61,000 filled sandbags was yesterdays production at "Sandbag Central" in Fargo, North Dakota. Yup, you read that right- the filled 61,000 sandbags yesterday, and they're just ramping up production. They've got three huge "spider" sand distributing systems that look vaguely like (and we're probably inspired by) the grain distributing pipes you'll see at a grain elevator. It takes 100 people to fully staff a spider, but those hundred people can crank out 6,000 sandbags an hour. Fargo has three spiders, you do the math... They just raised their goal to three million sandbags, enough to protect Fargo to 42 feet, about a foot above the height of the record 2009 flood. Here's the news story from the Fargo Forum and here's the link to their flood coverage
That's just a hint of the scale of flood fighting in the Red River valley. Fargo is buying a half million dollars of norwegan designed portable flood barriers and miles of Hesco barrier. Does that name sound familiar? Our military used the sand filled Hesco barriers to protect them from sniper fire in Iraq, good to see they've found a peacetime application. Be even nicer if they shipped some home from Iraq- there's a shortage of them as cities up and down the valley are scrambling to assemble flood defenses.
That's just the preliminary preparations- to fight the 2010 flood Fargo fielded over 100 dump trucks and over 20 loaders, 'dozers, and excavators to build dikes. Those dump trucks were even given police escorts... They completed the dikes in less than two days. And remember those 6,000 sandbags an hour... Amazing how fast they got deployed. I volunteered on a crew laying sandbags in Moorhead during the 2009 flood. They hauled the sandbags to us by the semiload and used a "Spyder" off road forklift to unload and bring the pallets of sandbags right where we needed them. We laid a semiload-that's over 20 tons-of sandbags every 20 minutes. Then we got about a two minute rest while the empty semi pulled out and a full one pulled in, and then we did it again. These herculean feats require people power aplenty- in 2009 schools and colleges let their students out to sandbag and non-essential businesses shut down so their employees could literally save their city from the floodwaters. In 2010, as the river was rising upriver in Wapheton, a desperate call went out for sandbaggers. Then the kids from the Circle of Nations Indian School answered the call and went to work sandbagging and they had all the sandbags they needed in a couple hours.
So why are the mild-mannered folks of the Red River valley goin' overboard on this flood thing? Answers below the fold-
Here's the National Weather Service's map of snow water content: Plenty of pink centered on the tri state area where the Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota borders meet and in upstate New York and inland New England as well. I'll focus on that tri state area which is the source of the frequently flooded Red and Minnesota rivers because I'm familiar with it, I invite other Kossacks to fill in the gaps in my knowledge about other flood potential areas. Here's a more detailed map of the north central U.S.: Lots of pink there, and pink indicates over four inches of snow water content... That's a lot of water, remember the last four inch downpour?
As you can imagine, this has the National Weather Service more than a bit concerned. Heres their latest long range flood forecast for the Red River watershed: This forecast is a couple weeks old and should be updated later this week, and we should have a new forecast for the Minnesota and upper Mississippi watersheds coming soon too. Lets get a bit more detail- From NWS's Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service (AHPS) web page for Fargo: The black line with the triangles graphs the probability of given flood crests. AHPS is forecasting a 97% chance of severe flooding in Fargo, an even (50%) chance of a 38 foot crest that would be the 4th highest ever recorded, and a 20% chance of beating the old record of almost 41 feet. For the stats geeks that get concerned about 5th and 95th perecentiles, there's a 5% chance of a crest at around 44 feet. You don't want to know what happens at 44 feet... downtown Fargo becomes an island surrounded by water everywhere and Interstate 29 becomes a canal. If you look down the page you can see more details, like what all floods even at the the 50th percentile chance prediction of 38 feet. They have to build miles of dikes and lay hundreds of thousands of sandbags just to gain protection to that level... No wonder they're filling sandbags so furiously! Here's a similar AHPS page for Wahpeton: and Grand Forks: Both these cities, unlike Fargo and Moorhead across the river, have levees and diversion channels so their flood preparations are much easier... More on that later. Here's the link to AHPS nationwide page so you can click on your area of interest and slice and dice the data to your little ol' hearts content: Your tax dollars at work!
Where do we go from here: Action!
First, as the EMTs say, in a crisis the first pulse to check is your own. So use FEMA's maps to see if your in a flood zone at It's amazing how many folks live in flood plains and don't know it- I'm currently in Collier County, Florida of which over 80 percent is in the 100 year flood plain... And most of the citizens here are oblivious. If you're in flood plain please look into flood insurance and take any needed measures to protect yourself and your community.
Next, volunteer- remember those spider sandbag filling machines? They need a hundred people to fully staff them, and Fargo has three, across the river Moorhead has another, and the counties and neighboring towns will be sandbagging too. Even if you live hundreds of miles away, you may be able to help- in previous floods volunteers in Hennepin County in Minnesota filled twenty semi-trailer loads of sandbags that were hauled 350 miles to fight the floods in Grand Forks.
Then, blog up the issues! Four of the five highest floods of record in Fargo have occurred in the last 14 years. They've recorded river levels in Fargo for over a century, so all these floods aren't happening by chance. Dig out and expose the possible causes of these tragic floods- climate change, unsustainable farming practices and urban development, etc..
Finally, remind, and remind again, your elected officials of the need for both disaster relief aid and permanent flood protection for these vulnerable areas. Grand Forks, Wahpeton, and Winnepeg have permanent levees and diversion channels that have saved them from severe flooding. When will Fargo-Moorhead and other cities get the same protection? The Corps has plans, but they await a final decision on the route and funding. Same with the upstream resevoirs and water impediments that Congressman Colin Peterson has championed- they can provide recreational and economic benefits as well as flood prevention. Let's make this year's damaging floods the last!