FARGO, N.D. – The call for people to help fight what could be a record flood brought a steady stream of volunteers to Fargo’s “Sandbag Central,” including firefighters, a high school baseball team and a married couple of 51 years.
Don Such, 74, sat on a chair next to a sand pile Friday morning while his wife, Alice, 73, filled bags with a shovel inside the huge city building that normally serves as a parking garage for garbage trucks.
“What’s better than to sit on a chair and let your wife do the shoveling? You can’t beat it,” Don said.
“We think this is the thing to do when our city is in trouble. This is home,” Alice said. “The way they are predicting, it’s scary.”
The latest projections from the National Weather Service say the Red River is expected to crest between 37 feet and 40 feet. A 40-foot crest is 22 feet above flood stage and about a half-foot higher than the historic 1997 spring flood.
The threat is increasing with a storm moving in from the Pacific by early next week. Pat Zavoral, Fargo city administrator, said the temporary levees are being built to 41 feet or 42 feet.
“Right now, we’re looking at a crest of 39 1/2 to 40, but we can’t do anymore with those numbers until we see how much rain we get,” Zavoral said Friday. “You always plan for the higher numbers.”
Across the river in Oakport Township, north of Moorhead, Minn., Marle Myhre was dusting off a flatbed trailer to use for hauling sandbags. He said he had to sandbag around his house one other time, in 1997.
Myhre worries this time because the prediction for the flood crest was moved up two weeks, to sometime between March 28 to April 1.
“Here I thought I had lots of time, and all of a sudden they’re talking like it’s a week away,” he said. “It’s always scary.
