I spent the entire day in Oxbow, N.D. just south of Fargo photographing the deteriorating situation. The water came up higher and faster than expected and several people need emergency evacuations in the morning. The command center was the Knickerbocker Liquor Locker in Hickson (literally on the other side of the road from Oxbow) which had law enforcement and volunteers coming and going all day.
The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and U.S. Coast Guard provided airboats to both evacuate people and check on stranded homeowners. The only access to Oxbow was by those same airboats or a small number of commercial trucks with high enough clearance to clear the flood waters.
A new crest prediction of 41 feet has the entire community scrambling to raise dikes even higher.
Red River stage, 9:15pm: 36.98ft
Record: 40.1ft
Flood stage: 18ft
-
- Overland flood waters from the Wild Rice River lap at the southbound lane of Interstate 29 near Oxbow, N.D. The rising Red River and overland flooding from the Wild Rice river is threatening dozens of homes in the area around Oxbow and Hickson.
-
- Overland flood waters from the Wild Rice River lap at the southbound lane of Interstate 29 near Oxbow, N.D.
-
- U.S. Coast Guard sailors from Coast Guard Station Marblehead (Ohio) prepare their ice rescue airboat to help stranded homeowners in Oxbow, N.D. The rising Red River and overland flooding from the Wild Rice river is threatening dozens of homes in the area around Oxbow and Hickson. Teams from the Coast Guard, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Cass County Sheriff’s Department used air boats to access isolated homes to rescue stranded people.
-
- BMC Greg Zerpass of the U.S. Coast Guard gives instructions to sailors in an ice rescue airboat as they prepare to help stranded homeowners in Oxbow, N.D.
-
- Members of Valley Water Rescue lift a crate containing two dogs rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard in the Butcher Block subdivision north of Oxbow, N.D.
-
- Members of the U.S. Coast Guard navigate an ice rescue airboat past homes in the Butcher Block subdivision north of Oxbow, N.D.
-
- Cass County Sheriff Sgt. Judy Tollefson walks past members of the U.S. Coast Guard as they prepare to launch their ice rescue boat in the Butcher Block subdivision north of Oxbow, N.D.
-
- Two dogs rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard in the Butcher Block subdivision north of Oxbow, N.D. huddle together in a crate.
-
- Members of the U.S. Coast Guard launch an ice rescue airboat to assist stranded homeowners in the Butcher Block subdivision north of Oxbow, N.D.
-
- Cass County Sheriff Deputy Greg Dawkins and a member of Valley Water Rescue lift a crate containing two dogs rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard in the Butcher Block subdivision north of Oxbow, N.D.
-
- Cass County Sheriff Sgt. Judy Tollefson comforts two dogs that were rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard in the Butcher Block subdivision north of Oxbow, N.D.
-
- Best friends Kayla Weston, right, and Destiny Dolan, both 15, hold hands in the Knickerbocker Liquor Locker bar in Hickson, N.D. after being rescued from rising flood waters.
-
- Members of Valley Water Rescue break a U.S. Fish and Wildlife airboat free from the ice as it prepares to go into Oxbow, N.D. to assist stranded homeowners.
-
- Volunteers on their way to sandbag hang on to one of the few trucks with high enough clearance to make it through rising flood waters in Oxbow, N.D.
-
- U.S. Coast Guard sailor BM3 Jeremy Sergey from Coast Guard Station Sault St. Marie (Mich.) navigates an ice rescue airboat across a flooded road south of Oxbow, N.D. to check on stranded homeowners.
