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The
flood waters of the Red River engulf home after home, the handmade
dikes give way to a sea of disaster. Sand-baggers work around the
clock fighting off a natural tragedy, only to have their hard work
and efforts collapse in the rising waters. The only signs of transportation
are boats, normally used for fishing this time of the year, carrying
people and their pets to safety. The muddy waters that once swallowed
homes and businesses, leave lasting effects over the Fargo-Moorhead
area.
The Red River, which creates the border
between North Dakota and Minnesota, is a young river, around the
age of 9,300 years old. “The Red is very young in comparison
to other rivers,” said Dr. Donald Schwert, a geologist at North
Dakota State University, “Most rivers such as the Colorado
and Columbia are measured by millions or tens of millions of years.
Since the Red River is so young, it has not carved a valley-flood
plain system.” A flood plain is what a river carves and spills
into during times of high water. “The Red doesn’t have
enough power to carve its own flood plain,”said Schwer. “If
you stand on the east side of Main Street in Moorhead and look towards
the Fargo side, and to the south, you can see a little bit of a
flood plain that the Red has created."
This flood plain doesn’t do anything
to stop the flooding here in the Fargo area. That leaves the flood
plain that was created by Lake Agassiz, the glacial lake that covered
the region thousands of years ago, as the flood plain for the Red
River. The Lake Agassiz flood plain is a large, expansive flat with
no gradient slope, and when the Red River pours out of its banks,
it creates a lake in the Fargo-Moorhead area.
The Red River, with its banks only
a baseball-throw wide at the North Dam in Moorhead, Minn., once
grew to over 25 miles wide near Winnipeg, Canada, during the 1997
flood.
The worst deluge flood in the history
of the Fargo-Moorhead area was the flood of 1997, when the mighty
Red crested at 39.55 feet, 22.55 feet above flood stage. A record
snowfall of 116.6 inches covered the area over months, coupled with
a quick thaw in the spring. This made for ideal flood conditions.
This flood surpassed the 100-year-old record flood of 1897, when
the Red crested at a level of 39.1 feet.
These were not the only major floods
that the Fargo-Moorhead area has experienced. The flood of 1969
also devastated the area. “We had to wade in at least one mile
of water, if not more, to reach dry land from our farm house,”
said Beulah Forness, a victim of the flood of 1969, who lived just
north of Fargo. “We lost all of our hay and had to move the
livestock to higher ground.”
Back in these early floods, there
were no sandbags to place around the homes. “They built earthen
dikes and many just let it (Red River) take its course.” For
many this meant losing their homes and businesses.
“I remember standing out on the
porch and, because of the ice jams, watching the Maple River back
up, causing the Sheyenne River to flow in the opposite direction,”
said Forness. “My husband had to bring the groceries in by
rowboat.”
During the flood of 1952, which had
the seventh highest crest that Fargo has experienced, Forness was
working at Saint John’s Hospital in Fargo. “We had to
move all the patients from Saint John’s to the VA building,
which was located across town.”
With the many floods that the Red
River has had in the past, one might think that there would be a
way of stopping or limiting the damages which occur. But, floods
depend on many factors, such as: snow accumulation, the speed and
length of the spring thaw, ice jams that block the river, and rainfall.
Only Mother Nature can tell whether or not the river will spill
over its banks.
In “To Flood Stage Again,” by James Wright, he speaks
of a warning:
In
Fargo, North Dakota, a man
Warned me the river might rise
To flood stage again
On the bridge, a girl hurries
past me, alone,
Unhappy face
Will she pause in wet grass somewhere?
Behind my eyes, she stands tiptoe,
yearning for confused sparrows
To fetch a bit of string and dried
wheatbread
To line her outstretched hand.
I open my eyes and gaze down
At the dark water.
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During
all these battles with the Red, many memories form: memories
of people sandbagging for hours, pumping water out of neighbors’
basements and, at times, watching friends and family give up
on saving their homes. But, not all of the memories are unfortunate.
“Through all of the floods that I’ve been through,
the community has always come together,” said Forness.
“The boys also had fun making rafts.” |
Thousands
of lives have been changed by the water levels of the Red River.
While some people decided to leave the area and start over elsewhere,
most stayed and will move on and try and put the past behind them.
With so many factors that work into a flood, no one will ever doubt
the power of the Red River and what its water can do.
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