Flood Update

You want a flood update? Tough, you get a video of our kids dancing instead. We both had the day off work and might again tomorrow as well.

Crested?

It appears the river has crested and we're breathing a little easier now. Just hung around home yesterday, and didn't really do much of anything. It's kind of strange, because we're pretty insulated from what's happening in Fargo.

After we went to church this morning, we came home by way of the Main Avenue bridge. We parked in the Fryn Pan parking lot and I walked over to the bridge to get some pictures.

Looking south from the Main Avenue bridge. In the distance you can see the old St. John's hospital (now Prairie St. Johns).



The coasties are here plucking people from their houses when necessary. Here they are on their way out to something.



Hmmm...wonder how deep the water is here.



And now, time for a normal blog entry. Sunrise was very pretty this morning and we had some neat icicles hanging off the back of the house.



Jennifer and Alison got to enjoy a little cuddle time on the couch while watching "Phineas and Ferb".



Geography rocks.

One more day, one more foot

Going to work was a little interesting this morning. Roads were still icy, and when I got on to the interstate there was water on the east side of the road. Just outside of Fargo traffic came to a stop as they are building a dike across I-29 just south of town.





Don't worry, traffic was only going 10 mph at the time the pictures were taken.

The flood forecast was changed again today. Now the forecast crest is 41 to 42 feet with the possibility of 43 feet. Pray the dikes hold and Fargo stays dry.

Came across this video of the Fargodome sandbagging operation. Pretty cool.

Still Hanging On

Went to bed last night with a winter storm warning. Woke up with a snow drift in the driveway. We picked up somewhere between 6 and 9 inches last night and today. And yes, it's still flooding. Yes, our house is still fine. However, they revised the flood forecast to 41 feet - new record, woohoo! That has a lot of people struggling to get sandbag dikes built to the correct level. I tried to get up to Georgetown this afternoon to help friends raise their dike, but most (if not all) of the roads there are flooded out and the visibility was horrible. I went as far as I could and turned around - the snow let up for a moment and I had to snap this picture.



On my way back to town the only other vehicle I saw was a National Guard Humvee. It's an eerie feeling.

I came back home and got a call from my neighbor wondering if I wanted to go back out sandbagging, so we went to Oakport Township north of Moorhead and helped fill and transport bags until they ran out of sand.

Friends in Low Places

Make that low-lying places. The Red River and surrounding rivers are expected to be near or above record levels by the end of this week, triggering a massive flood response in the area. Luckily, we're across the tracks (hmm, sounds like a good name for a blog) so our house should be dry.
Yesterday I went over to Kragnes, MN to help sandbag a friend's house along the Buffalo River. Later that night, I went with our neighbor Ben to help out at "Sandbag Central" in Fargo to help fill sandbags. We finished up around 2:30 in the morning, and came home. I originally was thinking that would be it for volunteer work for the weekend, but another friend called this morning. They also live along the Buffalo, but in Georgetown, MN. I spent the day helping with the sandbagging effort there.

The bridge to Georgetown. If you look closely, you can see a log lodged on the girder from the last high water event.



The mighty Buffalo River. There's a lot of ice on the river yet, but it is flowing.


Lots of sand.


We received an alert tonight that the water has been shut off to the city of Horace because the lift station failed. Hopefully that gets fixed shortly.

More flood news tomorrow, I'm sure.

At least it's sunny

Our blizzard finally finished sometime last night. This morning most businesses were delayed opening and school was closed, so the kids got another snow day. Ben came over and plowed our driveway with a skid steer and I was able to get into work.




This is 17th Avenue just west of the mall - I can't imagine how bad this will blow in if we get another strong wind.


After I was done with work, Alison really wanted to go play in the snow. We bundled up and played for a while before dinner. The big piles she's climbing on are what was pushed out of the driveway this morning.





Drifting against the back of our house. The snow is absolutely crusted over - enough that I could walk on it without cracking through.

Yay, March!

Man, am I relieved. I thought they said LIZARD Warning. We spent the day inside watching the whiteout conditions. I plowed a pathway through the driveway once this morning, but it didn't help. I went out again tonight to get a head start on the morning. Yeah, not happening. Time to call the neighbor!





The wind was blowing so hard against the garage door that it would push snow underneath the door until it hit a small obstacle on the floor. Then it would pile up on top of that, forming piles on the floor. Strange, but entertaining when you're housebound.

Where the Wind Blows

Hmmm, I wonder which direction the wind was coming from.



Good news - it's warm enough to melt and form icicles. Bad news - it's so windy all the icicles are crooked.

Meanwhile, Alison is teaching Eli the finer points of assembling peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.