Hi from Fargo, ND.

As you may have seen from the national news, the Red River Of The North is at record levels. The good news is that it may have crested (I hope). My wife, kids, and I have moved all the theater equipment and most other things out of our basement. My wife has been out sand bagging for 7 days straight. I don't know how she does it. I hurt my knee skiing two weeks ago so I couldn't sand bag as much. I did help ring dike my wife and my place of work. We will need to work offsite until the river drops 2 feet. We have sent the kids offsite to their cousins house as well. The schools have all been cancelled next week. We haven't had to sand bag around our house. But it's so flat in this area that if one of the river dikes breaks, the whole south side of Fargo would be in danger. It's like pouring a glass of water on a table. The water would go everywhere. We have 3 major colleges in the Fargo/Moorhead area. All the schools were called off so the college, high school, and middle school kids could help with sand bagging. They were great! So far "Sand Bag Central" in Fargo has filled over 3 million sand bags. This does not include all the individual houses filling their own sand bags. Probably millions more. So far there have been no major breaks in any of the river dikes. There have been some houses lost that were close to the river and some in the rural areas. The river will probably be at record levels for 5 or more days. And we're supposed to get more snow. Thankfully it's been cold here so the snow won't melt right away. This is one time you want it to be cold.

Hopefully we won't get wet. I spent over 8 months building the theater and I don't want to have to do it again. We do have flood insurance, but it doesn't cover much in basements(damn).

Gene

Don't die with a clean shop!