Red River Floods of 2009

Why are sandbags the weapon of choice to fight flooding?

by Tom Crann, Minnesota Public Radio

Whether it's Crookston, Wolverton, Breckenridge or Fargo, the key tool in flood fighting this week is the sandbag. Volunteers in the Fargo Moorhead area have filled about a million sandbags so far. And, they hope to have two million sandbags placed in dykes before the Red River crests later this week. That's about 70 million pounds of sand.

We wanted to know more about this indispensible tool, so All Things Considered called Ken Hellevang, an Extension Service Agricultural Engineer at North Dakota State University. He's written a guide on building sandbag dykes. Hellevang told my why sandbags are the tool of choice.