The Red River near Fargo in March 2011 (Getty Images)
Written by
The Associated Press
FARGO, N.D. -- The Red River neared its spring flooding peak on Saturday, approaching historic highs yet short of the levels that might have cracked the defenses of a city used to dealing with high water.
The National Weather Service said the river appeared to be leveling off as it approached 39 feet. The weather service refined its crest projection to 39 feet by Saturday night, the low end of a range that earlier had been as much as 40 feet, and said up to an inch of rain in the weekend forecast wasn't expected to change the crest.
Both Fargo and neighboring Moorhead, Minn., with a combined population of nearly 200,000, have permanent and temporary dikes and levees to at least 41 feet. The Red's high water was expected to linger late into the week, so closely watching those protections was essential, officials said.
"Things can change," said Col. Michael Price, commander of the Army Corps of Engineers' district office in St. Paul, Minn.
Mayor Dennis Walaker, a former public works director and veteran of several flood fights, said he didn't think the Red would break 39 feet.
The Red River Valley has had three straight years of major flooding.
The record flood of 2009 forced thousands to evacuate, inundated about 100 homes and caused an estimated $100 million in damage. The river crested at 40.84 feet. The river topped out last year at 36.99 feet, the sixth-highest crest on record. Damage last year was minimal.
Fargo and Moorhead have steadily reduced their vulnerability to the Red by buying out homes in flood-prone areas, purchasing miles of quick-install diking systems and making millions of sandbags before they're urgently needed. This winter's heavy snowfall had the cities laying plans for spring flooding far in advance, and construction of sandbag dikes wrapped up Friday in the two cities.
Still, the perennial flood threat is serious. Three people have died in the past week in the Red River Valley, including a farmer who suffered a heart attack while sandbagging and two hunters boating on the flooded Maple River.
More than 600 National Guard members from North Dakota and Minnesota are pulling flood duty on both sides of the Red.
As the Fargo-Moorhead area waited out the Red, water from it and its tributaries was spreading out in rural areas. In Cass County, Sheriff's Capt. Rick Majerus said residents up to a dozen miles north of Fargo had been calling for more sandbags to guard against high water. But Majerus said no one had been displaced in recent days.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)