theres a flood coming

The flood of 2011 is quickly approaching. We’ve had temps in the 40’s all week so the snow has been melting like crazy! Its hard to believe just a few weeks ago we had a 6 foot snow drift outside my house! In case you didn’t know I live in Fargo, North Dakota, and I work across the River in Moorhead, Minnesota. Piney lives in Moorhead too. The area floods every year. Some years are worse than others. In the 10 years I’ve lived here there has only been one really bad flood, and that was back in in 2009. The Red River is currently at 16.28 feet. Flood stage is at 18 feet. In 2009 the river crested at 40.82 feet. I think I heard forecasts of the river cresting at 41 or higher this year, but they aren’t certain where it’s going to crest. My house is far from the river, if we flood over there the whole state is screwed.


Here are a few pictures of the 09 flood. The pictures are from a few days before the crest.



this is the Red River from the Main St bridge.



Trying to get to Moorhead from Fargo was a nightmare. This was the interstate and the ONLY road with a bridge open. Traffic was at a standstill most of the day

Sandbagging at my friends parents house.

That group of trees is what surrounds the barn. To the right was all water from melted snow on the fields and overland flooding. It was sucky.

The company I work for has a few large buildings that they rent out to the city of Moorhead to store their sandbags after they are filled. I think I overheard them say that there are 400,000 sand bags being stored there. We went yesterday to have a look. It’s unbelievable to see all of them. Here are a few pictures from the farm.



This is a building connected to thes shop it's 80x300 ft and filled up with rollaways.



The ladder I climbed up to take a look. I think it was a 6 foot ladder.



This building is 100x200 ft and filled from one side to the other. I walked across all the sand bags to get here.



So heres to hoping that we don’t flood as badly as we did in 09!