Early morning Friday was a far cry from the scene on Thursday. Congested roads and stalled traffic gave way eerily quiet streets. Swings through Moorhead, downtown Fargo, Meadow Creek and the Amber Plains subdivision in the morning found few people out activily fighting the water but after Thursday’s marathon who would be surprised.
The volunteers in the Oak Grove area were motivated and eager to do whatever it took to ensure the safety of the school and just a few blocks away I found the days largest group of volunteers topping off a dike on Elm Street.
Far away from the fight at the Red River Valley Fairgrounds volunteers from all over the Upper Midwest worked to keep displaced animals safe and calm. The next building over at the fairgrounds found scores of volunteers from several faith-based relief organizations assembly a collection point for evacuees in need of public shelter.
Dikes are leaking (and being repaired), city officials are scrambling and we’re all waiting.
Red River stage, 10:15pm: 40.78ft
(Previous) Record: 40.1ft
Flood stage: 18ft
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- Peg Klemisch of Moorhead, Minn., sheds a tear as she watches the Red River slow creep toward her home further down the street Thursday,
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- Gary and Peg Klemisch watch a local news conference from their home in Moorhead, Minn., Thursday, March 27, 2009. On Thursday morning the neighborhood was given a voluntary evacuation notice.
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- Steve DiFiore of Minneapolis, Minn. searches an abandoned sandbag filling station in south Moorhead, Minn. for supplies Friday, March 27, 2009. DiFiore traveled to Moorhead to help is brother save his home from the rising Red River.
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- The Red River between Fargo, N.D. and Moorhead, Minn. continues to creep up to toward the top of the Island Park dike near downtown Friday.
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- Travis Bauer of Fargo, N.D. checks a pump behind a sandbag dike in the Meadow Creek neighborhood.
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- Ron Strand digs a drainage channel behind a dike in the backyard of his home in the Meadow Creeek neighborhood of Fargo.
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- Damian McAllister uses a sled to drag sandbags across a snowy driveway as he and other residents of the Amber Plains subdivision south of Fargo, N.D. try to defend their homes from rising flood waters Friday.
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- Korey Kirschenmann, from left, Damian McAllister, Brad Odegard and Arnie Lauinger pile sandbags around Odegard’s home in the Amber Plains subdivision south of Fargo.
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- Lana Kirschenmann fills sandbags in the Amber Plains subdivision south of Fargo.
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- Mike Mead, left, passes a sandbag to fellow Cass County Electric worker Don Baasch as they build a dike around an important electric switch in the Rose Creek neighborhood of Fargo, N.D. Friday.
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- Dee DeGeest of Cass County Electric passes sandbags as a dike around an important electric switch is built in the Rose Creek neighborhood of Fargo.
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- Derek Johnson of Fargo, N.D. tosses a sandbag up the line as he and other volunteers add sandbags to the top of a dike in the Oak Grove neighborhood.
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- Jeff Duerr of Fargo, N.D. tosses sandwiches to hungry volunteers as they add sandbags to the top of a dike in the Oak Grove neighborhood.
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- Dozens of volunteers line the top of a dike as they add sandbags to the top in the Oak Grove neighborhood of Fargo.
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- Oak Grove High School principal Morgan Forness updates volunteers on plans to save the school in Fargo, N.D. Friday.
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- Volunteers listen to Oak Grove High School principal Morgan Forness update them on plans to save the school in Fargo, N.D. Friday, March 27, 2009. The school was overtaken by the Red River flood of 1997 and built flood walls for protection but even those may not be high enough.
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- A contingency dike is built down the middle of Seventh Avenue North in the Oak Grove neighborhood of Fargo, N.D. Friday.
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- Xenia Varon of Minneapolis, Minn. tries to sooth a stressed Heidi at a shelter for displaced animals at the Red River Fairgrounds in West Fargo, N.D.
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- Two dogs watch Xenia Varon do paperwork at a shelter for displaced animals at the Red River Fairgrounds in West Fargo.
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- Director of Lutheran Disaster Response North Dakota Bonnie Turner, left, discusses where to place temporary phone lines with Qwest employee Jim Delling at the Red River Valley Fairgrounds.
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- Sandie Sahr, left, and Carlla Maki, volunteers from Jamestown, N.D. with the United Methodist Committee on Relief, distribute food to displaced persons at the Red River Valley Fairgrounds.
