Flood Effort

During the recent flood I have been doing various things to help stop the flood. The area where my house is located was expected to flood pretty badly. Monday we started filling some sand bags around the area. On tuesday we started at 10 a.m. an ended around 6:00 p.m. During this period of time we had a bus of Detroit Lake High School students come down and help us sandbag. It was nice to have so much help because everything worked out more smoothly with more hands. On Friday I went over to my aunts house, who lives in South Moorhead, and helped them sandbag. Thier situation was a lot worse because the river is right behind thier house in parts. We got everything secured at thier house but right as we finished a dyke broke. That was quite scary to see because we didnt know what had happened right away an all we saw were people running away from this area. A fire fighter came over and told us all to be in our cars ready to evacuate, but in the end they fixed the breach so it was ok. I

Flood '09

The flood this year has been very chaotic. When my parents first told me about it I didn't think it was too serious. I realized when they canceled class for two weeks that it must be. My house is located just three blocks away from the river. Thankfully my house is alright, at least for now. My family spent a week at my lake cabin. I would have rather been in town and go to class than at my lake.Thankfully our community has worked together and thousands of people volunteered sandbagging. I don't understand why we haven't built a better dike after the flood in 1997. Hopefully this doesn't happen again this year!

flood

The flood this year has been pretty intense. I am one part of the area of moorhead that had to evacuate my home, but thank goodness I am back in it now. I feel though as if our town probably should have done a littl better job on creating a better system for something like this. It happened in 1997, and there will probably be plenty of more floods in the years to come. The city should think about building a better dike, or do something to help out the city of fargo/moorhead. Just like Grand Forks built those gates, so they are doing just fine. Our community has done so much to try and prevent this flood from getting any worse, and I think everyone has done a great job! hopefully their predictions about another crest is wrong!! cross those fingers!

The Flood of 2009

The last couple of weeks have been very hectic around the Fargo-Moorhead area. It's the time of year where disaster can occur. It's been 12 years since the last major flood and it's happened again. I have been out helping in neighborhoods and at the Fargodome and have never seen so many people work together. There are no words to describe it. The Fargo-Moorhead area is like a big family. I recall going to the a church to help and they were turning away volunteers because they had so many. That is just unreal. That's a huge credit to all the college students in the area and anyone who helped. The flood has gotten better, but it's definitely not over!!

We Flood it, It Floods us!

Alright, my title my seem confusing, but it makes sense to me and that's all that matters. Read with an open mind and respect for my beliefs. During the last 3 weeks, I didn't fill one sandbag. However, I did work on my days off at Avis-rent-a-car to help Red Cross and FEMA get all there cars they rented from us so they had transportation. I feel pretty good about that. I hadn't seen any of the water until I took a vehicle down to the Moorhead Center Mall for some CNN reporters. It looked pretty crazy, and I was shocked. Being a Biology major, I love this earth and have more respect for nature and all the other organisms in it than I do for the selfish overpopulating humans that live here. All we do is reproduce and since we have the most complex brains we think we are better than everything else. We are constantly destroying what we have and where we live with demolition, deforestation, and pollution without a care in the world that when Mother Nature comes in and ruins a few lives and destroys a city or two it kind of makes me a bit happier inside. I'm not saying that if it were me getting my house flooded that I wouldn't be angry and fighting to save what I have. I am just saying that we deserve disasters caused by Mother Nature. When you think about it, currently it is doing alot less to us with one half ass flood than what we do to it everyday. "Oh lets destroy all this land and build some shit because money is everything and our wilderness is nothing profitable." This flood is telling us that we are taking it too far as a population. I do feel for our community because we are North Dakota and Minnesota. I don't know about all of Minnesota but North Dakota is pretty damn good about not taking things too far and not pushing the limits and quite simply being clean. We must learn from our mistakes and from what Mother Nature tells us. Show some respect people. Nobody knows where we come from. All it is is we evolved a complex brain and money is everything and money buys us things and we love money. So in conclusion, I feel that any natural disaster such and a hurricane or a flood is well deserved by us and we must learn before it is too late. Before we cause our own extinction we have to open our eyes, make some changes, and respect every other living thing like it was your mother.

Flood 2009

What a scary time in our lives. I didn't live in Fargo for the flood in 1997 so this was a new situation for me, it was kind of crazy everything that was happening around us. I went to the dome and helped sandbag there and it was amazing to see all the people that were there helping and also I talked to some people that weren't even from Fargo, this one guy said that he was just here helping cause his daughters go to college here. I also met these boys who were probably 12 years old and they were from Rodgers, MN. I think that its amazing the amount of support that the town of Fargo-Moorhead received during this time of need. I knew that the flood was real but for me it didn't really hit me till they evacuated Meritcare. I have always felt secure that I have a job and that working in the health care field you will always have people sick and will always have a job. But when they evacuated the hospital and I no longer had a job to go to that is when the Flood 2009 effected me personally. Working in a hospital for six years I know that they do not close a hospital unless it is serious and Thursday night when they evacuated that's when I knew that it was bad. My home is not effected by the flood but I feel so bad for those people that have lost their homes and they are in my thoughts and prayers.

Fargo Moorhead Flood of 2009

Here we go again, reliving 1997 Flood in the red River Valley. But this time worse then before. I had taken some great pictures from the 1997 flood and was very close to a lot of people living South of Fargo. I drove school bus there for many a years and had gotten very close to the families. My house was located on the north side of Fargo couple of blocks away from Mickelson Field. Where the water was very high every night after being in the bus hauling sandbaggers I would walk down the alley to 8TH st and look at how high the water was. Being kept busy during that time helped keep my mind clear and my emotions at bay. This time around I used my talents as a bus driver again. After an emergency meeting at the MHD district office. I helped evacuate Eventide nursing home driving in white out conditions and very icy roads delivering the elderly people to different Cities in MN and nursing homes. From then on we hauled sandbaggers, police, guards men, and fire fighters around the city of Moorhead. I was stationed out the district office and was on call for anything that could happen. I thought of same details that the ones in charge over looked and gave my advise to them. Today I am still on call but I am able to do it from my home for just in case things come up. I did Sandbag my ex sister in laws home but we lost the fight against overland flooding and her home is still under water. To bad beautiful home to go to such a waste. My body and mind are fighting me my back and legs are feeling more pain then before my mind is mushy hard to concentrate on things that need to be done.I am lucky that my home is not in any danger of water but it could be in danger of losing it sewer and water if the dikes fail. Still have a suitcase packed and I have a safe place to go if needed. My thoughts and prayers go out to those who have lost their homes to the flood waters and hope they can recover from their losses. To all those who helped with the first battle a big thank you and keep on your toes for the war in not over yet second crest is on it's way.

Flood 2009

When I first heard about the flood I was almost in denial. There was no way that I thought the FM area would flood like it did. Until one day, I woke up and saw army tucks blocking all the roads to get to my house. I live one street up from the river in south moorhead so I then began to panic. The next day there was a code red alert for our area. That means we had to move everything from our basement upstairs, pack a bag and get out! Once the national guard came knocking on our door we then had five minutes to grab our stuff and immediately leave. Then I started freaking out. I sat in my basement hoping and praying that this would not be the last time I see it without water in it. I can't believe this disaster happened to everyone in the area. It's amazing to see everyone come together as a community and help. I pray for all of those that were and are being affected by this evil flood.

Flood Fight '09

When I first heard the news on the flood I did not realize how serious it was. I live in a part of south Fargo that is greatly affected by the flood threat, which makes this whole situation very scary and stressful. I went to bed the night before the big flood fight began, not knowing what I would wake up to the next day. When I woke up the next morning and looked out my window I saw tons of buses sitting in front of my home, dropping of hundreds of volunteers and semi load after semi load of sand and sandbags driving past. I was too young to remember the 1997 flood, so it was an absolute shock to see this operation first hand. I spent the next week making sandbags, tossing sandbags and walking the dike overnight to make sure that the pumps were still working and the leaks were under control. My family also had to clear everything out of our home and into a moving truck for time being. Not knowing the outcome of the situation and hearing more and more bad news everyday, such as the crest rising, made for one of the most stressful weeks i've ever gone through. I am happy to say that so far we won the battle and will continue to monitor the river level and dike until the flood is over.