New Red River flood forecast: Evacuate

RED RIVER VALLEY - As the Red River of the North rose toward record levels and evacuations mounted, the mayor of Fargo, N.D., vowed Thursday that exhausted residents and volunteers would continue to fortify the area and "go down swinging if we go down."

Forecasters increased the river's crest projection, saying that by Saturday afternoon, the Red could reach 43 feet, an all-time record in Fargo-Moorhead and 3 feet higher than the historic 1997 flood.

To make matters worse, the river is expected to remain above 40 feet for several days, threatening to overwhelm the protections put in place by thousands of weary residents, city workers and volunteers working in gray, subfreezing weather.

"At elevation 42, that creates a lot of challenges and serious problems," said Dave Sprynczynatyk, adjutant general of the North Dakota National Guard and the state's emergency operations director. "Our intent is to ensure we have mustered every resource that we physically can to support this community."

Said Fargo Mayor Dennis Walaker: "We do not want to give up yet. We want to go down swinging if we go down.

"I want to make sure we commit every resource and every volunteer to do what we can do," he said. "Then, if we fail, we'll fully understand what's happened."

The new crest forecast, which put the projected crest in a range between 41 and 43 feet, took government leaders by surprise. Earlier reports called for a crest range between 40 and 42 feet. More than 2 inches of rain and snow the past four days in the area prompted the revamped projections, according to hydrologist Steve Buan of the North Central River Forecast Center.

Both the Red and Wild Rice River, a tributary just south of Fargo, will crest at the same time Saturday, Buan said, which rarely happens. The Wild Rice has been causing overland flooding and evacuations in North Dakota for the past two days. Buan noted that the area had 75 percent more rain and snow in the months leading up to this flooding compared to 1997's chaos.

"You can't calibrate on things that have never happened," he said.

Evacuations underway

Late Thursday, about 180 patients were being transferred by air, ambulance and bus from MeritCare Hospital, Fargo's largest, to hospitals in Minneapolis, Sioux Falls, S.D., Bismarck, N.D., and other cities, a MeritCare spokesman said.

Also, officers knocked on doors in south Fargo's River Vili neighborhood, an area with about 40 homes, and the Riverview Estates nursing home, to order residents out after a recently constructed earthen dam began to show cracks.

At the same time, officials pleaded with about 1,000 other Fargo residents who live between primary and secondary flood barriers to consider voluntary evacuation, or at least to move children, pets and vulnerable relatives out of the flood zone.

And Moorhead officials urged residents living between Interstate 94 and 50th Avenue South and west of Hwy. 75 to leave immediately.

About 500 fresh National Guard troops were being sent to the Fargo-Moorhead area to join 900 already on duty.

Early Thursday, a Coast Guard helicopter rescued seven people from a rooftop after a dike failed in the Briarwood community south of Fargo. The area is unprotected by the city's diking system.

At least two homes in Briarwood have been lost to the flood, while residents of some others were frantically filling and piling more sandbags, trying to keep the water from inundating their homes.

The flooded portion of the river has now expanded to 6 miles wide, according to Fargo City Administrator Pat Zavoral. The river's march through Fargo and Moorhead will see it squeeze through a narrow channel between the two cities, lined with sandbags, earthen berms, plastic tarps and plywood.

"We're taking miles of water and forcing it into a 700-foot funnel through the heart of the city," Zavoral said.

Fargo City Engineer Mark Bittner said some sandbag levees have begun leaking, forcing crews to make emergency patches. That's likely to continue into next week.

Fargo officials opened Thursday's flood planning meeting with a prayer. "We need all the help we can get," Walaker said afterward.

On Thursday night, President Obama declared an emergency for Minnesota's Wilkin, Clay, Marshall, Polk, Norman, Kittson and Traverse counties. The declaration authorizes federal aid to supplement state and local efforts.

But such announcements offered little consolation.

Aaron Thuen, a Fargo home owner, said: "We felt pretty confident until they raised the [expected] height of the flood. That's when the panic came in."

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Staff writers Allie Shah and Kevin Duchschere contributed to this report.