This winter ya know what happened? It snowed. In Minnesota. Some places even got a lot. And then ya know what happened? It warmed up.
The Red River is going to flood vast portions of Minnesota and North Dakota. Now, it doesn’t happen every year but it happens often enough:
Last year, thousands of people were evacuated and about 100 homes in the area were damaged after the Red River rose above the flood stage for a record 61 days and crested twice. Officials don’t expect the river to get as high this year, but waters flowing over the banks could threaten several houses, roads and parks.
Maybe it’s time to think of another plan? Perhaps something like reservoirs? Maybe a dam? Something.
To their credit, city and state officials have been ready for this and seem fairly well prepared:
Officials say they are better prepared this year for flooding thanks to early stockpiling of sandbags and the building of stronger levees across the region. Volunteer turnout for sandbagging was steady Tuesday in neighborhoods of Fargo and Moorhead, although county officials were asking for more help.
“The citizens are out there working hard and doing a great job,” North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven said.
Miles of clay levees, more than 1 million sandbags and portable wall systems will be used to help protect an area of about 200,000 people in Cass County, N.D., and Clay County, Minn.
I hope that the folks living up there see the rewards of their good work and start to plan for better methods of protection.
Maybe they could borrow an idea that we use here in Raleigh.
By building a reservoir, we now only protect communities along the river downstream from flooding due to hurricane rains, but we also get drinking water and recreational use.