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

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.”

“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.

“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.

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

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.

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

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.”

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.

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.