Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Women, children, and Axioms first!

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

Gene, I hope you guys get through this alright. Great to see everyone pulling together to help their neighbours as well. Hopefully, Manitoba is ready as well. Prayers to all of you.

Wow, hang in there, Gene!! It's good that everyone's pulling together with the sandbagging. Every little bit counts, I'm sure.

Hang in there Gene! Filling and stacking sandbags is tough work, you’re gonna owe your wife a vacation when you get through this.

Good Luck,
Dean

Thanks everyone.

Adrian - Manitoba (at least Winnipeg anyway) did the right thing and created a diversion channel for the Red River to bypass the city. I think it was first used in the 1997 flood when Grand Forks, ND was hit hard. After 1997, Grand Forks received federal and state funding to put up some permanent flood protection because they were so hard hit. Maybe this time it will be Fargo's turn to get some outside funding.

Dean - The wife's one tough farm grown women. She does have a conference later in April for work in Orlando, FL. She's taking the 2 youngest boys and her Mom with her before the conference to go to Disney World. She'll have fun.

Gene

I wish you good luck, Gene. I'm really hoping you avoid damage. The good thing about adversity, though, is that you remember to appreciate all of the people you've surrounded yourself with, and if you handle it well, it also makes other people with easier lives a little jealous of your character. Still, I hope to hear a huge sigh of relief in a little while.

Gene, my thoughts and prayers will be with you and your family, as well as everyone up there going through these troubled times. As you may know, Iowa had the floods of 93, and recently of 08. Many cities in Iowa, like Cedar Rapid's downtown area were completely flooded out, with 10-12ft of water in downtown homes and business.

Hang in their neighbor..

Good luck, keep us updated, well as long as possible anyway.

Gene, my thoughts and prayers are with you and all the other good folks up there.

+1 on what everyone else wrote. It sounds like the waters have peaked where you are. Now its Winipeg's turn.