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The call for people to help fight what could
be a record flood brought a steady stream of volunteers to Fargo's
"Sandbag Central," including firefighters, a high school baseball
team and a married couple of 51 years.


      Don Such, 74, sat on a chair next to a sand pile Friday morning
while his wife, Alice, 73, filled bags with a shovel inside the
huge city building that normally serves as a parking garage for
garbage trucks.


      "What's better than to sit on a chair and let your wife do the
shoveling? You can't beat it," Don said.


      "We think this is the thing to do when our city is in trouble.
This is home," Alice said. "The way they are predicting, it's
scary."


      The latest projections from the National Weather Service say the
Red River is expected to crest between 37 feet and 40 feet. A
40-foot crest is 22 feet above flood stage and about a half-foot
higher than the historic 1997 spring flood.


      Across the river in Oakport Township, north of Moorhead, Minn.,
Marle Myhre was dusting off a flatbed trailer to use for hauling
sandbags. He said he had to sandbag around his house one other
time, in 1997.


      Myhre worries this time because the prediction for the flood
crest was moved up two weeks, to sometime between March 28 to April
1.


      "Here I thought I had lots of time, and all of a sudden they're
talking like it's a week away," he said. "It's always scary."


      Work has started on a dike to protect downtown Fargo and more
temporary levees are planned around the city. 


About 1.5 million
sandbags will be needed for Fargo and about 800,000 more for Cass
County, to be delivered within the next week, said Bruce Grubb,
Fargo's enterprise director.


      "It's a pretty monumental task," Grubb said. "We think we'll
meet the goal."


      The city has new equipment to help fill sandbags. Two "sandbag
spiders" were set up inside Sandbag Central. The machines, which
cost $35,000 apiece, are rated to fill 5,000 sandbags an hour,
Grubb said.


      "We thought it was a good investment because these 100-year
floods seem to be more and more frequent," Grubb said.


      Others were filling bags the old-fashioned way, with shovels.
That included about 40 members of the Fargo South High School
baseball team, whose practice was called off for sandbagging.


      "This is our practice now," said Brady Horner, sophomore
shortstop and pitcher for the Bruins. "It's good labor. It's a
good workout. It also feels great to help out the community. You
never know what can happen until it happens to you."


      City lawbreakers got a chance to help. Fargo Court Judge Tom
Davies offered people who had delinquent fines or outstanding
arrest warrants a chance to get them withdrawn if they signed up
for sandbag duty.


      Starting Saturday, the sandbag site was to run 24 hours.


      In Cass County, officials said the sheriff's department has been
divided into four emergency response teams. They will be patrolling
to help keep dikes in good shape and make sure people are safe.


      Fargo officials have identified 13 neighborhoods in Fargo along
the Red River corridor and five along the city's southwest side
that need protection from overland flooding.


      The threat is increasing with a storm moving in from the Pacific
by early next week. In Washington, the state's congressional
delegation and governor met with officials of the White House,
Federal Emergency Management Agency, Army Corps of Engineers, National
Guard and National Weather Service.


      "The wild card is this weather event this weekend and into next
week," Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., said by phone Friday morning.
"The people we met with today assured us this morning that they
are prepared to win this fight in every community."
      

Gallery

Red River expected to crest at about 40 feet in Fargo

Fargo has less time to prepare for higher flooding

Forecasters project major Red River flooding

Weather and Climate News

Work has started on a dike to protect
downtown Fargo against what could be a record flood.  More temporary levees are set to go up around the city in the next couple of days.

Dike work starts in Fargo to prepare for flood

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