Statewide Flooding Continues

Growing up in western North Dakota I have never really had experienced flooding. The Missouri River, as long as I have known, was always lower, and never a real threat.



That has changed. Mandatory evacuations were put into place at 3pm this afternoon for a portion of South Bismarck, right where my parents live. About 6 inches of SNOW had fallen in the morning and afternoon hours today. The Missouri River was high and ice jams were causing overland flooding. I received a brief email from my Dad this afternoon saying that they did some sandbagging and there was a lot of water in the yard already. I found a link to the Bismarck Tribune that had a video of my parents neighborhood this afternoon. This is so scary. Not knowing the outcome is the worst feeling ever.

Things have been going pretty good in Fargo today, considering. There were more volunteers helping with sandbagging then they expected, or were ready for. The filling and distributing of sandbags has gone on for 24 hours a day for the past few days. Many local university students (as well as UND students traveling from an hour north of here) have volunteered their time.

Supposedly 1.5 million bags have been filled. The plan is to fill 2 million. All man-made dikes need to be built to 42 feet, as the river should max out at 41. We have about another 24 hours to prepare for this flood. Then, the temps are going to drop below freezing and you can not pile frozen sandbags; it just doesn't work.

People are being advised to go home and rest tonight. Throughout the night, the dikes will be measured and made sure they are up to par. If there is just one part that isn't the right height or width, it can cause a good portion of the dike to go down.


There is so much flooding going on across the state of ND and portions of Western MN. This weather is truly insane and rediculous. And we all are ready for it to be done and over with.