Mar 26 2009
Fargo Floods; What Does it Cost?
On a quiet spring day in 1997, a Northwest Airlines Flight flew in from Minneapolis. A loud gasp came from one of the passengers as the city of Fargo came into view. Water lay across the land, and silence filled the cabin. People crowded the window to get a good look at the flooded country that lay all around their destination. There was a tiny island of a runway, and a few streets that were open here and there. Other than that, the town lay helpless to the Red River.
Unlike most rivers in America, the Red runs north, it’s muddy banks carry water from Breckenridge/ Whapeton to Fargo, and then on to Winepeg. The flood in ‘97 carried chunks of ice down the center of Breckenridge; that’s how bad it was. Now a bigger crest of water is spilling over the banks, devastating homes that are miles away from the river itself.
It’s not just the river, but the all of the water, melting from the snow, coming from the rain that fell in inches two days ago. It is seeping into the drain pipes in the basements. These are not luxury basements; they are a necessity in a town where tornadoes visit often during the summer. The water shoots up through downstairs toilets, or seeps in around the slightest crack in the foundation. Some home owners are lucky enough to stay dry. But others can’t stop the water.
The river has flooded often, but the town never had the total flooding like this until after 1988. Then every so many years, the river spilled all over and the town filled with water more often. Unlike the victims of Katrina, these people rounded up volunteers and filled sandbags until they could see their sandbags in their dreams. These people don’t riot or loot; there’s no worry that gangs will patrol the streets and night and break into places. No one is screaming for trailers or “Why isn’t someone helping us?” That’s not how they do it there. Instead, volunteers fill sandbags, rescue people from their homes, help set up shelters for the homeless, and trt to make the best of this bad time. It is a bad time, too. Sandbags had to be installed in a raging blizzard, people had to deal with flood water in weather so cold that a person could get frostbite.
The cost is measurable, of course. There are always people who didn’t have flood insurance. There is loss of productivity to consider, and businesses that lost revenue. There is the loss of the houses that will be flooded or the items that get swept away, the land that is too wet to plant on time, winter wheat that will die. But the cost is more than that.
No one can put into words what must be going through a person’s head when facing water of this magnitude. Will it damage my house? Will I have to pay to get something fixed? Will some people be homeless after this? And then there is the fact that just last month, this city was hit hard with unemployment. Suddenly there are extra working hands simply because there are people out there with time on their hands. That is the only good thing when looking for volunteers.
How long before Fargo faces the same dilemma that confronted Devil’s Lake? They had to move some of the city. What about the island of Shismaref, Alaska? They faced erosion and rising water. They will have to relocate the whole city on the main land. Rising waters are changing the landscape a little bit at a time.
It’s misery in Fargo today, but they will not scream obscenities at the camera. They will not demand that everyone send money or stop what they are doing. No, it’s not as bad as Katrina, but it’s still misery. And they suffer quietly, pull together and keep moving. Admirable in the face of changing economic times in what otherwise has been a prosperous city.
