It's flood time in Fargo. And Moorhead, Breckenridge, Wahpeton, Cedar Falls, and Delano. The snowmass that descended on the midwest is melting, and as usual it's on it's schedule, not ours. The waters have already risen above major flood stage on several rivers and a few record crests have already been recorded. So it's time to kick off our always excellent Kos disaster coverage and inform and help out as we Kossacks best can.
First off, let's assess the situation...
Here's a link to the National Weather Services flood probability predictions: http://www.crh.noaa.gov/...shows the Red River at Wahpeton has already passed the major flood threshold and will be heading higher. Here's the Grand Forks NWS office's webpage- http://www.crh.noaa.gov/... the Des Moines NWS flood page- http://www.crh.noaa.gov/... and here's the NWS national Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service's webpage- http:///... Note that there's a bunch of major flooding going on in the NWS's Quad Cities and Sioux Falls areas too. To the best of my knowledge the flooding in these areas is in rural areas and not affecting towns. I drove through the Cedar River valley yesterday and noted a lot of high water, but no threat to populated areas. So far the predictions for Iowa are way below the horrible 2008 floods, allowing Cedar Rapids and other flood ravaged cities to rebuild. But even less than record but major flooding is a disaster- I drove through the neighborhoods that were flooded in 2008 in Charles City yesterday and noted that the streets were badly in need of complete rebuilding- flood water saturated soils turn to muck and play hell with infrastructure. I saw the same busted up roads in Granite Falls and countless other cities after earlier floods. And most sadly, while some of the historic homes of Cedar Rapids and Charles City have been rehabed, many sit abandoned or gutted.
So our focus today is on the Red River Valley, particularily in the areas of Wahpeton/Breckenridge and Fargo/Moorhead. I'm worried about Wahpeton/Breckenridge- they're upriver and the river will crest there first, they're having problems with ice jams, and they're even having problems guaging the river's height. Via the Wahpeton Daily News, they've asked for help sandbagging help in Breckenridge- http://www.wahpetondailynews.com/ If you're able to make it to Breckenridge and help, please do. Downriver in the bigger towns of Fargo and Moorhead, the crest isn't expected 'til this weekend but it's predicted to be almost as high as last years record. Fargo has requested volunteers to sandbag- http://www.cityoffargo.com/... and Moorhead has also- I'm losing bandwidth as the kids come home from school and overload RT Rybak's much vaunted Minneapolis Wi-Fi system, so I'll post the Moorhead info as soon as they update it. Please, help in this flood fight in any way you can. I'll post some updates later, and please add any info (or comments) in the comments- but I better get this up before the bandwidth vanishes and I'm down to dialup!