Residents along the Red River in Minnesota and North Dakota are bracing for potentially major flooding this spring.
The most recent forecast this week by National Weather Service confirmed earlier predictions that the probability of major flooding in Fargo and Moorhead exceeds 90 percent.
The highest forecast for flooding would occur in late March and early April, the Weather Service reported.
Rainfall last fall was near historic highs along the Red, which flooded in November. Last month, both cities received record December snows -- far more than they received in 1996.
Snowfall during the winter of 1996-97 set the stage for the catastrophic flooding along the river, inundating Fargo and devastating the cities of Grand Forks and East Grand Forks. Since then, all of the cities in the flood plain have substantially upgraded their defenses along the river.
BOB VON STERNBERG
