They've evacuated Concordia College...in fact everything west of 8th street in Mhd. Apparently it's not a leak in the dike but water pressure is sending water (etc.) up thru the sewer system. They are flooding from the sewers! yuck!
They've also evacuated Merit Care Hospital and ... the area in south Fargo that Dave's folks used to live in. (Between Linden Ave and Lindenwood Park)
Also the main streets in town are closed so that the big trucks carrying sand can get through. It took Jen Three hours to drive home from work last night because traffic is backed up.
There are 1850 national guardsmen in town. They took over sandbagging on the south side of town. It's too dangerous for volunteers to be in that area.
Today all non essential businesses are closed. All week everyone is either sandbagging or glued to the TV. The river is higher than it ever has been in written history. It passed the 1997 high stage last night at about supper time. It passed the all time high est stage (1897) at about 1AM. The mayor said "The city is in uncharted territory."
But this morning they said that prayers are being answered. First the rain had turned to snow...slowing the run off then the temps unexpected dropped....slowing the water down. (That was a big fear cuz the speed of the river was much faster than it was in 1997 which causes unexpected problems.) We got 9 inches of snow yesterday. Can you imagine if that had been rain instead of snow?
History in the making............
Check out today's article in the New York Times: http://bit.ly/3ngSr
