Bazaar
Spring Along the Minnesota-North Dakota Border Often Brings Floods. Here's How They’re Working To Protect Residents | The Weather Channel
Advertisement
Advertisement

Flood Safety and Preparedness

Spring Along the Minnesota-North Dakota Border Often Brings Floods. Here's How They’re Working To Protect Residents

GRAND FORKS, UNITED STATES:  Flooding from the Red River in Grand Forks, ND, can be seen in this 22 April overview. After viewing the flooded town by helicopter, Clinton addressed area residents staying at a nearby air base.  Most of the 50,000 residents of Grand Forks have been evacuated from their homes because of the worst flooding this area has ever seen. (ELECTRONIC IMAGE) Stephen JAFFE/lf (Photo credit should read STEPHEN JAFFE/AFP via Getty Images)
A view of the flooding from the Red River in Grand Forks, ND on 22 April, 1997.
(STEPHEN JAFFE/AFP via Getty Images)

After a winter of heavy snowfall (up to 117 inches in Fargo), warm weather in March of 1997 began to melt the snow across the Valley of the Red River of the North that runs along the border of Minnesota and North Dakota into Southern Manitoba. Many of the river’s tributaries soon began to flood, especially in flat and low-lying farmland areas.

Then Blizzard Hannah hit in April, bringing with it up to 70 mph winds, a frigid drop in temperatures, and dumping an additional 20 inches of snow. In some areas, the blizzard was preceded with wind-driven rain and sleet.

“The wet snow clung to the power poles and lines turned to ice," said Al Leiran, an insurance agent and resident of Ada, Minnesota, a small town just north of Fargo that is located next to one of the larger tributaries to the Red River, the Wild Rice River. "The wind and weight of the ice snapped the power poles like toothpicks causing a complete loss of power for many days. Many people had no heat and the cold was brutal.”

-- U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officers Brian Kritz and Jason Wimer  take National Geogrphic photographer Bob Sacha through the garbage filled floodwaters near the Kennedy Bridge in East Grand Forks.  Wimer is poling the boat.
U.S. Coast Guard officers navigate through the garbage filled floodwaters near the Kennedy bridge in East Grand Forks.
(JOEY MCLEISTER/Star Tribune via Getty Images)

“The ice made rescue of rural people more difficult because boats could not be used until it warmed up and the roads were covered with water and ice. Many roads were washed out by the rushing water,” he continued.

Thousands of people were forced to flee their homes — some permanently.

“Several communities, including Ada where we lived, had deep water covering the east half of the city. The sewer system backed up into nearly all the houses and businesses on both sides of town and the flooding covered thousands of acres of farmland and flowed into towns all along the way. It overran temporary dikes and people had to be rescued by the National Guard in big trucks.”

His neighbor was nine months pregnant with twins, he said, and had to be rescued in the bucket of the city's payloader.

A North Dakota Army Guard vehicle on a evacuation and patrol mission near the hospital in Grand Forks.
A North Dakota Army Guard vehicle on a evacuation and patrol mission near the hospital in Grand Forks, April 20, 1997
(CHERYL MEYER/Star Tribune via Getty Images)

“The nursing home, hospital and school along with many homes and businesses were ruined beyond repair," he said. Leiran, adding that as an insurance agent in the area, he handled thousands of the claims from residents and farmers in the aftermath. "Many of the residents from the nursing home never made it back as they died before the new nursing home could be completed in 2000."

Despite trying to be prepared by raising temporary dikes, Grand Forks and East Grand Forks soon became inundated when the dikes failed to contain the rising floodwaters. Even though the residents had been evacuated and the town was inundated with flood water, a fire broke out in Grand Forks and spread several blocks because firefighters couldn’t fight it during the flood conditions. Both Grand Forks and East Grand Forks had to be completely evacuated.

GRAND FORKS, UNITED STATES:  A US Coast Guardsman patrols flood-soaked downtown Grand Forks, ND, 22 April.  Earlier 22 April US President Bill Clinton flew over Grand Forks before addressing area residents at Grand Forks Air Force Base.  Most of the 50,000 residents of Grand Forks have been evacuated from their homes because of the worst flooding this area has ever seen.   AFP PHOTO/Craig LASSIG (Photo credit should read CRAIG LASSIG/AFP via Getty Images)
A US Coast Guardsman patrols flood-soaked downtown Grand Forks, ND, 22 April.
(CRAIG LASSIG/AFP via Getty Images)

In the end, this 1997 Red River Valley flood displaced more than 50,000 people, caused 5 billion dollars worth of damage and drew national attention. President Bill Clinton even made a visit to survey the damage.

A River Vulnerable To Flooding

Advertisement

While the 1997 flood was one of the worst in recent history, flooding along the Red River of the North isn’t that uncommon.

<<enter caption here>> on March 28, 2009 in Fargo, North Dakota.
Residents walk down the driveway through flood water from the Wild Rice River in 2009 near Horace, North Dakota.
(Scott Olson/Getty Images)

There have been at least two other major floods since 1997. Every winter with heavy snowfall or early, warm spring brings a flood risk. To make matters worse, data from the National Weather Service suggests that flooding has become more frequent. More than half of the top 10 floods recorded in Fargo and Grand Forks have happened in the last 23 years due to increased precipitation. Communities have already been put on alert this spring for the possibility of significant flooding.

One reason the Red River of the North is particularly susceptible to flooding is simply climate-related. The area gets a lot of snow between October and May and the river freezes over until late March/early April when the snow and ice starts to melt. Second, the river is somewhat unusual because it flows north; most rivers flow south. This means that in a typical year, warmer temperatures melt snow near the river’s source first and the resulting runoff flows in the river — and its tributaries — northward into still-frozen areas, forcing it to break through ice as it travels northward. If it runs into an ice jam, water flows over the riverbanks and floods the surrounding area.

<<enter caption here>> on March 30, 2009 in Fargo, North Dakota.
Ice covers a flooded rural road near Fargo, North Dakota in 2009.
(Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Another reason that the river is susceptible to flooding is because it's located on the shallow glacial lake plain of Lake Agassiz — one of the flattest stretches of land in the world. So when the river floods, the water can easily flow for great distances without much effort. The river is also relatively young (about 9,300 years old) and thus hasn’t had the time to carve out a significant valley-floodplain. When it floods, the lake plain becomes its floodplain — which can cause large areas to flood. In addition, the river doesn’t have a very strong gradient (or slope), meaning the water flows slowly and can easily pool, especially in the Drayton-Pembina area where the slope is the flattest.

Preparing And Protecting

MOORHEAD, MINNESOTA- MARCH 28:   A home surrounded by a tempory dike is seen  March 28, 2009 in Moorhead, Minnesota.  Homeowners continue to monitor tempory dikes for  leaks as they await the Red River to possibily crest on Sunday. (Photo by Daniel Barry/Getty Images)
A home is surrounded by a temporary dike March 28, 2009 in Moorhead, Minnesota.
(Daniel Barry/Getty Images)

Because the region is so vulnerable to flooding, towns, residents and local farmers have had to adapt in order to protect themselves.

“In 1997, there were not many rural homes protected from the flooding,” said Leiran. “After 1997 and due to the severity of the flooding, most farmsteads have permanent dikes built around the yards. Towns have had extensive permanent dikes installed to protect them. Fargo and Moorhead have bought out many homes considered to be in the flood zone.”

MOORHEAD, MINNESOTA- MARCH 28:   A resident checks a dike in his yard March 28, 2009 in Moorhead, Minnesota.  Homeowners continue to monitor tempory dikes for  leaks as they await the Red River to possibily crest on Sunday. (Photo by Daniel Barry/Getty Images)
A resident checks a dike in his yard March 28, 2009 in Moorhead, Minnesota.
(Daniel Barry/Getty Images)

Following the flood, the National Weather Service conducted a review to determine why they had underestimated how high the Red River water level would rise in the spring of 1997. That review led to a much improved forecasting system. They instituted better river gauges, and that, combined with improved satellite data and soil temperature data, helps them better forecast river flooding today. This gives communities more time to prepare their properties and towns with sandbags and dikes.

<<enter caption here>> on March 28, 2009 in Fargo, North Dakota.
Members of the Horace Fire department, the North Dakota National Guard and volunteers help to sandbag a retention pond to keep flood water from the water treatment facility March 28, 2009 near Horace, North Dakota.
(Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Following the 1997 flood, Congress also funded the construction of a massive $409 million levee system. To build these levees, houses in flood-prone areas were removed. In some places, entire neighborhoods were demolished. And so far, the levees seem to be helping. In 2009, Grand Forks saw its fourth highest flood on record, but it didn't endure anything close to the destruction it had experienced just 12 years earlier. The project has, according to local city officials, helped the town and its small businesses recover and thrive, too.

In 2005, a flood diversion channel and levees were built in Breckenridge and Wahpeton, North Dakota — two towns also along the Red River. According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, this project has prevented $165 million in flood damage.

A $2.75 billion flood control project has also been in the works for some time to divert flooding Red River water around the cities of Fargo and Moorhead, though the project has been stalled in recent years due to legal lawsuits.

While none of these measures can completely protect this region from flooding, they can help mitigate the risks of enduring another flood as severe as the one they lived through in 1997.

Advertisement
Hidden Weather Icon Masks
Hidden Weather Icon Symbols