenue, 218-236-9935). Call ahead; please bring your animal's food and health records. Pet shelter space is extremely limited, so please try to make accommodations with family or friends outside of the flood zone.
Once you are at a safe location, call 218-477-4747 to register your home's address and temporary location so emergency personnel and your family and friends can know you are safe and how to reach you.
If you need assistance with relocation, please call the relocation hotline 218-477-4747.
If your family needs special assistance with relocation, you may also contact the Clay County Emergency Operations Center at 299-7768.

(Here's my conversation with MPR's Tom Crann on All Things Considered tonight. Listen)

Nobody was giving up on Riverview Circle, but they're not ignoring reality, either. There were a fair number of people biting their lips late on Thursday as word spread that the new crest projection suggests a 43 foot crest. That sent homeowners to the backyard to look -- again -- at the Red River from behind their sandbag fortresses -- fortresses that they've worked again to raise to ... 43 feet.

Todd and Donna Morse have a Plan B.

The smaller of their vehicles has been parked at their church on higher ground. The larger one is ready to be filled, if need be. The younger kids have been sent off with relatives. The family pictures are being sent out this evening. Their son, "Hoss", who spent the day seemingly holding the Red River off singlehandedly, will be back tonight to keep an eye on the sandbags.

Here's what he'll see:

Compare it to Wednesday:

Meanwhile, next door at John Brummer's house, a bucket brigade is still at work moving sandbags to a low spot where his sandbag dike meets the neighbor on the far side.

"Seepage" is occurring because the water has now reached the sandbags. They're frozen and won't fill in any gaps the water eats away.

This trickle doesn't seem like much...

But it is. Down the street, Moorhead firefighters have found a poorly constructed sandbag wall, and are rushing sandbags in. If there's a weakness in this neighborhood, that may be it. There's also rumors that there are icebergs in the river and if one hits a sandbag, the show is over. These are things that are keeping Riverview Circle up at night.

Here's the view at John Brummer's back door:

And yesterday...

And Tuesday...

By the way, I've been passing along your best wishes and they obviously are too busy to jump online and read them now, but they will.

Update 9:23 p.m. The motel bar is full (the motel is just around the corner from the neighborhood and is in the evacuation zone). I'm guessing if people leave, it won't be until tomorrow.

Update 9:31 p.m. - We've been ordered out by 6 a.m..

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Saving Riverview Circle: Nobody's leaving

Posted at 4:46 PM on March 26, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters, Floods

This is Riverview Circle's response to Moorhead's Code Red that indicates evacuations are likely. Another pickup with another load of sandbags has just pulled into John Brummer's garage and another crowd of volunteers has arrived to stack it on the sandbag dike that rings this neighborhood along three miles of shoreline.

I asked him if he has a plan if this effort fails and he says his house is a foot above the crest line. For the record, he's not thinking it won't work, of course. "We've given it the good fight," he said. And for the first time in three days, his smile waned and his humor gave way for a second. So he paused, clapped his hands twice, and headed out to the sandbags.

There's still work to be done.

Buses are still streaming into the neighborhood, but getting enough sandbags has been problematic all afternoon.

Throughout Moorhead this afternoon, police are escorting conveys as if they're in charge of the nation's money supply. In a way, they are. On Riverview Circle -- and most of the Red River Valley -- the only currency that matters today is a filled sandbag.

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Video: The last-minute fight

Posted at 3:09 PM on March 26, 2009 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters, Floods

As a Code Red was issued this afternoon, signifying an evacuation is possible from Riverview Circle, and the surrounding neighborhoods, the Morses and John Brummer were not giving up.

After uploading the video, I'm heading back into the neighborhood. My motel is just around the corner. A note slipped under the door a few minutes ago announces "We're in Code Red. Please be prepared to evacuate at short notice."

I'm not leaving unless the Morses and Brummers do.

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Saving Riverview Circle: The flood arrives

Posted at 1:28 PM on March 26, 2009 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters, Floods

The Red River can be very sneaky. This is what's happening now at 3521, the home of Todd and Donna Morse. Through the morning, they've been adding width to the sandbag dike in their backyard, the river is now touching the sandbag dike, but it's strong and well built.

We took a break for lunch, and then found that a drain along the edge of their swimming pool was the Red's way in. Now they're trying to get the drain covers off to plug the unexpected breach.

A Shop Vac is borrowed from John Brummer next door. Sump pumps are being deployed.

Without admitting defeat at the dike, their son "Hoss" orders sandbagging to begin around the door to the house.

"There'll be no happy pictures of us today," Donna says to me.

All of the attention is no longer on reinforcing the massive dike at 43 feet; it's on a 4 foot drain embedded in concrete.

Meanwhile, the river isn't waiting. Here's the view today.

Note that stick. It marks the expected crest at 41 feet:

I took that picture at 11 this morning. I took this one just 45 minutes later.

As the Morses and John Brummer work outside, they probably don't know that the city wants them to start thinking about getting out. They issued this alert:

There has been no breach to the dike system; however due to the significance of the flood threat, the City recommends you prepare to evacuate your home as this area is vulnerable to flooding. Take the following actions to prepare your home and evacuate to a location outside of the flood area:

Please seek shelter with family or friends outside of the flood zone to conserve semergency resources. A Red Cross public shelter will be available at 3:00 PM today at Moorhead High School, 2300 4th Avenue South.

Bring your identification and a 7 - 10 day supply of medications

Pets will NOT be accepted at the Red Cross shelter. Animal shelter may be available at the Doggy Depot (3224 8th Street South, 218-236-DOGS) and the Mutt Hut (1214 Main Avenue, 218-236-9935). Call ahead; please bring your animal's food and health records.

Pet shelter space is extremely limited, so please try to make accommodations with family or friends outside of the flood zone.

Before you evacuate, call 218-477-4747 to register your home's address and temporary location so emergency personnel and your family and friends can know you are safe and how to reach you.

If you need assistance with relocation, please call the relocation hotline 218-477-4747.

Prepare your property for dike failure/sewer failure as follows:

Plug all sewer drains including floor drains and sinks in lower levels

Shut water off (if you need assistance with water shut off, call 218-477-4747)

Leave electricity and natural gas services on

Up the block, none of the thousands of volunteers who have been bused in are ready to give the Red River the satisfaction:

Volunteers pick up sandbags in their trucks and haul them back to their backyards where volunteers seem to appear out of nowhere to form a chain to deliver them to the three-mile-long wall.

"Swing, don't drop," Hoss instructs the group of mostly rookie sandbaggers. During breaks, he asks his grandfather for another "chew" to provide his energy.

Then the saddest two words this week are shouted. "Last one."

The volunteers pause for a moment, then realize John may need help next door.

When there's no sandbags to throw, Donna's mother, Elaine, serves up soup in the garage with the enthusiasm that a good bowl of corned beef soup can stop a flood. She tells me the story of helping out in St. Peter after the tornado left the town devastated in the '90s.

The Red River isn't kidding around. But neither is Riverview Circle.

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Live-blogging: Thursday's flood meeting

Posted at 8:01 AM on March 26, 2009 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters, Floods

The daily meeting of officials battling the Red River flood is underway in Fargo.

8:03 a.m. - Fargo Mayor Dennis Walaker holds up a gift from his staff, a Moses-like staff, which he says he can use to part the water. Then saying, "we need all the help we can get," he asks an official from the Salvation Army to begin a prayer.

8:05 a.m. - The river is rising three feet a day. "We going to be at 40 tomorrow. I've used the term 'uncharted territory' because it's a learning curve for all of us." He says at a meeting last night the city was being criticized as unorganized. Not at all what I've seen.

8:08 a.m. - Mark Bittner, the Fargo city engineer, says they have "some concerns" that already have some seepage. They're going to start building "secondary levees." Efforts today will include further protecting the city water plant and the water treatment plant.

8:10 a.m. - 76th Avenue in Fargo will be closed today. Highway 81 will be closed between the Wild Rice river and the Maple Prairie subdivision.

8:13 a.m. - A warning that residents who "want to come out, have to come out during the day." The county sheriff says people who refused to be evacuated by boat yesterday called this morning at 1 or 2 "angry at us for not coming to get them."

8:17 a.m. - "We are not abandoning anybody," Walaker says to news of complaints that secondary dikes in neighborhoods are isolating them.

8:18 a.m. - Here's the 7:15 flood projection. It's not pretty.

8:19 a.m. - Tim Mahoney, Fargo city administrator: "I might get tears in my eyes like the mayor soon because the volunteers have been terrific. But, buck it up because you have to do it one more day."

8:20 a.m. - On Wednesday, another half million sand bags were produced by volunteers working on the Fargo side. The focus today is getting bags delivered as quickly as possible. "Anytime you see Bison basketball shirts standing next to Sioux Hockey shirts, we've really come together and that's a story that needs to be told," an official says.

By the way, you saw than Than Tibbetts great video, right? No? Here.

8:28 a.m. - Public safety officials are asking people not to drive directly to sandbag sites. Go to the sites where buses will take people there.

8:36 a.m. - Sara Lepp, the volunteer coordinator said people from Florida, Alaska, and Michigan have showed up to help. "It's not just Minnesota and North Dakota," she said.

8:38 a.m. - Steve Carbno of the Salvation Army says "we're going to be stretched thin today."

"Any time you see the Red Cross and the Salvation Army working hand in hand, that's a good thing," he said. Hmmm.

"Any time you see the Red Cross and the Salvation Army working together, that's a disaster," Walaker said.

8:40 a.m. - Sherl Thomsen of the Minnkota Red Cross says they're opening shelters. Four more are on standby.

8:42 a.m. - An animal shelter is being set up at the Red River fairgrounds. The Minnesota animal disaster coalition is enroute.

//end

At a news conference afterward, Walaker said the mood of the area is still good, "but there's maybe 10 percent of the people who are having difficulty with this."

"I give us a 4-to-1 shot at winning this thing," he later said. "And those are good odds at any horse track in the country."

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How to volunteer

Posted at 7:51 AM on March 26, 2009 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters, Floods

I'm getting some emails about how people can volunteer. It's a pretty simple process in the Fargo Moorhead area. Call 701-476-4000. That's the volunteer hotline number. You can learn more in a post I made on Monday.

If you're heading for the Moorhead side, the central location is the Nemzek Field House on the Minnesota State University Moorhead campus. From there, they bus you out to sandbag sites.

In Grand Forks, the hotline number is (701) 787-8052. This hotline is for people looking to volunteer, people looking for help from volunteers, and people looking to receive sandbags.

If you're heading to the region, be sure to drop me a note and send a cellphone number.

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Saving Riverview Circle: Back to the wall

Posted at 11:27 PM on March 25, 2009 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters, Floods

In a previous post, I introduced you to another of the Riverview Circle residents I'm following this week -- Vikki and Bruce Johnson. Here's an update.

With the order to raise the sandbag levee by another foot, I couldn't imagine having the gumption to get back out and sling sandbags. When I was by earlier in the day, there were few people on the street. So this evening I headed back to the neighborhood. I needed to do something more to help than write words.

But there's more gumption here than water. Flatbed trailers full of sandbags lined the streets, people were walking toward Riverview Circle, after parking some distance away. The sandbag machine was back in action.

By the time I arrived, most of the work seemed to be done. I looked in at the backyard of the Morses. Check. And John Brummer's. All good. Across the way at the Johnsons, however, two sandbag lines had formed, starting with a pile that had been unloaded in the driveway. I jumped in there.

There's a method to this. You stand kitty-corner from a person across from you. I was at the beginning, picking up a bag, handing it to the person across from me who handed it to the person across from them. One line snaked down the backyard to the far neighbor's house, another went to the other side.

Periodically we'd stop as the line was moved as if it was a firehose.

The "theater kids" from Moorhead High School, my sandbag neighbor told me, were at the end of the line. They'd been here since about 1 p.m., about 7 hours ago. Why? One of the kids in one of these houses is a 'theater kid."

She -- my sandbag neighbor -- had been down the street at the sandbag filling area for several hours. "You freeze down there," she said. "Here, you stay warm by moving." She was proud, apparently, that the flood was the #2 story on the Today show, this morning. I said if we can just get a Hollywood actress to come schlep sandbags, we could be #1.

A Moorhead fireman joined the line and told me he's been working 14 hour days for four straight days. He'll be working them for more than four days more.

An older man from up the road crawled over the pile, trying to pry some frozen bags loose. We talked about how valuable the college kids have been in the tradition of students helping out during flood season over the years. "I remember the flood of 1969," he said. "We were the college kids, then," he added with a touch of sadness.

Two hours after I got there, we handed the last sandbag down the line. A cheer went up and within about two minutes, all of the people -- perhaps 200 were involved -- were gone.

Down at the now-43-foot levee, a few men added more sandbags to the river side of the wall, then stretched plastic over the top of the bags, and held it down with a few more bags. These were big men -- in some cases young men. But they've been doing this for several days now, and they struggled to lift the bags to the top of the wall.

Watching them, it was clear that people who live on the river must read up on the art of making a sandbag wall.

Meanwhile, the Red River is rising, of course.

Here's the view last Wednesday morning. Note the compost bin. The water is still considerably lower than it.

Here's the view on Wednesday night around 9 p.m.:

As I walked back to the car, parked several blocks away, three flatbed trailer trucks loaded with more sandbags were pulling in. Just in case.

Update 11:58 p.m. - Moorhead's sandbag central -- Nemzek Hall at the Minnesota State University Moorhead campus is now open 24 hours. They're calling for volunteers to help fill sandbags.

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Saving Riverview Circle - The Johnsons

Posted at 7:54 PM on March 25, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters, Floods

Panorama of 3526 Riverview Circle on CleVR.com

Vikki and Bruce Johnson were taking a rare breather when I visited them on Wednesday, just minutes before it became apparent the three-mile-long dike in their Moorhead neighborhood would have to be built another foot higher to protect it from the Red River.

"I'm trying to decide if I clean out the basement or wait and see. We've gone from 'it's not going to get where it's at' to 'Oh my gosh, we've got it done,'" Vikki said. "We're a lot more organized this time, but we had a lot more warning last time. Because we had record snowfall, we knew we were in trouble in '97, where they really put the fear in us on Friday, where 39 to 41 (feet), we've got to get going."

Up until then, she says, there was no indication major flooding would be a problem.

"In '97, we had three weeks to prepare," said Bruce. "This time we had to get everything done in a week."

When they started building the dike through their back yard (pictured above), they still didn't believe things would be as bad as indications now say they will be. "When we started on Saturday, we were like 'what are we doing out here? It's still in its river bank.' Yesterday you saw it coming up and today when I walked the dike, it's come up. It seems to be real now," Bruce said.

Tonight, they''re bringing floodlights to the backyard to keep an eye on the dike. They have no real plans to sleep until the river recedes sometime next week. "In '97 we ended up pooling water in the backyard, and then pumping it out because the dike became so saturated." That appears to be the neighborhood plan this time, too. At the corner of their cul de sac, the city has dropped off a large pump. All the residents have their own pumps ready, too.

There were a lot of lessons learned in '97, one of them is the every-person-for-him/herself-plan isn't going to work. "The city stepped in and had a meeting on Saturday and said, 'we're building a continuous dike and everybody's in,'" Vikki said. But everybody wasn't in. A nearby neighbor initially refused to build a dike in his backyard, so the neighbors built it for them, after the fire department threatened to build a clay dike across the front yard.



"To me, this is overkill out here," Bruce said of the sandbag dike that has reached 42 feet. "In '97 it would've been up maybe a foot on the dikes." This was before the latest flood projection said the river will crest at 41.

Both have been trying to tend to their paying jobs, too. Vikki took time out at midafternoon for a loan closing (she works for Wells Fargo). Bruce, who works for Remax, closed on a home yesterday.

"Was it riverfront property?" I asked. It wasn't. It was a condo on a second floor.

Though all of the attention is focused on what might happen this weekend, most everybody I've talked to is thinking about what comes after the Red River begins to behave better. "That's the thing," Bruce acknowledged. "When you're building this thing, you've got lots of hands, which is wonderful, and then they have to get back to work and the difficult thing is to find the volunteers and the time to take it back down again."

That's not their idea of how to spend a perfect summer. They'd planned to head to their place at the lake, and relax around the water.

Listen

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Getting worse

Posted at 3:50 PM on March 25, 2009 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters, Floods

I'm no expert on flood preparations, by any means. And nobody's thrown in the towel in Fargo-Moorhead, but you can almost feel the collective shoulders of the region sag a bit this afternoon with the latest projection that the Red River will crest at 41 feet this weekend.

That's only a foot lower than the top of the dikes that have been built along the river here, and that's not a lot of wriggle room. And that's if the weather people are right.

More roads are being closed in the area this afternoon, and more are going to be.

At the Highway 75 entrance to westbound Interstate 94, the beginnings of a clay dike are emerging. The river is thataway just a few hundred yards. Expect I-94 to close at some point.

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The view from Riverview Circle

Posted at 4:05 PM on March 25, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters, Floods

I didn't bring a tripod to Moorhead with me, and my camera is pretty low-end. But perhaps with this stitched-together panorama, you can get a sense of what things look like out the back of these homes. You can move your mouse back and forth and up and down. Apologies that this is somewhat crude.

I'm standing right behind the sandbagged dike (now under a cover of snow) , that stands at 42 feet. The flood crest is going to be at 41 feet on Saturday.

Think about that, for just a moment. The river here runs back beyond that second set of trees, it's crept out of its banks and across the backyards and is now heading up the bankings to the homes.

By Saturday, the water will be one foot below the top of the dike you see in front of you. If it breaks, and people aren't quick enough to fix it (there aren't extra sandbags in people's back yards), it's going to pour through, it'll go into people's homes and down their driveways and into the street. The street here is below the top of this dike.

Now imagine you're a homeowner and you get to three days with the river in this state and the danger that the dike could give way at any moment. There won't be much sleep on Riverview Circle this weekend.

Panorama of All along the Red River on CleVR.com

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Saving Riverview Circle - Part two

Posted at 12:57 PM on March 25, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters, Floods

I was back on Riverview Circle in Moorhead today.

Temps in the 30s have replaced yesterday's 50s. Snow is covering the mud and already partially flooded streets. The kids who made the street buzz yesterday...

... are gone. Remnants of their sandbag-making are still in the street, along with a few sandbags.

The Red River, of course, is still here and getting closer.

Yesterday, at 3517 Riverview Circle, the water was starting to climb the stairs...

Today, it's got a lot fewer steps to go...

Teams of Moorhead firefighters are walking through the backyards of homes, checking the three-mile-long sandbag dike the residents and volunteers have built since Saturday. "Shooting elevation" they call it in flood prep lingo.

It's not always a happy "everybody pitches in to help the neighborhood" story.

As I sat with Bruce and Vikki Johnson at 3526 Riverview Circle, a firefighter knocks on the back door to tell them the wall behind a house a few doors down has to come up another foot. It's bad news. The man who lives there has refused to help build the dike, and didn't want it there in the first place. The fire chief gave him an ultimatum -- let the dike come through the backyard, or the city will build a clay dike in the front, and cut him off.

During the flood of 1997, it was "everyone for him/herself" in Moorhead. But this time, the decision was made to build one long dike around this neighborhood.

The Johnsons have been taking a breather today, but now they know they'll have to go back to work along with other neighbors, building up the dike behind the man's house. They'll have one less pair of hands to help. Their daughter, a high school senior, has left to help a friend whose family's home is "in trouble" somewhere along the Red..

Across the street -- at 3521 -- Todd and Donna Morse -- are thinking some of the water in the swimming pool in the backyard should be pumped out. Donna welcomes me in with the words that can make a grown man cry real tears: "I was just reading your blog."

Then, bad news comes on the phone: Emergency sandbagging is underway down in Wolverton, about halfway between here and Breckenridge. The river is higher than expected, and it's heading this way.

Teams of rescue specialists have surveyed where to store airboats, just in case river rescues become necessary later. Riverview Circle is one site that's been selected.

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Flood Diaries: One volunteer's story

Posted at 9:22 AM on March 25, 2009 by Bob Collins (6 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters, Floods

Kevan Rehm of Brooklyn Park drove to the Fargo Moorhead area this week to help out. He's like dozens -- perhaps hundreds -- of Twin Citians who are here. Just walking through the motel lobby a few minutes ago, the lobby is thick with men from the Twin Cities in workclothes and muddy boots, who've been working all night, some of them telling tales of running heavy equipment and sliding off the dikes.

Kevan sent us a detailed account of his experience. Here is his story.

(Update -- Kevan was later on MPR's All Things Considered. Listen)

-----------

I drove up yesterday evening and stayed at the Super 8 in north Fargo, just a mile or so from the FargoDome. They had a 15 to 20 % discount for sandbaggers. Every guest in the place had on work clothes. :-)

I arrived at 9:30 PM and worked 10 PM until 2 AM last night. My first sight was walking into the FargoDome. When you were a kid, did you ever kick open an ant hill? Suddenly the entire ground seems to be alive with constant motion as the ants are moving every which way. Well, that was the FargoDome.

They took out the floor and started dumping huge piles of sand everywhere. Around each sand pile was a dozen or more people filling sandbags, tying them off, and stacking them on pallets. Bobcats are whizzing around picking up full pallets and bringing back empty ones. Large bulldozers would rebuild the sand piles (5 feet high) each time that people would just be about done shoveling up the previous one. It was organized chaos; how you could have that many moving people and equipment and not have anyone run over, I'll never know.

Today when I went back and counted, there were 14 separate sand piles being processed by volunteers at the same time, with Bobcats and bulldozers flying around in between.

I got on the bus and went to Sandbag Central. They had three sand spiders working there. Each is a conveyor belt taking sand up high, then dumping it into the top of a cone shape which is really ten connected pipes each about 8 inches in diameter. The pipes are connected at the top, and flare out as they go down. At the bottom of each pipe, a person has a bag over the bottom of the pipe. When his bag is full, he pulls it off and his partner slips on the next bag. The sand coming down these pipes is continuous, so you can't stop. A third person or fourth person ties the sacks as they get them from the fillers. Other folks take the tied sacks and either pass them down a line to a truck or stack them on pallets. Each pipe needs about 5 people to manage it, and there's about 10 pipes per sand spider, and they had three spiders, so that's 150 people just to keep those three machines going.

In addition to the spiders, there are the piles everywhere where people are filling sacks with shovels. After an hour on the spider I switched to the sand piles because it's much more dynamic. If someone gets behind on filling sacks or tying sacks, someone else can switch jobs and help take up the slack. In the four hours I was there, you never stop.

The Red Cross is there with plenty of food. They even had scalloped potatoes with ham in heated trays. Does that count as hot dish? :-) You certainly wouldn't starve there.

People were amazing. Everyone wanted to work. If something would start to bog down, someone would notice and say "I'll take this" and deal with it. If the line for passing sacks from fillers to pallets got a little long, someone would step into the line and help pass. Nobody stood around; everyone jumped in and helped.

I can't tell you how many times someone thanked me for coming to help. You work with someone on the line, they don't know you're not a local, but as you start to leave, they turn and say "Thanks for coming to help". It's times like this that I know why I live in the Midwest, in spite of the weather. :-) I feel like these people are my neighbors. They're not my next-door neighbors, but they're my neighbors. :-)

At two AM I went back to the hotel and crashed, woke up at 9 AM, checked out, and went back for another four hour shift from 10 AM to 2 PM. I had hoped to work the dikes today, but I ended up at Sandbag Central again. They have folks on the radio constantly, including the bus drivers, so if people start to leave at Sandbag Central, they know immediately and send the next bus load of people there to replace them.

Today I learned how to tie the sacks shut. (Last night I spent all 4 hours piling sacks on pallets.) It turns out that the way you tie off a sandbag is the same way that you tie rebar at construction sites. I told my line partner that I'm prepared for a new career in construction in case I get laid off in my current job.

Two people can fill a sack in 15 seconds easily, usually less. Another person can tie off sacks and keep up with a pair of fillers. Another person can probably handle the output of two people tying sacks, filling the pallets with the tied sacks. If I'm doing my math correctly, that means two teams of fillers, or 7 people total can do about a thousand sacks per hour. There are at least two of these sets of people per sand pile. Just awesome.

I worked until two PM today, then decided it was time to go home. I felt guilty, but the hotel didn't have Internet, so I couldn't log in and work during the off hours, so I needed to get back to my day job. Still, I am really glad that I went. I met a lot of great, hard-working people, who have obviously been doing this day after day after day, and they are still cheery. I hope others keep coming into town to help them out. They need to keep up today's rate all the way through to Saturday if they are going to make it. Tell everyone to come and help!

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Live-blogging: Flood update

Posted at 8:01 AM on March 25, 2009 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters, Floods

The daily briefing of public safety and government officials is underway in Fargo. The mayor of Moorhead, Mark Voxland , has been invited over and both are stressing that neither city ignores the other.

8:04 a.m. - Voxland says they hope to have all the sandbag dikes up to 42 feet today. He credits GPS technology with improving the flood preparations this year. Members of the Moorhead Fire Department (I wrote about this below) check all the homeowner and city walls with GPS to make sure they're all at 42 feet.

8:06 a.m. - The Army Corps of Engineers says it needs a day and a half to complete preparations and most are in the southern end of Fargo. The Moorhead side of the river should be "buttoned up" by this afternoon. Then the National Guard will be redeployed to the north side of the city.

Aside: I exchanged e-mails last night with one volunteer who was helping a friend in the southern end of Moorhead, who says the house has now been cut off because sandbagging and dike work completely encircled the neighborhood. In those cases, would you stay in the home or would you go?

8:09 a.m. - Officials have been asking people not to use much water. They're concerned about the sewage treatment plant be overloaded, although officials said the amount of "flow" dropped overnight. This is another upgrade from the flood of '97.

In Oxbow, the sewage treatment plant has failed and the pumps are "flooded" out. The National Guard is delivering another pump today.

8:14 a.m. - It snowed about 3-4" overnight. The city's are not plowing the neighborhoods.

8:15 a.m. - Fargo officials say they don't need as many volunteers now. There are areas where they don't want to bring busloads of volunteers, they'd rather have neighbors doing the sandbagging, City Commissioner Tim Mahoney said.

8:19 a.m. - A city official says at 5 p.m. yesterday, there were trucks loaded with sandbags at both sandbagging locations "with no orders left to fill." They're still making sandbags -- 150,000 are in heated storage -- in the event additional ones are needed.

8:21 a.m. -- Here's a live stream of downtown Fargo, from valleyfloodwatch.com.

8:22 a.m. -- Police officers are on 12-hour shifts. Signs have been posted on the dikes ordering people to stay off. The Guard and police are patrolling the dikes looking for areas where they may be failing.

8:25 a.m. - Fargo City Manager Pat Zavoral: "We're winding down. But if people want to do some sandbag filling, we're going to do that."

8:28 a.m. - A national Weather Service official, Greg Gust, from Grand Forks says the snow "is not an immediate player." They're still looking for a 40-foot crest early Saturday morning. "We have record flow coming from the south," he said. He says it's "scary." "It's uncharted territory for the flood plains," he said.

8:32 a.m. - Health official says they're encouraging nursing homes and hospitals 'to reduce their census." She suggests canceling elective surgery, sending patients home earlier. They're also identifying people in the area who are living at home, and "who may need extra help relocating if that becomes necessary."

8:33 a.m. - Fargo Mayor Dennis Walaker "Elective surgeries is one thing but some can't be forestalled. They have backup generators." He says he's told the hospitals to be 'self contained," in order to stay open.

8:35 a.m. - North Dakota State University has canceled classes through Thursday. The university, however, has not been closed. "We want to keep those jobs flowing," an NDSU official said.

8:38 a.m. - Salvation Army served 9500 sandwiches on Tuesday, serving 38,000 people. 130,000 bottles of water. $30,000 of local Salvation Army money has been spent. "It scares the heck out of me to see what we're doing," an official said.

8:39 a.m. - Walaker joked that he was taken to task in 1997 for his comment on the quality of the sandwiches served in the great flood of '97. "They have improved dramatically," he said,

8:39 a.m. - Interstate 29 north of Fargo will be closed soon. The northbound side from Wahpeton, ND has been reopened.

-- End --

This morning I'm staying on the Moorhead side and talking to some more neighbors who are switching to wait-and-see mode.

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Sandbag Central

Posted at 8:51 PM on March 24, 2009 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters, Floods

MPR's Than Tibbetts has sent along this view of the Fargodome, now known as Sandbag Central. Be sure to click it.

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Saving Riverview Circle: John Brummer

Posted at 8:59 PM on March 24, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters, Floods

Now we wait. John Brummer of Moorhead is finished with his portion of the giant sandbag dike that snakes along the Red River south from I-94. With any luck at all, he'll get some sleep soon.

A crest that's taking longer than expected, and thousands of young volunteers working harder than anyone could have imagined have some people in the neighborhood feeling better about things.

"I heard one guy say, 'I'd like to say I'm feeling good, but you're still nervous,' and doing these little things like plugging these drain tiles, it provides better sleep medicine," he told me on Tuesday.

"The college kids, high school kids and elementary kids have been fantastic. That keeps our attitude going in the right direction," he said. "You feel all alone the week before. How are we going to get this done and woe is me, but when these guys show up, it's 'let's have a party.'"

MPR's Tom Roberson did a great job describing how things have changed in Fargo-Moorhead from the devastating flood of 1997. Brummer has one more for the list: better coordination between public safety officials and the homeowners.

"Dean from the Moorhead Fire Department (below) has been tremendous. Those guys are going around, shooting elevation on the sandbags, and letting us know whether we're too high or two low," he said. The locals are getting plenty of help from their counterparts in the Twin Cities. Firefighters from the Eden Prairie and Hopkins fire departments were stationed in Brummer's neighborhood.

Out back, Brummer was ready for one final task. "We're going to pull the plastic over (the sandbags) and it'll be Miller time."

Listen

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Saving Riverview Circle: The Morses

Posted at 8:10 PM on March 24, 2009 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters, Floods

Todd and Donna Morse weren't around for the Great Flood of 1997 -- they lived in Coon Rapids then -- but they've quickly learned the art of flood protection against a river that has a penchant for taking detours through neighborhoods like theirs in Moorhead.

As she stood next to a backyard swimming pool where the flood of '97 stopped, Donna said her neighbors who were here in 1997 have been saying how surprised they are about how fast the Red River is rising toward them this year.

When I visited with them on Tuesday, they -- and dozens of volunteers from a school in Fergus Falls -- were putting the finishing touches on the portion of the neighborhood sandbag wall that will stop growing when it reaches 42 feet.

Then they wait.

"(We'll) keep our pumps ready and keep watching it closely and see what we need to do," Donna said. "We've plugged drains in the basement; we've hauled stuff up from the basement in case it breaches on the other side."

They got a boost from the kids on Tuesday morning. "We were out doing it and they came around the corner like the cavalry," she said.

Listen

When I took the picture above, I said they looked awfully happy for having a flood on the doorstep. So they gave me this:

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Imponderables: The flood

Posted at 7:13 PM on March 24, 2009 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters, Floods

The one question that keeps getting e-mailed to me is "what do they do with the sandbags once the flood is over?" Fortunately, All Things Considered's Tom Crann was on the case, and got the answer from Ken Hellevang, an Extension Service agent at North Dakota State University.

"Normally the bags will be removed and the sand reclaimed and used for the normal kinds of construction projects that we'd use the sand for. A lot it will end up in concrete," he said. Listen

You can find the entire interview here.

Residents, however, won't have the considerable help getting the sandbags out that they had putting them in. How are you going to spend your summer? Theirs is now mostly spoken for.

So that's one flood mystery out of the way, let's move on to #2.

This...

Why do TV reporters insist on doing this? If this were the story of, say, a manure lagoon, would they wade in?

HOW TO HELP

I've gotten a few questions today on how to help. Assuming that means you're interested in coming to the Fargo-Moorhead area, call 701-476-4000, which is the First Link volunteer line. I don't have any information for you on the Grand Forks area, but it's worth noting that the flooding wasn't expected to be bad there, and today the region sent several busloads of volunteers to Fargo.

If you do drive out, bring a map. They're closing the off-ramp to Moorhead (I-75) off I-94 on Wednesday morning so they can build a dike across it.

"THOSE KIDS"

I posted a presentation below about the involvement by this region's young people. Here's my appearance on tonight's All Things Considered, discussing it more. Listen

WHEN?

The flood crest was expected in Fargo on Friday. From the looks of the latest projection, however, it now looks like Sunday morning.

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The young people's flood

Posted at 4:44 PM on March 24, 2009 by Bob Collins (7 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters, Floods

Youth may be wasted on the young, but the young aren't wasting it this week in Moorhead and Fargo. If it weren't for college, high school, and junior high school students, these cities would already be under water. Many of them returned from spring break to help out.

When the experts said they needed to make 200,000 sandbags a day, they made 200,000 sandbags a day. When they said they needed 300,000, they made another 300,000, and many have returned every day because they need more.

And it's not just that they're helping fill sandbags, it's that they're doing so as if it's a party. For some homeowners, that's enough to raise spirits far above flood stage.

Here's a group I found along the Red River in Moorhead on Tuesday, the last day for "good sandbagging," according to weather experts. Snow is due through the rest of the week. Click on the arrows icon on the bottom right-hand corner for the full News Cut slideshow experience.

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Saving Riverview Circle -- Part one

Posted at 12:08 PM on March 24, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters, Floods

Things were looking pretty bleak for the folks who live on Riverview Circle in Moorhead. They had started sandbagging last weekend. "People were in denial," one resident told me this afternoon. Denial that the river would rise faster than they've seen it, or climb the banking that separates their 1970s-era homes and the Red River, which has every intention of moving in.

That's when these kids from Hillcrest Lutheran Academy in Fergus Falls showed up to help fill sandbags...

... which were delivered by a skid-loader to the driveway of the homes, where these kids from Fergus Falls High School (they were allowed to come as long as they had a C average or above), formed a chain gang to get them to the backyard...

... which was a great relief to Donna and Todd Morse...

... and their next-door neighbor John Brummer.

Their dike, which stretches south along the meandering river from I-94 for more than a mile, has just been built up to 42 feet above flood stage. They're hoping it's enough.

Why are they smiling? Because the kids were smiling, they said.

I'll have more from all of them later this afternoon and I'll be checking in with them as the flood crest approaches

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Live- blogging: Fargo's flood meeting

Posted at 8:37 AM on March 24, 2009 by Bob Collins (8 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters, Floods

I'm at the daily flood information meeting at the Fargo City Hall. About 30 people -- all men -- are sitting around a table.

Fargo Mayor Dennis Walker announces the Red River has crested at Wahpeton at a level below that which was predicted. "We need another good day and we assume the same is going to happen today," he said.

Gov. John Hovan said he couldn't get home last night because of a blizzard in Bismarck. About 800 North Dakota National Guard members will be in the area by later today.

Hoping to get a federal disaster declaration today. They're hoping to get 90 percent reimbursement. "In 1997, we got 100 percent," the mayor said.

A few officials were upset by an article in the Fargo Forum newspaper today in which a Salvation Army official said he was seeing more "fear."

" Fear. We don't see any fear, we just see people working very hard," the mayor said. "There may be people concerned and they're always concerned."

At the meeting a Salvation Army official apologized for the comment.

The mayor said people are showing up from Minnesota to volunteer. "People in Minnesota are bypassing Moorhead, which I think is kind of interesting," the Fargo mayor said. And he's right. If you didn't know any better, you wouldn't think there's a flood problem in Moorhead.

Levee work:

South Fargo -- Most of the area will be "buttoned up" today, the Army Corps of Engineers said.

Will close University Drive if the water gets over 40 feet.

"We're diking where we've never diked before," one official said.

Preparing to close sewers. Sewage systems are "keeping up."

Sandbagging:

The goal was 200,000 per day, then 250,000 per day, now trying to get 300,000 a day. They put out a call for volunteers on Monday. A second central sandbagging location was set up on Monday. 280,000 bags were filled on Monday, overnight, another 170,000 bags were filled. "We think we hit the 450,000 bag mark yesterday," an official said to applause.

"The bad news is we still need more. We need to continue making sandbags through Saturday in case we need to fortify levees," he said.

Classes have been canceled at North Dakota State University until further notice. About 3,200 students have been filling sandbags.

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The flood this morning

Posted at 6:02 AM on March 24, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters, Floods

(Moorhead) - This area picked up another half inch of rain in the last 12 hours, the last thing it needed. But is snow and cold temperatures a good or a bad thing?The meteorologists say the cold will slow the snow melt, but also make it harder to stuff sandbags.

We're heading out in a bit to document the effort to save some homes in the area. MPR's Dan Gunderson, based in Moorhead, is in Fargo this morning. Ambar Espinoza will be in Breckenridge when the Red River crests there this afternoon.

Volunteers are streaming into the area. I saw firefighters from St. Louis Park and Chaska last evening. Some are having a hard time finding a place to stay, so some of the colleges here are putting them up.

All three of the colleges in the area are closed again today, so students can help sandbag.

Here are the latest river intentions.

At Fargo:

Downstream at Breckenridge, things will be quicker:

More later

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Flooded highway

Posted at 5:03 AM on March 24, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters, Floods

On Monday evening, it was pretty clear Highway 210 wouldn't be open for long. I was about halfway through one portion where water had covered the road when I had the image of Mary Lucia telling the story of the blogger who got himself swept into the flood by doing something he knows he shouldn't have been doing. "Turn around, don't drown," National Guard Capt. Chuck Moore intoned when I told him about the situation later.

A Chevy Cavalier isn't much of an off-road vehicle.

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Video from Breckenridge

Posted at 5:19 AM on March 24, 2009 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters, Floods

Volunteers scurry to build a floodwall and a dike across the main entry into the city from North Dakota as the Red River reaches in Breckenridge, Minnesota.

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Scenes from Breckenridge

Posted at 10:07 PM on March 23, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters, Floods

Here's a few pictures as arrived in Breckenridge late Monday afternoon. Click the little arrows icon in the lower right corner to see full-sized images.

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Tales from the flood: Breckenridge

Posted at 9:31 PM on March 23, 2009 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters, Floods

If you've ever traveled US Highway 1 from Miami to Key West, you know what it's like to drive around West Central Minnesota and eastern North Dakota tonight. Other than the water lapping the road edge on both sides, and the anticipation of a cold drink at your destination, there the similarity ends.

The flood is a disaster still waiting to happen in Fargo and Moorhead, but it arrived on Monday in Breckenridge, a town that was heavily damaged in the great flood of '97, but often loses out to its bigger neighbors to the north when it comes to attention.

Late Monday afternoon, the fire department and other volunteers on the Breckenridge side started putting up a flood wall they purchased after the '97 flood. It took awhile to figure out where Part A connects to Part B, and the Red River wasn't waiting. It had already inundated the town park. Within a half hour, however, the wall was up, protecting the western flank from the rising river, and bulldozers began building a dike across the Minnesota Ave. bridge, cutting the city off. Wahpeton, North Dakota was soon to be on its own.

"I've never lived through a flood before," Breckenridge resident Carri Johnson told me as she helped assemble the flood wall. She said Monday was the first day she's been nervous. "I've never lived anywhere where a flood was even a threat, so I've just been watching people's faces because they lived through the 1997 flood and then day by day you can see the fear and... so I'm really watching my husband's face and when he gets scared, that's when I'm going to get scared."

Her husband, a firefighter, was in Breckenridge for the '97 flood.

"I saw a little nervousness today," she said.

She says she has volunteers ready to help her sandbag around her home if the water goes higher. (Listen)

It will go higher, says Captain Chuck Moore of the Minnesota National Guard (above right). He's in charge of about 40 Guardsmen, who were sent down to Breckenridge at the city's request after they were initially deployed to Moorhead.

In a makeshift office on the second floor of the Breckenridge City Hall, within spitting distance of the river, Moore coordinates six teams who have been deployed around the city. They're keeping an eye on a sandbagging location south of town because he's heard some communities have tried to steal sandbags from other communities.

"Sometime tomorrow (Tuesday) is the crest... they're expecting it to crest for two or three days," he said. (Listen)

It's not just the Red River that's causing the problem. In Breckenridge, the Otter Tail River has also spilled over, leaving mud down one city street. Across the Red River, the Sheyenne River is cutting off access to the bright lights of what passes for the big cities here.

The curse of March is that four or five months from now, if history holds, there'll be a shortage of water here and whatever crops can be planted this year will be parched. But for now, it's Water World in this section of the Upper Midwest.

Not long after I talked to both Johnson and Moore, I found myself cut off from Moorhead, my final destination for the day. I'd already been told that Highway 75 was closed, so I headed to North Dakota for Interstate 29, but it was closed, too. I drove another 25 miles, and found every road north blocked.

I turned around and headed back to Breckenridge, but by then the bridge into downtown had been sealed. I tried several back streets and found Highway 210 open enough to get into town. By the time darkness fell, so had heavy rain, which flooded most of the roadways north to Moorhead.

I shared the road only with the occasional dump truck, carrying sand to the river.

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Facebook's flood fighters

Posted at 10:59 AM on March 23, 2009 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters, Floods, Tech

The coming flood in the Fargo-Moorhead area has already been a test of social networking sites in an emergency. So far, the sites have passed with flying colors.
Photographer Kevin Tobosa, who lives in South Fargo, has helped organize volunteers to fill and move sandbags, and hit paydirt with Facebook, organizing the Fargo-Moorhead Flood Volunteer Network.

"I got an e-mail last Thursday with a call for volunteers. It just kind of hit me that we can really get the word out quickly... to a lot of people in real time using a social network like Facebook. We also have a Twitter account set up. People have this up and running at work, at home, going to their cellphones. E-mail seemed a lot slower, which is funny since it's always been known as a fast method to communicate," he told me today.

Tobosa says when he told Fargo's volunteer coordinator about his idea, "she thought maybe we could get about 50 volunteers and they'd mostly be young people." Tobosa set up the Facebook group on Thursday, sending out 100 "invites" to his network (he runs his photography business via Facebook.)

"Within 24 hours, we'd broken 1,000 (group members), within 48 hours we'd broken 2,000 and today we're at 3,000 people who are receiving our updates as they need volunteers," he said. "When we do put out a call for volunteers, we get that push, and now they're using that as their primary push and the press releases follow shortly thereafter. Just from the messages we've received via Facebook, people are thanking us for organizing it. A lot of people are out on spring break and hadn't realized how serious it is. People don't read the news when they're on vacation, but they are checking their Facebook and Twitter accounts, so that was a significant communication breakthrough."

Over the next week, Tobosa does not intend to change the purpose of his Facebook/Twitter efforts to a full-blown news-reporting effort. "The intent of this was never as a news outlet; there are a lot of news organizations that are already covering that. They have blogs on their sites. It was simply to be a voice for first-link volunteer coordination, to tell people where they were needed and what their urgencies are."

Tobosa has spent lots of time at "Sandbag University, in Moorhead and Fargo, locations where volunteers are filling and moving sandbags. "It's hard work. It's certainly back-breaking work, but there are a lot of people doing it," he said.

After our interview, he headed out to a dike being built a block from his house, which survived the '97 flood, but is on "the bubble" for the flood which is expected to crest Thursday or Friday.

Listen to the entire interview with Kevin Tobasa. Listen

(I'm heading to West Central Minnesota today. If you're in the area, please let me know.)

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Floods: The rising creeks

Posted at 10:10 AM on March 23, 2009 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters, Floods

Over the next few days, we'll hear a lot about Fargo-Moorhead, but there's more to flooding in the Upper Midwest than the Red River.

Out in North Dakota, the National Guard evacuated some people last evening in the Linton area who were stranded by rising water in creeks that were plugged with ice flows, according to a press release issued by the Guard today.

"The first rescue was of two citizens and two dogs from a farm in rural Carson, N.D. The second rescue of two citizens was from a farm near New Leipzig, N.D. Both farms were surrounded by four to five feet of floodwaters, making overland rescue impossible," it said.

These pictures were provided by the Guard:

These images bring to mind a question I usually have during these types of stories. If you've only got a few minutes, and you can only take what you can grab, what do you take?

I'm heading for the west-central region of Minnesota today, stopping first in Breckenridge and then on to Moorhead. If you're in the area, I'd like to stop and chat with you. Please contact me at bcollins@mpr.org.

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Flood preparations

Posted at 3:08 PM on March 20, 2009 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters

The weather experts say the Red River is going to experience some serious flooding. The river may crest higher than it did in 1997. For many people, Red River flooding that means Fargo and Moorhead, but there are more cities -- quite a few more cities -- whose residents' ears perk up when you say "flood."

Here's a timeline I built a few years ago on the 10th anniversary of the flood of 1997. Notice how slowly the disaster developed.



There is one difference -- so far -- in the flood of '97 with the coming flood of '09. Back in '97, a heavy rainfall followed by an immediate freeze helped gum things up. That's why a forecast of rain in the region on Monday (or perhaps Sunday) is being so closely watched.

Fargo has already started its flood preparations, closing off flood gates in the city. Trash collection has been suspended and the city will start public meetings on Saturday on what's coming.

They've also already started building up the dikes in Fargo.

MPR's Than Tibbetts sends along this photo of volunteer efforts on Friday. They're trying to fill a million sandbags there.



Facebook is being used to find volunteers. In just a few days, the Fargo-Moorhead Flood Volunteer Network has attracted more than 1,500 members. The group is going to fill sandbags on Saturday (8 a.m. - 8 p.m.) in 3-4 hour shifts at the Fargodome parking lot.

Volunteers in Moorhead are gathering Saturday at the Nemzek Field House. (You must have an ID to fill sandbags, apparently). The city has already raised bridges in anticipation of the flood.

A Twitter account has also been set up for flood information.

There's already flooding underway in the Wahpeton/Breckenridge area, where the river is expected to crest next Thursday. The city started filling sandbags last night. Flood predictions can be found on the National Weather Service flood prediction site.

For those in the flood zone, review this information on the Minnesota Department of Health Web site.

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Defending pilots

Posted at 2:41 PM on February 19, 2009 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters

Pilots hate the media. It's been that way for years. It's not without good reason. They think the media doesn't know anything about why airplanes fly. And some of the cable TV anchors obviously don't. Unfortunately, America often relies on them for news.

Throw a plane crash into this, and the rhetoric can get pretty heated. The Colgan Air crash in Buffalo is one such example. There's no question that media reports are quick to try to piece factoids together into some coherent explanation. That's not a media character flaw. The first question people ask after an accident is usually, "what happened?" Possibilities are not conclusions, however.

On his excellent blog, Blogging at FL250, "Sam" (we don't know his last name or what regional airline out of Minnesota he flies for) gets a good broadside off:

I'm not going to speculate on what caused the crash. All that I know about the circumstances are what's been reported by the NTSB thus far and repeated in the media. The morning after the crash, enough was already known that there were only a few likely culprits. I myself suspected it was one of two scenarios. The first known facts made one seem most likely, and subsequent information is now shifting the investigation towards the second possibility. The media hasn't reported accurately on either scenario, with a few exceptions. There's a decent chance that more information will come to light that will take the investigation in a completely different direction before it's all over. To say I have any idea what really caused this accident would be a farce. I will, however, give my take on some of the ways the known information has been interpreted and reported to the general public.

And:

All those answers will come with time; in the meantime, any certitude on the part of the media, most of their sources, bloggers, or web board participants is mere affectation.

Many of the nation's best aviation reporters are pilots. There isn't a separate set of laws for physics for people who fly airplanes for living vs. those who fly for some other reason.

Take James Fallows of the Atlantic, for example. Fallows, a pilot, does a great job in his post today of explaining what the word "stall" is in aviation.

For the pilot of any airplane, large or small, the practical implications of a stall center on whether you are pulling the airplane's nose up (by pulling the control wheel or stick backwards, toward your body) or pushing the nose down (by pushing the stick forward, away from you). Everyone who has ever flown an airplane has gone through stall-recovery drills. These involve climbing to a safe altitude; pulling the stick back more and more until you raise the nose so high and make the angle of attack so great that the airplane stalls and begins falling toward the earth; and then immediately pushing the stick forwardas the very first step in getting the airplane under control and flying again.

Pilots themselves, of course, object to suggestions the crew might have done something wrong. We don't know they did. We don't know they didn't. Besides, they're dead and don't get to defend themselves.

But it's entirely possible that they were guilty of nothing more than human survival instinct in the 5 seconds they had to figure out what was happening, and get it fixed.

Here's the scenario when a plane stalls close to the ground. Pretend you're the pilot. You're 1,000 feet off the ground when your plane loses its lift because you're going too slow. The ground is coming up fast in your windshield. What do you do? Pull the plane's nose up? Or push it down?

The correct answer? You push it down... toward the ground you don't want to hit. It -- and not the engine power -- is the most immediate way to can gain enough airspeed to get the plane flying again.

Where Fallows errs in his article today -- and where he gives ammunition to the Sams of the world -- is with this paragraph:

So if these reports stand up over time, and if the evidence ultimately shows that whoever was controlling the plane reacted in exactly the wrong way, it will be the rare case of a professional air crew, out of panic or for whatever reason, forgetting an elementary procedure that they certainly knew. After the USAir water-landing in the Hudson, many people observed that the casualty-free outcome was both an individual and a collective achievement. Individually, the air crew (pilot, copilot, attendants) reacted with supreme competence. Collectively, everyone involved did exactly what they had been trained to do. If what the WSJ says turns out to be what really happened, the Colgan-Buffalo crash will be a startling case of individual failure, which in turn will raise questions of how a professional air crew could have reacted this way.

How? Because with only 5 seconds to get it right, every neuron in your brain is telling you not to push a plane closer to the very thing you're trying to avoid.

The truth (probably) is: By the time it got to that point, the result was almost inevitable. The real question -- and I suspect the real focus of the investigation -- is how it got to that point.

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NTSB zeroes in on Buffalo crash cause

Posted at 10:07 AM on February 16, 2009 by Bob Collins (6 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters

The evidence is mounting that icing -- and the crew's reaction to it -- played the main part in last week's tragic Colgan Air crash in Buffalo.

After viewing a video from NASA, one wonders how much the crew -- or most other pilots for that matter -- knew about the existing investigations into what happens when the tails of turboprop aircraft ice up.

The spooky part of the video is at 15:40, when the test plane stalled ("stalling" in an airplane is the absence of lift). The pilots only recovered by retracing flaps, which allow planes to slow down, and descend without picking up airspeed.

Compare that to the National Transportation Safety Board's timetable of when things started to go wrong for the plane in Buffalo:

The NTSB has said problems for the 74-seat Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 occurred when the pilots lowered the landing gear and tried to set the wing flaps to slow the aircraft for landing.

The video adds an additional part to the equation: The actions a pilot must take for a "tail stall," are nearly the opposite of the actions he/she must take for a wing stall, the much more common type of stall.

How much time did the pilots have to take those actions once the plane was (apparently) stalling? Five seconds.

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The hidden airlines

Posted at 10:11 AM on February 15, 2009 by Bob Collins (10 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters

There are a few similarities between the crash of a regional jet near Buffalo last week and the 1993 crash of a regional flight on approach to the airport in Hibbing, but ice isn't one of them. The Star Tribune noted this week -- incorrectly, by the way -- that icing contributed to the Northwest Airlink crash. It didn't. The plane crashed because a poorly trained pilot executed a banned procedure to avoid suspected icing, and lost track of the altitude of his plane. An additional cause was that the younger co-pilots in the airline were too intimidated to call the pilot on his actions.

"It was a textbook flight right up until the moment it crashed," Mike Brady, the head of the airline that operated the flight told me and reporter Elizabeth Stawicki. We conducted an investigation of the crash which revealed poor FAA oversight of the airline, poor training in the airline, lax monitoring of the actions of pilots, and a system of "branding" among airlines that masked the fact -- at the time -- that when passengers transferred from a Northwest Airlines flight to a plane dressed up to look like a Northwest Airlines plane (except for the logo), they stepped into a substantially different world of airline safety -- a substantially less safe world.

Northwest Airlink wasn't Northwest Airlines. It was actually Express II Airlines, with which Northwest contracted to run the flights to some outstate Minnesota destinations.

Express II is gone now. The federal rules under which the "hidden" airlines operated have been tightened. The requirements for safety equipment on the regional planes are much tighter now than in 1993. Training has been standardized.

Since 9/11, airlines have increasingly turned to their hidden airlines. And they are still doing their best to make sure you think it's all one big airline. It's not. Passengers quite often aren't on the big airline they think they're on.

Just this morning, for example, I heard one network reporter refer to the jet that crashed in Buffalo as Continental Flight 3407. It was painted in the colors of Continental Airlines (See image here). But it wasn't a flight operated by Continental Airlines, and the pilots weren't employed by Continental Airlines.

It was a flight operated by Colgan Air. Colgan, in turn, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pinnacle Airlines. Pinnacle specializes in providing the regional jet flights under contract to big airlines, but the airline is not managed by the larger airline. It operates several "Northwest" flights.

"We leave safety monitoring to the FAA," said a Continental spokeswoman about their pact with Pinnacle and Colgan.

Regional jets are not, by definition, dangerous airplanes. But there is an undeniable fact in the aviation industry: The more experienced a pilot and first officer, the better aviators they are, and the better able they generally would be at handling quickly developing emergencies. Flight crews at these "hidden airlines" are in the comparatively early stage of becoming the next Chesley Sullenberger. Generally, the "hidden airlines" are the entry-level steps to becoming an airline pilot at a major carrier.

Of the five employees on the Colgan Air flight to Buffalo, none had more than four years of experience. The co-pilot on the ill-fated airplane, Rebecca Shaw, joined the airline only last year. She had not yet acquired an Air Transport Pilot rating, which -- among other things -- requires a minimum of 1,500 flight hours of experience. Shaw had over 2,000 hours with the airline, however.

The pilot, Marvin Renslow, who joined the airline in 2005, was 48. He had over 3,000 hours with Colgan, but no other airline experience.

Pilots for regional carriers are not incompetent pilots. Far from it. But they are not the industry's most experienced pilots. Of course, we don't know why the Colgan plane crashed. The weather certainly seems to have been a challenge. Based on NTSB investigations of previous disasters, however, how pilots respond to those challenges is what separates a happy landing from a tragic accident.

Since 2000, there have been eight crashes of regional aircraft. Only one did not involve fatalities. Three of the incidents involved Pinnacle Airlines, Colgan Air's parent company. In one 2004 crash, two pilots of an empty airplane (on its way to Minneapolis St. Paul) died in a crash after they tried to see how high the airplane could go.

Speaking to the Regional Airline Association just four months ago, Robert Sumwalt, the vice chair of the National Transportation Safety Board indicated he has concerns about the safety level of regional carriers:

When a passenger buys a ticket on an airline to go from say, Columbia, SC to San Francisco, he or she may find that the flight from Columbia to a hub city is being operated by a regional airline that is partnering with a major airline, while the next leg will be on a major airline.

The tickets would be issued on the major airline's ticket stock, the passenger would check in through the major airline's ticket counter and they would board planes that are painted in that major airline's livery.

Doesn't that passenger deserves the same level of safety while traveling on the regional airline portion of that flight as they receive on the portion flown by the major airline?

Sumwalt said he sees some evidence they're not.

(Photo: Stan Honda/Getty Images)

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Victory tour

Posted at 12:06 PM on February 9, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters

It's rare that a big buildup to a TV news interview lives up to the hype, but Chesley Sullenberger, the pilot of US Airways flight 1549, and his crew did not disappoint on Sunday night's 60 Minutes.

The highlight of the interview was Sullenberger's assessment of what had to happen to avoid calamity.

"I needed to touch down with the wings exactly level. I needed to touch down with the nose slightly up. I needed to touch down at a descent rate that was survivable. And I needed to touch down just above our minimum flying speed but not below it. And I needed to make all these things happen simultaneously."

This is the aviation equivalent of patting your head and rubbing your belly, and this is what happens when it doesn't go right.

But after listing the things that he had to do, Sullenberger delivered the "money quote."

"I was sure I could do it."

Sullenberger and his crew visited the TV morning news shows today, and couldn't escape many of the silly questions for which the hosts are famous.

The CBS Early Show tried mightily to one-up the superior interview on 60 Minutes, by forcing "emotional" reunions between passengers and the crew.

"How important were the rescuers," was one question.

"Do you think you'll all be friends for life? Is there life before Flight 1549 and after?" host Maggie Rodriguez asked at a particularly awkward moment.

"Did you see any change in the expression on his face," Good Morning America's Diane Sawyer asked Sullenberger's co-pilot.

"I wasn't looking at his face," the co-pilot replied.

Good Morning America, scored the biggest "get" of the morning, however, and it didn't come from Sullenberger or his team. It came from a passenger's camera phone, the first image of what the January incident looked like from the wings of the downed airplane.

Later on Monday, the crew got the "keys to the city" from New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

(Photo by Michael Nagle/Getty Images)

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The Hudson River tapes

Posted at 2:16 PM on February 5, 2009 by Bob Collins (11 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters

The Federal Aviation Administration released the various tower tapes surrounding last month's ditching of a US Airways flight in the Hudson River. There were many conversations going on at once. I merged a few of them into a (mostly) real-time presentation.

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Sully's week

Posted at 7:30 AM on February 2, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters

We're done with Michael Phelps. You're on, Sully. We're going to hear more about the "Hudson River heroes" this week. CBS' "60 Minutes" is heavily promoting its interview with US Air flight 1545 pilot Chesley Sullenberger, who ditched the plane in the Hudson River a few weeks ago. It also has started promoting a segment on its suffering Early Show on Monday, also featuring Sullenberger. The network goes for the trifecta a night later when he stops by David Letterman's show.

THR.com has a nice behind-the-scenes look today at the pilot's coming-out party. NBC had originally booked Sullenberger, who was also honored at the Super Bowl, for the Today show before he backed out on the advice of his union, prompting this unusually harsh statement from NBC.

"What Captain Sullenberger did in the cockpit on Flight 1549 was heroic and admirable. Unfortunately, people close to him have not acted nearly as admirably over the past few days. They gave us their word and then broke their commitment. We wish Captain Sullenberger the best."

The euphoria over the Hudson River "miracle," ended last week, when passengers started complaining that US Air wasn't giving them enough freebies, according to the New York Post.

"You're going to crash me into the water, and you're going to tell me all I get is an upgrade?" asked Antonio Sales, 20, who was traveling with the University of South Carolina's track team. "That's more of an 'OK, you're not dead, I'll give you something to hold on to.' It's not enough at all."

Susan O'Donnell isn't one of those complaining, however. She was an off-duty pilot for American, riding in first class (a courtesy extended by airlines to other airlines' pilots) in the cockpit, and provided an account of the ditching to her union, which issued a press release about it.

The descent seemed very controlled, and the sink rate reasonably low. I believed the impact would be violent but survivable, although I did consider the alternative. The passengers remained calm and almost completely quiet. As we approached the water, I braced by folding my arms against the seat back in front of me, then putting my head against my arms. There was a brief hard jolt, a rapid decel and we were stopped. It was much milder than I had anticipated. If the jolt had been turbulence, I would have described it as moderate. Thinking about it later on, I realized it was no worse than a carrier landing.

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From worms to heroes

Posted at 9:19 AM on January 19, 2009 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters

There's no end to some of the fascinating insight that comes from Thursday's ditching of the US Airways plane in the Hudson River. It was brought down by a flock of birds. Today, I found an obscure publication -- until last week -- from the Department of Agriculture and the Federal Aviation Administration on bird strikes.

The most interesting part? One of the big reasons birds hang out at airports: worms. If you've ever walked down your driveway during a rainstorm, you know the scenario. Rain brings out the worms, worms bring out the birds.

There are plenty of pictures in that report, and also in this one, which features archived bird-strike reports.

Meanwhile, the pilot of the plane in the New York incident, Chesley Sullenberger III, canceled his appearance on the Today Show this morning at the request of his union.

We love heroes, of course. Sullenberger's name was even invoked in Ireland today. A commentary in the Irish Times said what Ireland needs is, well, more Sullenbergers.

On Facebook this weekend, a marketing specialist in branding (Sullenberger is now a brand), set up a Sullenberger group. In four days, it attracted 368,765 members.

We're still waiting for the first lawsuit, but it probably won't come from a Wisconsin lawyer who was on the plane. She wants Sully at her wedding.

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The plane

Posted at 10:42 AM on January 17, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters

Six must-read items in the aftermath of the water landing of the US Airways jet on Thursday:

>> Here's some of the initial radio transmissions by first responders.

>> Philip Greenspun, who's also a pilot, deftly points out (probably too deftly) that for all of the appropriate credit being given to Chesley Sullenberger, pilot, there were actually two people in the cockpit (James Fallows makes the same point). The first officer's (aka co-pilot's) mother lives in Wisconsin, by the way. It occurs to me also that the now-famous "brace for impact" call may not necessarily have been Sullenberger's.

>> Charles Bremner has a nice piece in the London Times about what was likely happening in the cockpit during the final few minutes of the flight.

>> The Coast Guard released some surveillance camera video of the plane ditching.

>> Students at an aviation college put together a simulation of the flight:

>> Here's an interview with John Ostrom, manager of airside operations at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, who spoke with Newsweek about the danger of birds at airports.

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Sweat the small stuff

Posted at 1:57 PM on January 16, 2009 by Bob Collins (15 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters

Via Twitter, The Fix's Chris Ciillizza of the Washington Post asks an intriguing question:

Does it worry anyone else that a massive plane can be brought down by a flock of birds?

Any minute now, someone will propose that all airplanes have an additional engine and be wrapped in rabbit wire. Sometimes you just can't plan for the little stuff that creates big problems. And that got me thinking about some of the little things:

September 11th never would've happened without a 99 cent boxcutter. Thousands died, two wars started, and an economy went in the tank.

A small chunk of foam -- the kind we hit our siblings with just for fun -- put a small nick in the space shuttle Columbia, causing it to burn up on re-entry.

An Eastern Airlines L-1011 crashed into the Florida Everglades in 1972, killing 94 passengers and 5 crewmembers, because a burned out light bulb in an indicator light diverted the pilots' attention from flying the airplane.

A relatively inexpensive valve broke at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Plant in 1979 after a pump stopped working, triggering the only partial nuclear core meltdown in U.S. history.

It's always something -- often something small. Feel free to add to the list.

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New York plane crash

Posted at 2:56 PM on January 15, 2009 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters

By way of Twitter, here's an image of the plane that crashed into the Hudson River today.

What's amazing to me is the lack of damage to the airplane which, when all is said and done, is simply thin-skinned aluminum.

3 pm. - It was an Airbus 320. How fast was it going? The takeoff speed for an A320 is about 170 mph, depending on how heavy it was. About 300 were said to be on board.

3:04 p.m. - Here's live video from WABC in New York.

3:05 p.m. - An eyewitness says the plane did not have its landing gear down. "This pilot is amazing how he brought that plane down.

3:07 p.m. - The FAA confirms the plane's engines were "disabled by a bird strike." Everyone appears to have survived. The plane -- US Airways Flight 1549 -- was enroute to Charlotte.

3:12 p.m. - This Wikipedia page has some images of the effect of other bird strikes on aircraft.

3:18 p.m. - Here's the flight log:

via Flightaware.com

3:21 p.m. - Here's a list of significant airplane-bird strike incidents.

A similar bird-ingestion incident occurred at LaGuardia in 2003

04 September 2003. A Fokker 100 struck a flock of at least 5 Canada geese over runway shortly after takeoff at LaGuardia Airport (NY), ingesting 1 or 2 geese into #2 engine. Engine vibration occurred. Pilot was unable to shut engine down with the fuel cutoff lever so fire handle was pulled and engine finally shut down, but vibration continued. The flight was diverted to nearby JFK International Airport where a landing was made. The NTSB found a 20- by 36-inch wide depression on right side of nose behind radome. Maximum depth was 4 inches. Impact marks on right wing. A fan blade separated from the disk and penetrated the fuselage. Several fan blades were deformed. Holes were found in the engine cowling. Remains were recovered and identified by Wildlife Services.

3:26 p.m.- This YouTube video shows what happens when a single bird is ingested into a jet engine.

3:29 p.m. -- More images from today's crash via this Flickr photostream.

3:34 p.m. - Closer to home, this newspaper article details a bird strike in Minnesota that led to a private plane to crash during a routine training flight from St. Paul to Grand Rapids.

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Media layoffs

Posted at 10:51 AM on December 31, 2008 by Bob Collins (10 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters, Energy, Media

The axe is falling on more media personalities.

Nat Hentoff was let go yesterday by the Village Voice, so everyone pretty much knew firings were coming at City Pages, which is owned by the same company.

Bingo.

James Norton and Assistant A-List editor Ben Palosaari have been let go, according to media analyst David Brauer at Minnpost. He also notes that WCCO-AM has dismised overnight talk host Al Malmberg and his fill-in, Brad Walton.

One of the questions for 2009? Is there any local media that will escape the budget-cutting axe?

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Starting over

Posted at 1:35 PM on December 24, 2008 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)
Filed under: Disasters

Barry Altman of Plymouth, Julie Railsback of Minneapolis, and Muriel Olson of St. Paul didn't have many customers today. That's a good thing; they're disaster relief volunteers with the Twin Cities chapter of the American Red Cross and they've been helping many of the 200 victims of a devastating apartment house fire in Burnsville.

Late yesterday, someone donated $1 million to the victims to help them recover. "There are a lot more smiles around here today," Muriel told me this afternoon. Some of that is because of the money, and some of that is because Muriel, Julie, Barry, and dozens of people like them have been helping since Monday.

Julie, a social worker, has been volunteering one day a week with the Red Cross since January. Barry has been volunteering for four years. Muriel, a registered nurse, is a 40-year veteran of disasters big and small.

They specialize in helping people start over. Their table is set up in the remaining apartment house in the two-building complex where people squeeze between tables of volunteers and TV camera crews waiting for anyone who wants to tell their story.

"We're just waiting to see if they have a health need. I'm also following up on people I talked to yesterday who were waiting for prescriptions from the doctor for some medications," according to Muriel. "Some people lose health equipment. That's going to take a little while to replace. There was a lot of stress and people feeling 'it's overwhelming and I've lost everything; how am I going to start over?'"

For Barry, it's hard work physically and mentally. He helped set up cots at Burnsville High School Monday night. That's the physical. Then there's the mental. "I've been to quite a few different kinds of disasters and worked with clients and after the first couple of them, you learn to not put the stress onto yourself, but to reduce the stress of the people who were involved," he said. "When I come onto a scene for the first time, I think 'what do we need to do to help you make it until tomorrow morning?' I heard on the news one lady came out just with her slippers and nightgown and that was it. What do you do right now? And that's what we're prepared to help people deal with." (Listen)

In the disaster recovery business, there is -- all three acknowledged -- a desire to use one's own resources to fix someone else's trouble. "When I was working at a shelter a couple of months ago, there were six or seven kids and there was nothing to do," Julie said. "So I went home and got some videos and some playcards and things for people to do. For the kids, it's that sense of being normal again and 'I want to play and go out to the park and mom's busy because she's dealing with housing stuff.' You just want to help them as best you can in the immediate." (Listen)

But over time, Muriel says, volunteers realize that helping people through the Red Cross guidelines is the best way to get needs met.

Red Cross volunteers, it would appear, don't get closure on most disasters. I asked the three if they ever wonder what happens to the people whose lives they started to put back together. Some make more impressions than others.

"With the I-35W bridge incident, some people did come back and talk to us and that was good," said Muriel. "The people who came here from Katrina that lost everything. I won't ever forget that. It was really rewarding to work with them." (Listen)

Barry's job during the flooding in Iowa was setting up communications equipment. "I was in the process of unloading something at the truck and a young lady -- maybe 20 -- asked if I was with the Red Cross. I said I was and she just broke down. She was devastated not having anyone to talk to. She had lost everything and just wandered over to us. So I sat with her and she just cried for awhile. We have a stress team that's really good at this and I made sure she was left with someone from that team." (Listen)

"Most people are really grateful," says Julie. "When they see the Red Cross, they know that we're here to help and they're very grateful -- not all, but the majority are."

People all over the Twin Cities are anxious to know whose name is behind the $1 million. We may never know. But we do know the names of some of the people who are making things better in a crowded lobby of a Burnsville apartment complex: Muriel, Julie, and Barry.

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