Well, I know it’s late, but at least I’ve gotten it posted. I wanted to have some sort of conclusion to the series of entries I made earlier this spring relating to the flood of 1997. This may not be quite the conclusion I wanted to write, but at least it’s something.
While there were plenty of hardships along the way to recovery, in general, the 10 years since the flood have proceeded quite well for the Red River Valley. Few outward signs of the flood’s destruction remain, and, even though it might have been reasonable to assume that there would be a bit of an exodus of local citizens following the devastation, this has by and large not been the case. The number of people living within close proximity to the Red River is likely the same as, if not higher than, the number of people living within close proximity before the flood. However, even so, there were many residences that were torn down because the federal government deemed that they were too close to the river and too prone to flooding in record flood events like the one of 1997.
Grand Forks, which arguably had the most out of any city to lose following the flood, has rebounded particularly well. After staying rather steady following the flood, the city’s population is now higher than what it was in 1997. New construction – of houses and businesses alike – continues at a rapid pace within the city, with projects being announced seemingly all the time.
Two of the most noticeable projects completed after the flood are the multimillion dollar Alerus Center and Ralph Engelstad Arena. The former is the largest indoor arena and convention center between Minneapolis and Seattle, while the latter is often described as one of the best arenas in the world and is home, of course, to UND’s men’s and women’s hockey teams. Even though the Alerus Center was conceived before the flood, and the Ralph Engelstad Arena probably would have been built regardless, both structures have helped outwardly signify that Grand Forks continues to progress forward following the flood.
Downtown Grand Forks, the heavily flooded, burned, and bruised portion of the city, has also sprung back to life. There has been a recent push to make the downtown area the central hub of Grand Forks by creating more green space, establishing more diverse businesses, and creating more housing space. Even the portion of downtown most seriously destroyed by fire has been rebuilt and transformed into a popular condominium development.
Although there’s no guarantee that the future won’t bring a similar-sized flood of the same magnitude as the one in 1997, the past 10 years have been spent ensuring that the effects of such a flood are as minor as possible. As previously mentioned, many homes and businesses in areas likely to go underwater in a major flood have been demolished or moved since 1997. Additionally, government officials have dictated that no new structures will be placed in these areas.
Many cities throughout the Red River Valley have refined their protection against major flooding by building better dikes and floodwalls that can withstand flooding as bad as or worse than that seen in 1997. The cities of Grand Forks and East Grand Forks received major federal and state funds to build a series of walls and dikes along the river. Grand Forks’ flood protection, which was just recently completed and dedicated as a part of the 10-year anniversary commemorations this past spring, protects the city from a river crest 2 feet higher than 1997’s crest.
The increased protection serves to illustrate the point that people of the Red River Valley are committed not to let the threat of flooding drive them away from their cherished homes and communities. Though it’s impossible to completely tame the Red River so that it won’t cause any more major flooding in the future, proper planning and awareness of the river’s devastating power will continue to lessen the chances of having such a destructive flood happen again.
Videos related to this entry: The following two videos are montages of video taken during and after the flood. The first comes from KMSP-TV and the second from KARE-TV.
The first half of May in 1997 was characterized by the sights, sounds, and oftentimes, smells of flood-recovery efforts. Those whose homes had been damaged were kept busy by the stressful task of sorting through damaged belongings and discarding everything that could not salvaged. In most cases, anything that touched the floodwaters could safely be called unsalvageable.
Preliminary estimates revealed the extent to which homes were damaged within the valley. In Grand Forks, 16,000 homes were officially declared damaged; in East Grand Forks, the number was 2,500 homes. Elsewhere, there were 600 damaged homes in Breckenridge and between 200 and 300 in Ada. Estimates for the total cost of all structures damaged were running well into the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Although the Red River had been quick to rise to bring about devastating flooding, it was taking its time to recede. By the second week of May, the flood was 1997 was still technically occurring, as all gauges along the Red River were continuing to report levels above flood stage. It wouldn’t be until May 17 that the Red would drop below flood stage at its headwaters in Wahpeton/Breckenridge. For Grand Forks and East Grand Forks, the Red didn’t drop below flood stage until May 19 – nearly a full month after it crested at 54.33 feet.
Still, even at levels above flood stage, the river was manageable at this time, and communities, large and small, that had frantically built earthen and ring dikes in the days before flooding struck were busy taking them down. Grand Forks’ temporary dikes, which were blocking streets and disrupting traffic patterns in some cases, began coming down on May 5. Elsewhere, county roads that had been cut through in order to prevent overland flooding from taking over houses and communities were slowly being repaired.
May 8 turned into a significant day for UND, since it was the day that what had been called the “virtual university” was shut down and the actual university officially reopened. Although not all staff returned to their jobs on this first day, the reopening symbolized that UND had successfully endured the flood.
Preparing residence halls to house flood-victims and relief workers continued to be a high priority for university officials, who announced on May 8 how they would apportion the available rooms. Summer session students would be housed in Selke and Noren Halls, UND employees and their families would get Brannon, McVey, and West Halls, displaced residents would be assigned to Fulton, Johnstone, and Smith Halls, relief workers and trades people to Squires Hall, and FEMA and Small Business Administration employees to Swanson Hall. Bek, Hancock and Walsh halls, still needing repairs from flood damage, would be held as backup facilities and used only if all other space filled up. “Opening day” for occupancy was set as May 10.
FEMA was instrumental in the behind-the-scenes work of getting the residence halls open to flood victims. The government agency had already announced that it would compensate the university all costs involved in providing the emergency housing, and, in turn, set up a system so that all flood victims could get the housing at no cost.
As important as May 8 was, May 12 was even more important, since it marked the start of the summer session at UND. The complete, on-time, beginning of classes, which seemed nearly unfeasible at the time it was announced during the height of flooding ended up taking place without much of a hitch. Enrollment for the summer session totaled 2,852 students – down from the previous year’s number of 3,382, but better than the earlier projection of a 30 percent decline.
Grand Forks and East Grand Forks were finally fully connected once more on May 13 after the Sorlie Bridge on DeMers Avenue reopened. The Point Bridge, another of the three bridges spanning the Red River between the two cities, reopened for traffic on May 11.
With the May 12 announcement that water within the city of Grand Forks was once more safe to drink, the city was well on its way to recovery. Just how long the recovery process would take, however, was unknown.
Check back around May 15 for a “conclusion” to this series.
Pictures related to this entry:
Sources used in writing this entry: Orvik, Jan, and Dick Larson. The Return of Lake Agassiz: the University of North Dakota and the Flood of 1997. Grand Forks, ND: University of North Dakota, 1998.
Staff of the [Fargo] Forum, comp. Fighting Back: the Blizzards and Flood in the Red River Valley, 1996-97. Fargo, ND: Forum Communications Company, 1997.
Staff of the Grand Forks Herald and Knight-Ridder Newspapers, comp. Come Hell and High Water: the Incredible Story of the 1997 Red River Flood. Grand Forks, ND: Grand Forks Herald, 1997.
I wanted to take some time now and post something not entirely related to the flood of 1997 - pictures that I took during the past month. As you may notice, all of these photos are posted at the recently-created Picasa Web Albums over at Google. Although I'm not completely sold on this service yet, it does provide something I've been looking for: a place to publicly and easily share my photos. Imageshack, which I have been using to host my pictures, recently launched an image sharing service, but, so far, I haven't been impressed. The servers there are often slow, and it appears impossible to group photos into individual albums. Plus, it should go without saying that Google's service makes it much easier to search for photos that others have uploaded. With any luck, I'll be working on my photo galleries at Google during the next few weeks, so that soon you'll be able to go to http://picasaweb.google.com/mw1125 and view photos that I've taken.
April 3, 2007: The month of April started off on a particularly cold, wintry side throughout much of the Upper Midwest. While not unheard of, the cold was still unusual for the month of April, and was even accompanied with a storm that dumped nearly a foot of snow in some areas of central and northern Minnesota. The Grand Forks area missed the worst of the storm, but still picked up nearly an inch of snow and enjoyed scenes of blowing snow reminiscent of, perhaps, December 3 rather than April 3.
Though the coulee had just become ice-free a few days prior, it froze up once again on April 3 after more than a day of below-freezing temperatures. The new ice was very smooth thanks to the strong winds pushing at the water while it was freezing.
In this photo, you can see streaks of blowing snow being pushed down the sidewalk in the 30 mph winds.
Bundling up was a necessity at the time - the temperature was 14°F, and, with a wind blowing at 28 mph, the wind chill was -6°F. This was probably one of the coldest April days I've ever experienced.
April 4, 2007: After the snowstorm, high pressure settled in, and the following day was relatively clear. Early in the evening, I slowly walked behind Twamley Hall (the administrative building at UND) to see if I could get pictures of the huge flock of robins I had noticed hanging around a few nearby trees a few days earlier. The robins were a bit aprehensive of me at first, but eventually they started coming closer so that they could get some sips from a puddle created by melting snow.
This one here was doing his best to convince me that he wasn't the one who dropped the butt into the puddle. I wasn't buying it, though.
I don't know what kind of birds these are, but they were also sitting in the same trees the robins were.
The coulee was still frozen, as the temperature on April 4 did not make it above 25°F for the entire day. At 7 pm, the temperature was 21°F and the wind chill 6°F. The February-like temperatures made it strange to still be light out so late in the day.
April 14, 2007: With temperatures settling into a more seasonal pattern by the middle of the month, I went out to take a few pictures of the coulee at UND. My intention was to compare these pictures with those taken in roughly the same areas 10 years prior during the major flood. I never got around to doing that, but it's still interesting to note how drastically different the pictures would have turned out if I would have taken them April 14, 1997.
This is the western side of Smith Hall. 10 years ago on roughly this date, water would have been approaching the top of the dike protecting the hall and volunteers would be busy stacking sandbags on top of it.
Another view of the west side of Smith Hall. Once again, the coulee ran right up to the basement of the hall, almost submerging it completely.
This is the Fox Memorial Bridge going over the coulee. During the worst of the flood, the water came up to the top of the black railing.
The Adelphi Fountain stand next to the coulee. Water came up nearly to the spot where I stood to take this picture.
April 20, 2007: Like all other universities around the country, UND mourned the victims of the Virginia Tech shootings. On what was declared the National Day of Mourning, a Virginia Tech display unexpectedly (to me, anyway) showed up in one of the most highly trafficked areas of campus.
I don't know if the original intent was to have people post messages on the display, but here's one that somebody wrote. I think this is the only one that ever appeared on the outdoor display, as there was an "official" poster-type of board available in the student union for people to send condolences and well-wishes. That board ended up being completely full of dozens, maybe hundreds, of messages from different people.
While out taking pictures, everything just lined up perfectly to get this shot. A small hole that allowed the sun to peek through suddenly appeared in the sky while I was near the flag next to Twamley Hall. Even more fortunate was that the wind at the time was relatively strong and blowing from such a direction so as to illuminate the flag perfectly head-on. In addition, the sky behind the flag looked ominous thanks to the sun reflecting off the clouds, and the flag itself was at half-mast out of respect to victims of the Virginia Tech tragedy. All in all, this was probably one of the most beautiful, short-lived scenes I've ever witnessed.
Just to add it as a side note, the flag was ironically ripped right off the pole a few hours later during a windstorm/thunderstorm that rolled through the area with winds topping 60 mph.
April 25, 2007: The Virginia Tech display ended up staying in place for one week. Later on the 25th, a Thursday, some fresh flowers were laid at its base. I intended to wait for the sun to come out on Friday morning so that I could get some pictures, but, by then, the display was gone, and the flowers were placed near the eagle monument.
“Mucking out” became the new buzzword in the Red River Valley as victims of the flooding began returning to their muddy, barely recognizable houses. By this time, the worst of the floodwater had gone into Manitoba, where it was besieging the small, francophone community of Sainte-Agathe.
South of the border, communities along the Red River and its tributaries north of Grand Forks were slowly recovering from what the flood had done there. With the exception of the tiny town of Robbin, Minnesota, there was, thankfully, no instance of an entire community going under water in this area. Even so, there were quite a few individual homes, businesses, and churches that did succumb to flooding. What turned out being the greatest legacy of the flood of 1997 in this region, however, is the number of people forced to relocate as a result of living on land too susceptible to flooding or in the way of proposed dikes, levees, and diversion channels intended to protect the small towns in the area. To read more about this region and its connection to the flood of 1997, see the related links below.
Throughout Grand Forks at this time, residents were returning to homes that were entirely different from the ones they had left nearly two weeks earlier. Though many would be restorable with a lot of hard work, some were nothing more than a heap of wreckage. In particular, homes that had sustained floodwaters up to their roofs in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Grand Forks and The Point and Sherlock Park neighborhoods of East Grand Forks were the worst off. In these areas, the homes would be unsalvageable; all residents could do was rummage through the debris for any small treasures that could be saved.
Even for those fortunate enough to be living in the western half of Grand Forks and be unaffected by the floodwaters, there remained a sense of discomfort. Electrical, water, and sewer systems were still nonexistent in Grand Forks on April 30. Though the water system (as well as the emergency room in the city’s hospital) was restored on May 2, it would still be many more days before residents had dependable electricity in their homes. Nighttime curfews remained in effect, with officials asking all people who had decided to move back into their homes not to go anywhere after dark.
Getting rid of flood-damaged material accelerated after May 1 when residents in flood-stricken areas of Grand Forks and East Grand Forks began trudging down into their still-wet basements and emerged with armfuls of debris that would then be piled onto increasingly taller heaps on lawns, sidewalks, berms, and city streets. After it was discovered that out-of-towners were ruthlessly coming and taking flood-damaged appliances so that they could resell them later, angry homeowners began spray-painting messages on the items or “customizing” them with several bashes from a baseball bat (also known as “flood therapy”).
The recollections of several UND students from Grand Forks upon returning to their hometown are recounted in the book published by UND following the flood:
“I was not prepared to see the cars that were sitting on lawns because they had floated there in the flood. I did not expect to see houses off their foundations, with water lines left by the flood next to the roof. I was also not prepared for the smell. The hardest thing that I had to deal with upon returning was having no water. I did not like having no showers and using outhouses.”
“When we arrived, I never expected to see what I saw. Driving over the bridge on Gateway Drive, I saw a living room recliner hanging on the side of the bridge, children’s toys littering the streets, and household items scattered everywhere. Reaching our home, I was absolutely horrified because everything I owned was ruined. I eventually managed to salvage a few things from my room, like a few dirty, curled-up pictures and a couple of special letters, which were now crinkled, smeared, and brown. It was then I realized everything I now owned fit into a shoe box.”
“When I entered Grand Forks, I immediately covered my nose because the stench was so strong and crude. It took a while to get used to it. I didn’t really know what to expect to see, maybe a few puddles of water. What I did see was garbage lying all over. Empty sandbags were scattered on the sides of roads, some furniture pieces in people’s yards, and porta-potties on every street corner.”
At UND during this time, students living in the residence halls east of the English Coulee were asked to get their belongings beginning May 1. It remained vital to clean the residence halls up as quickly as possible, since UND was committed to doing what it could to permit flood victims to have temporary housing over the summer. One of the problems standing in the way of this, however, was the extensive damage that had taken place in the lower levels of the Bek, Hancock, Johnstone, Smith, Squires, and Swanson Residence Halls. In order to hasten the clean-up efforts, FEMA formally approached the university to provide beds for up to 1,000 evacuees and assist with clean-up costs for all the residence halls.
The campus was slowly returning to normal, even as new problems continued to be discovered. One of these dealt with the underground steam system on campus. Once it was restarted, large “geysers” of steam began spraying out of the ground, signifying that the insulation on the pipes transferring the steam had disintegrated during the flood.
The first contracts were awarded for flood clean-up, and work quickly began on thoroughly drying out all buildings on campus. Any material that had gotten wet in the flood was removed at once; walls and floors were power-washed, scrubbed, bleached, scraped, disinfected, and washed again. In the end, attacking any potential problems caused by mold or other microorganisms saved the university an untold amount of money. As others in Grand Forks would find out, the longer a flood-damaged building was left to stand after the flood, the greater the problems stemming from mold and other contamination became.
President Kendell Baker in the first few days of May announced that the University would officially reopen on Thursday, May 8. As scheduled, the following Monday, May 12, would mark the first day of the 1997 summer semester.
Check back around May 5 for the next installment in this series.
Links related to this entry: Click here to read about the changes that have taken place in the Red River Valley north of Grand Forks in the 10 years since the flood (registration may be required).
Something I haven't really covered is the anger many in the Red River Valley felt toward the National Weather Service, and its faulty predictions, in the weeks immediately following the flood. Click here to read an article describing how the National Weather Service has changed how it predicts major flooding events in the wake of the Flood of 1997 (registration may be required).
Videos related to this entry: After being forced out of their homes in the Grand Forks/East Grand Forks area nearly two weeks earlier, there remained many flood victims scattered around the region on April 30.
A profile of Grand Forks' mayor Pat Owens, whose commendable leadership during the devastating flooding and subsequent recovery of her city has been praised as being one of the reasons Grand Forks has rebounded so well 10 years after the flood.
On May 2, the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Grand Forks remains lifeless and utterly devastated. This report, narrated as only KARE 11's Ken Speake could, was one of the most memorable following the flood.
Sources used in writing this entry: Beyond the Flood. Videocassette. Minnesota Broadcasters Association, 1997.
Orvik, Jan, and Dick Larson. The Return of Lake Agassiz: the University of North Dakota and the Flood of 1997. Grand Forks, ND: University of North Dakota, 1998.
Staff of the [Fargo] Forum, comp. Fighting Back: the Blizzards and Flood in the Red River Valley, 1996-97. Fargo, ND: Forum Communications Company, 1997.
Staff of the Grand Forks Herald and Knight-Ridder Newspapers, comp. Come Hell and High Water: the Incredible Story of the 1997 Red River Flood. Grand Forks, ND: Grand Forks Herald, 1997.
After being separated for 10 days, the cities of Grand Forks and East Grand Forks were linked together once again on April 28 when the Kennedy Bridge crossing the Red River on U.S. Highway 2 reopened. This unexpectedly turned into a momentous event after numerous residents decided to get in their vehicles and wait for their chance just to be one of the first to cross the newly-opened bridge.
The bridge reopening was a piece of good news among the all the grim at the time. The Red River was continuing to drop, and, consequently, more and more residents of Grand Forks and East Grand Forks were being allowed back into their homes. However, with electricity still severed, water and sewer systems still down, and water still trapped in the basements of the homes in many of the neighborhoods being opened up, residents were only allowed to come back during the daytime hours; they had to return to their temporary homes after dark. What many residents came back to were homes that were, at best, cold and desolate and, at worst, barely recognizable. Although many wanted to assess their damages and begin the long cleanup process right away, this was made complicated by the water remaining in basements. In order to prevent basement walls from collapsing, both Grand Forks and East Grand Forks city officials cautioned against being too quick to pump any water out.
The first rough estimate of property damage in Grand Forks and East Grand Forks came in on April 26, and it was pegged at $775 million. What could not be calculated, however, were the costs resulting in the residents’ loss of family treasures and confidence in themselves and their future.
The spirits of local residents were lifted greatly on April 29, though, when a miraculous gift from an “angel” was announced. A woman who did not wish to be identified pledged to donate $15 million to Grand Forks and East Grand Forks, allowing each household in the two cities to receive $2,000. Only after news media tracked down ownership of the airplane she used to survey flood damage in the area was the incredible philanthropist identified as Joan Kroc, a Minnesota native and widow of McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc. She had been in the area working anonymously with the many relief agencies in the area assisting flood victims.
Elsewhere around the Red River Valley at this time, Interstate 29 was slowly being opened between Fargo and the U.S.-Canada border. The stretch from Grand Forks to Fargo, which had been closed for 16 days, reopened on April 27. This was a relief to many motorists who were getting increasingly frustrated with the worsening conditions on the back road that was being used as a detour between the two cities.
After cresting at 54.94 feet in Pembina, ND and St. Vincent, MN on April 26, the Red River was also falling there, meaning that the flood of 1997 was over for people living south of the border. Although this was the highest crest ever seen in the cities of Pembina and St. Vincent, major damages were avoided thanks to the diligent efforts in raising dikes as well as higher crest predictions that ended up not materializing.
Work continued at UND to bring the campus back to a resemblance of normal. Power systems, which had been completely shut off before major flooding occurred, were drying out and being brought back online. Making the decision to turn off electricity before water entered buildings ended up being one of the wisest things done at UND, since electrical equipment that is shut off before getting wet needs only to be completely dried out before being turned back on. On the other hand, electrical equipment that is left on while wet usually needs to be replaced completely and at a great cost.
All residence halls behind Wilkerson Hall were officially opened up on April 29 so that students could retrieve their belongings. Enough resident assistants had returned to allow the check-out process to run smoothly.
Inspections of campus buildings inevitably revealed new, unexpected damages during this time. Elevators, which are normally programmed to go to the lowest level in a building when power to them is shut off, were flooded in many places. Sewer systems, sidewalks, and the electrical, steam, and telecommunications tunnels underneath the campus also showed significant damages.
Check back around April 30 for the next installment in this series.
Videos related to this entry: An "angel" comes to help the citizens of Grand Forks and East Grand Forks in the form of $2,000 checks.
Sources used in writing this entry: Beyond the Flood. Videocassette. Minnesota Broadcasters Association, 1997.
Orvik, Jan, and Dick Larson. The Return of Lake Agassiz: the University of North Dakota and the Flood of 1997. Grand Forks, ND: University of North Dakota, 1998.
Staff of the [Fargo] Forum, comp. Fighting Back: the Blizzards and Flood in the Red River Valley, 1996-97. Fargo, ND: Forum Communications Company, 1997.
Staff of the Grand Forks Herald and Knight-Ridder Newspapers, comp. Come Hell and High Water: the Incredible Story of the 1997 Red River Flood. Grand Forks, ND: Grand Forks Herald, 1997.
By April 25, the flood of 1997 was slowly coming to an end south of the United States-Canada border. The worst of the floodwater was coming into Pembina, North Dakota and St. Vincent, Minnesota – two cities just slightly south of the border. Though residents of both cities had to wage the same sort of battles as had been waged upstream in places such as Grand Forks, Fargo, and Wahpeton, they were largely spared the same fate as had befallen the cities of Grand Forks and East Grand Forks. One of the reasons for this was that the Red River spread out farther and became wider as it flowed north of Grand Forks. Although this meant more land – mostly farmfields – went underwater, it also meant that the water flowed slower and with less force. This allowed dikes, including the plywood one defending the city of Drayton, North Dakota, to be slightly more effective. Another saving grace for the residents north of Grand Forks was their ability to see the major destruction upstream and better prepare themselves for the water’s onslaught.
Perhaps nobody was more acutely aware of the water’s potentially devastating effects than those living along the Red River in Manitoba. For days, people there had been tuned to Grand Forks’ local television station, WDAZ-TV, wondering what the water was going to do once it got to their communities. In the end, about 2,500 homes in Manitoba were destroyed, with 100 eventually being demolished altogether. Even so, only one community, Sainte-Agathe, was completely submerged by water during what was known as the “flood of the century” and what had prompted one of the largest mass evacuations in the history of Manitoba. In Manitoba’s capital and most populous city, Winnipeg, flooding ended up being minimal thanks in large part to a diversion channel built after a destructive flood there nearly a half century earlier as well as a massive earthen dike constructed just days before the worst of the floodwater reached the area. Had these two things not been in place to protect the city, the majority of Winnipeg might have gone under, and well over 500,000 Winnipeggers might have had their homes damaged or destroyed.
In Grand Forks at this time, the Red River still remained very high, above the 50 foot mark. Nevertheless, the water was clearly receding, and some houses that had been sitting in water a few days before were now dry on the outside. This allowed the National Guard on April 24 to let some people back into the city for a few hours to check on the condition of their homes. Others would be allowed back in as the water continued to fall and their safety could be assured.
Newt Gingrich, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, visited Grand Forks and East Grand Forks on April 25. He got a look at the damage firsthand and reaffirmed President Clinton’s pledge of 3 days earlier to get aid from the federal government into the region as quickly as possible.
Fargo was slowly returning to normal. On April 25, city crews began taking down the emergency earthen dike built south of town as well as some of the earthen dikes built on downtown streets. By April 26, the Red River dropped below 36 feet, signaling that the worst of the floodwater had left. The flood had damaged 86 homes in Fargo and 41 homes in Moorhead.
At UND during this time, the “virtual university” was virtually a reality. The deans for each of the colleges on campus had been set up with a “virtual office” consisting of a chair, table, and telephone. Email access was restored on April 24.
The UND call center continued to be flooded with nearly 2,500 calls a day. Of course, there were a lot of very similar questions, and in order to deal with this, University Relations made fact sheets and news releases covering the most frequently asked questions. This information was then posted on UND’s website or placed in newspapers wherever evacuees had scattered throughout the region.
One frequent question dealt with housing. With so many people in the area unsure if they would have a house to come back to, many wanted to know what sort of temporary housing UND could provide. With the knowledge that the university could use its residence halls to house flood victims during the summer, officials made it a top priority to get Brannon Hall cleaned as quickly as possible so that it could be the first residence hall made available for disaster housing.
But in order to get the residence halls open for temporary housing, flood damage had to be cleaned up, the buildings had to be safe to live in, and, perhaps most importantly at first, students’ belongings had to be taken out. Because of this, all residence halls west of the coulee – West, McVey, Brannon, Selke, and Noren – were opened on April 25 for students to check-out. With the sewer system still down and few housing staff on hand, conditions were less than ideal. Nevertheless, about 15 to 20 students moved out on April 25, with more continuing to do so during the next couple days.
The payroll run, a normally routine operation for UND, was carried out under extraordinary conditions on April 25. UND’s mainframe computer generates payroll not only for employees of UND, but for employees at all the other higher education institutes in North Dakota. This became a problem because, after flooding threatened all buildings at UND, the mainframe was disassembled and taken to NDSU in Fargo. Therefore, in order to run the payroll, technicians had to recover databases and restore software systems at this remote location. Although they very came close to not making it, UND Payroll staff members were able to enter every available timeslip and payroll revision by Friday (the 25th), making payday came on time for all those employed at one of the 11 campuses in the North Dakota University System.
Check back around April 27 for the next installment in this series.
Links related to this entry: Click here to read an article that appeared in Tuesday's Grand Forks Herald describing the plywood wall keeping the town of Drayton, North Dakota dry during this time in 1997 (registration may be required).
Videos related to this entry: The 10 o'clock KARE 11 news from April 25 shows recovery efforts getting underway in Grand Forks and Newt Gingrich visiting the region.
A report on the journalists diligently working to get information to flood victims scattered throughout the region - including the use of maps to give callers an idea of possible flood damage around their homes
Sources used in writing this entry: Orvik, Jan, and Dick Larson. The Return of Lake Agassiz: the University of North Dakota and the Flood of 1997. Grand Forks, ND: University of North Dakota, 1998.
Staff of the [Fargo] Forum, comp. Fighting Back: the Blizzards and Flood in the Red River Valley, 1996-97. Fargo, ND: Forum Communications Company, 1997.
Staff of the Grand Forks Herald and Knight-Ridder Newspapers, comp. Come Hell and High Water: the Incredible Story of the 1997 Red River Flood. Grand Forks, ND: Grand Forks Herald, 1997.
April 23 bought more good news to the cities of Grand Forks and East Grand Forks. Although many houses nearest to the river still had water up to their rooftops, in other places of the city, it was quite apparent that the floodwater was receding. The Red River, at the moment one of the widest rivers in North America, was finally reverting back to its tamer, narrower self.
The cities of Grand Forks and East Grand Forks continued to be virtually empty, and it appeared that they would be that way for at least a few more days. Those living in areas left relatively dry would be able to come back to their homes the soonest, but those living in the areas entirely inundated would have to wait much longer – a couple of weeks in some cases.
Everybody who evacuated seemed to have one question – “how deep was the water in my part of town?” To try to answer this, KCNN Radio, which had become one of the most important providers of news during the flood, sifted through videotape footage and other reports to put together a map of Grand Forks and East Grand Forks that showed how deep the water had gotten in the different parts of the cities. All one needed to do was call into the station, give his or her address, and somebody at a phone bank would look at the map and estimate how high the water had been. People reacted differently to the news, with some relieved that water had not gotten as high as they had feared and others finally beginning to get a sense of how much post-flood cleanup would be required once they were allowed back into their home.
As the river continued to fall, the sewer system in the city of Grand Forks was slowly brought back online. By the end of the day, 16 of 36 lift stations in the city were working. At the Grand Forks Air Base, the number of evacuees still there had decreased to 600, with more and more people finding temporary housing elsewhere.
Media attention continued to be focused on Grand Forks and East Grand Forks as Elizabeth Dole, President of the American Red Cross, came to town. She toured flooded areas with North Dakota First Lady Nancy Shafer and Grand Forks Mayor Pat Owens.
At UND on April 23, recovery efforts increased. After making an inspection of nearly all the university’s buildings the day before, Plant Services officials put together a color-coded campus map that indicated which buildings had sustained flood damage and the extent to which damage occurred. This map became important because it gave university officials a good idea of which buildings would likely be ready for use during the summer semester, which was still expected to begin as scheduled on May 12.
The phone bank that was an essential part of UND’s “virtual university” became operational on this day, and incoming phone calls numbered into the thousands. It took a team of 20 staff working rotating shifts to ensure the call center ran smoothly.
For the first time since the university canceled the remainder of the spring semester, all of the academic deans got together. One of their first priorities was to contact each person scheduled to teach in the summer and find out if he or she would be able to beginning on the 12th. There ended up being only one faculty member who was unable to.
One of the happiest moments on campus came in the evening when Food Service employees provided the first “Red Tag Dinner,” as they would later come to be known, to university officials with “red tags” – tags that identified them as being associated with the university. Even though the menu was limited to whatever was in storage in the Food Services Building, the dinners provided those camped out at the university some of their first hot meals in days.
Water continued to recede downstream in Fargo on this day as well. Cleanup of the Oak Grove Lutheran School and surrounding neighborhood began with help from faculty and students from Hillcrest Lutheran Academy in Fergus Falls. The town of Ada also intensified its cleanup efforts after it was reported that most of the town’s 1,700 residents had returned.
Check back on April 25 for the next installment in this series.
Pictures related to this entry: Here is one of those maps that shows the extent of flood damage in Grand Forks and East Grand Forks.
Sources used in writing this entry: Orvik, Jan, and Dick Larson. The Return of Lake Agassiz: the University of North Dakota and the Flood of 1997. Grand Forks, ND: University of North Dakota, 1998.
Staff of the [Fargo] Forum, comp. Fighting Back: the Blizzards and Flood in the Red River Valley, 1996-97. Fargo, ND: Forum Communications Company, 1997.
Staff of the Grand Forks Herald and Knight-Ridder Newspapers, comp. Come Hell and High Water: the Incredible Story of the 1997 Red River Flood. Grand Forks, ND: Grand Forks Herald, 1997.
Varley, Jane. Flood Stage and Rising. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2005.
This Grand Forks Herald article recalling the events of April 22, 1997 was put together by staff writer Mike Brue.
On the day a U.S. president came to Greater Grand Forks, the Red River's record flood crest did, too.
The path to disaster was ending.
Bill Clinton's visit brought more national and international attention to the series of disasters that pummeled Grand Forks, East Grand Forks and the Red River valley.
The river's historic peak at the official downtown gauge was 54.35 feet, more than 26 feet above flood stage and about 5 feet higher than 1979's record. Because floodwaters were expected to hover near crest levels for several days, few people paid close attention to the exact river level.
The flooding behemoth already spoke devastating volumes, and continued to do so loud enough to prompt the presidential visit.
Air Force One brought Bill Clinton to Grand Forks Air Force Base, where he and other federal disaster officials would tour the great Flood of 1997 firsthand, offer encouragement and bring news about expanded disaster assistance.
"You bring us hope," added Grand Forks Mayor Pat Owens, showing some emotion.
Shortly after his arrival, Clinton and other officials boarded helicopters to get a better look at the disaster. From the air, they saw virtually all of East Grand Forks and roughly three-quarters of Grand Forks in or under water. They flew over the remains of 11 downtown buildings damaged or destroyed in a weekend fire. They viewed a massive landscape of water, spread miles wide and stretched far in to the north and south horizons.
They looked, and they said little. Back in an Air Force base 3-Bay Hanger, standing before about 3,000 people, many of them flood evacuees, Clinton took center stage, a group of federal, North Dakota, Minnesota and Air Force dignitaries and an enormous American flag behind him.
Among the dignitaries: East Grand Forks Mayor Lynn Stauss, wearing a jacket with big "USA" letters, and Owens "wearing the heart and soul of my community," she told the president.
"Welcome to Water World Mr. President," a sign said.
A large spotlight overhead fizzled, then popped loudly. People flinched. Pause. Clinton, looking up, pointed to the source of the commotion.
"Well," he said, "we've had a fire, a flood, a blizzard I think we can handle this."
Laughter. Relief.
Clinton talked about TV images of sandbagging during a blizzard, about having never seen a series of disasters hit one area like this. "You don't have to be ashamed if you're heartbroken," he said.
He told of authorizing the Federal Emergency Management Agency to reimburse 100 percent of local governments' flood expenses, rather than the usual 75 percent. He said he was asking Congress for $448 million in Midwest disaster relief, $200 million more than first requested.
The president then alluded to the faith and spirit of the region's people: "Water cannot wash that away, fire cannot burn that away, and a blizzard cannot freeze that away," he said.
By mid-afternoon, the president was gone.
From the air, Clinton could not see the details in two cities of a past life stopped in time by high water.
"Sandbaggers needed," a sign read. "Please report to the Civic Center."
A billboard advertising the Shrine Circus April 25-27 in Grand Forks. Dogs barking inside homes. The glow from a TV screen visible through a window.
River currents ignored the reds, yellows and greens of working traffic signals. Basketball hoops peaked above floodwaters.
"It's like the Twilight Zone," said Cheryl Westfall, a police 911 supervisor, as she passed through a north side neighborhood with other police personnel.
Downtown, every street was Canal Street. A wrecking ball occasionally knocked down the remains of burned buildings. Boats and huge National Guard trucks provided traffic and transportation.
A rubber raft outside the County Courthouse was the only sign of a document rescue inside. Nearby, with help from the National Guard, local law enforcement revisited the flooded police department building. Police retrieved supplies and computer equipment to bring back to the U.S. Army Reserve Center west of town, which served as a temporary police station.
"It's Vietnam all over again," said Mike Flannery, a war veteran-turned-police officer. "Hueys in the air. You eat what you can when you can. . . .Camouflage all over."
Evacuations continued in areas that were supposed to have been cleared. A U.S. Coast Guard boat came to a Sixth Avenue North home, where a white towel hung from the door. "I just decided it was no use," said the resident, holed up for three days with his bird and fish. "I thought I could wait it out. I couldn't."
Still, no reports of lives lost to flooding in the two cities.
Evacuees were scattered across communities from Devils Lake to Duluth, from Minneapolis to Minot, from Watford City, N.D., to Winnipeg.
One example: Larimore, N.D., pop. 1,500, suddenly about 2,000 people larger, with about 100 Grand Forks students already enrolled at school and about 30 residents of Grand Forks' Tufte Manor residing in the school gym.
At Mayville, N.D., about 900 Grand Forks evacuees were welcomed guests. "You visit people. You go for walks. When you see and talk to all of the people here from Grand Forks, you still feel like a part of Grand Forks," evacuee Darryl Tunseth said. "But (the flood) is always in the back of your mind. You're always in limbo, wondering what's going on."
Mayville State University canceled the rest of spring classes on this day; its dormitories helped shelter evacuees. The college's latest newsletter, "The High Ground News," offered pertinent information, including helpful phone numbers and things to do.
"We joined together as a community to fight the flood," said Rick Cornell, another Grand Forks evacuee at Mayville. "I hope we do the same to rebuild."
The Flood of '97 was far from over. Downstream cities and towns and surrounding rural residents still faced flood battles. Many people upstream still dealt with high water, or at least faced what was gained and lost.
But for Grand Forks and East Grand Forks, on a day a president visited and the Red quit rising, amid widespread shock, heartbreaking loss and historic evacuation, the earliest signs of recovery were showing. ------------------------- Although he only stayed a short while, President Clinton’s stop in Grand Forks and East Grand Forks proved to be just the sort of thing that the cities needed to lift their spirits. Many residents felt comforted to know that people far away in Washington D.C. were willing to look after the cities of Grand Forks and East Grand Forks.
At UND on April 22, the general consensus was that the university was “holding its own.” At the 9 AM flood recovery meeting, President Kendell Baker continued to outline the steps that would be taken to build the “virtual university” that would be in place until all UND departments could be operating as normal. The plans called for this “virtual university” to be fully operational by April 28.
Talk also began to center around how UND could help in recovery efforts of Grand Forks and East Grand Forks. It was generally agreed that the university’s greatest asset would probably be its residence halls; they could turned into temporary housing for flood victims. With this in mind, a task force was created to develop plans to get the halls opened as soon as possible. Although a few had taken in water in their basements, the main problem at first was the fact that students had left most of their personal belongings in their rooms after the call went out to evacuate. UND would need to get the residence halls open as quickly as possible in order for students to come back and retrieve their possessions.
Elsewhere on campus, Plant Services officials began going into buildings to assess damage. With a volunteer cameraman from the UND television center, LeRoy Sondrol, head of Plant Services, led a small group into three heavily damaged buildings – the medical school, Smith Hall, and the USDA Nutrition Research Center. Although the latter building is operated and maintained by the USDA, Denise Schaefer, the animal caretaker at the center, asked to see the inside of the building. So the group went inside.
What they found was startling. There was about a foot and a half of water covering the ground floor, and electricity was still on in the entire building. What’s more, there was smoke coming from the mechanical/boiler room. The early makings of an electrical fire, like the kind that eventually bought down 11 buildings in downtown Grand Forks 3 days earlier were apparent. In desperation, the group quickly left the building, and Sondrol got on a cell phone to summon the fire department and get NSP (now Xcel Energy) to turn off the power right away. Luckily, the power was cut in time. However, had nobody gone in to inspect the building, a very damaging fire easily could have occurred.
More inspections during the day revealed even more damage. The lower levels of the Memorial Union, Swanson Hall (a residence hall), and Wilkerson Hall all were completely filled with water. Lesser amounts of water, in the 1-2 foot range, could be found in the basements of Montgomery, Walsh, Squires, Bek, Leonard, Robertson-Sayre, and Corwin-Larimore Halls as well as the Era Bell Thompson and Native American Centers.
Good news could be found on campus, however. University officials residing in their new “homes” at the Plant Services building were treated to a hot lunch of scalloped potatoes and ham. They had also received one portable kitchen, with two more on the way. Even so, it was hard for many of the employees to not know how their own houses within the community had fared. The book published by UND after the flood describes how, at the end of a long day’s work, many would get on the phone and dial up their home phone numbers. If the call went through, the phone lines in the house had stayed dry. A busy signal, on the other hand, meant that water was in the house and the phone lines had been compromised.
Check back tomorrow for the next installment in this series.
Links related to this entry: Click here to read a transcript of President Clinton's speech.
Videos related to this entry: President Clinton visits Grand Forks and East Grand Forks
A report on the Grand Forks Herald during the flood. Despite losing its building first to floodwaters and then to fire, the newspaper never missed an issue. Free copies were delivered daily to flood victims throughout the area so that they could get flood-related news from a local perspective.
This is the video shot on the UND campus on April 22. As stated in the beginning, the original intent of this video was to get emergency relief funding from the North Dakota State Board of Higher Education.
Sources used in writing this entry: Beyond the Flood. Videocassette. Minnesota Broadcasters Association, 1997.
Orvik, Jan, and Dick Larson. The Return of Lake Agassiz: the University of North Dakota and the Flood of 1997. Grand Forks, ND: University of North Dakota, 1998.
This Grand Forks Herald article recalling the events of April 21, 1997 was put together by staff writer Mike Brue.
It was a Monday, the start of the work week, 10 years ago today.
Business, though, was anything but usual in Grand Forks and East Grand Forks, epicenter of the dramatic Red River Valley flood and fire, and the site of what some authorities called an urban disaster displacement on a scale then unmatched in American history.
Cranes moved into flooded downtown Grand Forks to knock some walls down on buildings damaged by the dramatic weekend fire. “It doesn't seem real,” Deputy Fire Chief Pete O'Neill told reporters. “You want to wake up from some dream.”
Finally, the Red River seemed about to crest. That, in turn, slowed the spread of floodwater across the nearly level urban landscape. It reached 54.11 feet, more than 5 feet above the 1979 record crest.
Again on this day, flood tours gave emergency officials, government leaders and news media first-hand looks at the damage in mandatory evacuation areas. As much as several dozen feet deep in places, floodwaters from the Red and Red Lake rivers spread a quilt of raw sewage, fuel and debris for several miles beyond the dikes that failed to contain it. Homes, garages, businesses, vehicles and signs stood in water, or sometimes under it.
“You'll probably hit (cars) before you see them,” DNR conservation officer Tom Campbell said during a boat ride Sunday over some East Grand Forks' streets.
Rep. Collin Peterson of Minnesota's 7th District was one of the boat passengers who ducked under telephone and power lines en route to sights of homes tipped off their foundations. “I went to Breckenridge (Saturday), and I thought that was bad,” he said. “But this is unbelievable.”
On this Monday, Peterson added, “The normal disaster relief is not going to work.”
Greater Grand Forks leaders learned that President Bill Clinton would come to Grand Forks Air Force Base on Tuesday to hear their concerns and tour the area in a helicopter. In Washington, Federal Emergency Management Agency director James Lee Witt and other White House officials joined members of Congress to discuss Red River Valley federal aid needs.
Increasingly, flood victims sought out FEMA's toll-free number to register for disaster assistance. But few calls came from Greater Grand Forks proper, though U S West workers so far successfully kept their water-surrounded downtown service center - and the area's dial tone, 911 and other government circuits - in working order.
About 85 percent of Grand Forks' population of 52,000 had evacuated, either by mandate or voluntarily. Only about 250 of East Grand Forks' nearly 9,000 residents remained.
“What I'm afraid of,” said the Rev. William Sherman of Grand Forks' flooded St. Michael's Catholic Church, “is that once reality sets in, there will be anguish and anxiety.”
On this day, Greater Grand Forks' public schools and the East Side's parochial Sacred Heart School canceled the remainder of their school years for teachers, staff and some 12,000 displaced students. Officials said all but one of the schools within the two city limits had some type of flood damage.
Grand Forks County Commissioners met in Larimore, about 30 miles west of Grand Forks, to begin moving the base for county services, primarily into the town's Masonic Temple.
A few businesses remained open on the flood-free edges of Greater Grand Forks, including a couple of hotels, the temporary quarters for officials from two cities and many emergency personnel.
“There's nothing to come back to now,” said East Grand Forks Mayor Lynn Stauss, who helped set up a temporary City Hall at the Comfort Inn on U.S. Highway 2. “We have to, basically, rebuild our community.”
The National Guard and other agencies still fought floodwaters at the East Side's water treatment plant, police station, cellular communications tower and other essential areas.
In west Grand Forks, at a camouflaged tanker parked near the Ramada Inn, remaining residents filled jugs with fresh water from 2,000-gallon tanks, dubbed “water buffaloes.” The tanks contained water from the Turtle River and area reservoirs, purified for three hours with heavy chlorination by the Guard's reverse-osmosis water purification unit.
On Grand Forks' southwest side, 10 postal workers - about 75 fewer than normal - sorted mail for shipment to northeast North Dakota post offices. Walk-up mail service was planned to start within a day or two at Grand Forks Air Force Base, home to more than 3,000 evacuees, and Crookston, where more than 4,000 evacuees either registered or sought shelter. “We're not accepting any change of address for evacuees yet,” a Fargo postal official said.
Evacuees had spread to shelters set up by communities throughout the region, or they accepted one of thousands of offers from complete strangers who opened up their homes out of compassion and a feeling of helplessness.
Fargo and Moorhead was a detour-obstructed destination for thousands, despite those cities' own recent fierce flood battles. “We got out with very little. Not even a suitcase,” said Jean Haus, who left their 24th Avenue South home near the river. She and her daughter, Judy, went to the Fargo Target to take advantage of a 20-percent discount for evacuees.
New elevated crest forecasts on this day added to the stress of residents in downstream Red River towns Pembina and Drayton, N.D., and nearby rural residents north of Greater Grand Forks. The National Weather Service's revisions for crests, expected within two to four days, leapfrogged one or more feet over the cities' urgent dike preparations.
But closer to Grand Forks, Oslo, Minn.,'s 31-year-old clay ring dike was holding. Floodwaters prevented virtually all but National Guard travel in and out of town, but farmer/volunteer firefighter Orin Knutson and farmhand Riley Farder brought two crates of mail from the Alvarado, Minn., post office, one day after hauling in a 10-day supply of groceries.
Said Gary Durand, head of Marshall County's emergency services: “They're like a sovereign nation or something.” ------------------------- Most activity at UND on April 21 began to center around flood recovery efforts. At one of the twice-daily staff meetings, plans were drawn up to start a phone bank that UND students (and their parents), staff, faculty could call into and receive answers to any questions they might have. Additionally, the university was committed to using the latest in technology to create a “virtual university” that would be capable to performing the university’s core functions until it could operate as normal. President Kendell Baker called on employees temporarily moved to the Plant Services building to create a “University of the 21st Century.”
There remained some serious flooding problems on campus on April 21, though. Floodwaters were out of control inside the miles and miles of underground steam, water, and telecommunications tunnels on campus, and this water was still threatening to enter buildings and cause them to flood from within.
University Avenue was essentially a river through most of the eastern half of the campus with water overtaking the basements of the many fraternities and sororities that line the street. Also affected by water on the eastern end of the university were the USDA Human Nutrition Center, the [old] Ralph Engelstad Arena, and Memorial Stadium, where the Astroturf of the football field could be seen flooding on top of a foot of water.
Later in the day, after a prolonged effort to stave off flooding, several buildings at the Energy and Envrionmental Research Center (EERC) also succumbed to the water.
Farther to the west, Wilkerson Hall now had water pushing up to its entrance and a submerged lower level. Selke and Noren Halls, two residence halls behind Wilkerson, also had water coming into their basements.
During the day, word had spread that the downtown fire was likely electrical in nature, caused by not shutting off power to buildings before they flooded. This was a serious concern for UND officials, as they realized that the electricity was still on in most buildings on campus. A frantic effort then began to go into all buildings and make sure power was turned off. By evening, electricity was off in most places, with the exception of the USDA Research Center. For a couple of reasons – the most important being that nobody at UND could get in contact with the operator of the building, the USDA – electricity at this building was not shut off.
Personnel at UND Flight Operations worked hard on April 21 giving helicopter rides for university, state, and local leaders. These rides provided the leaders with some of their first views of the extent of damage to Grand Forks and East Grand Forks.
UND also began providing much-needed workspace for the hundreds of journalists that had come to Grand Forks from all parts of the country. The university’s Television Center, housed in the newly-completed Ryan Hall on the far western end of campus, was made available for use by national media outlets, including NBC and CNN.
However, perhaps the most significant event of April 21 was President Baker’s early-evening announcement that UND’s summer session would be held as scheduled beginning on May 12. Although many thought the president had “gone nuts,” he stood firm and said he was committed to do everything he could to have the university open in time, to prove that UND was not going to let the flood of 1997 wash it away.
Check back tomorrow for the next installment in this series.
Videos related to this entry: Aerial views on April 21, 1997 show the "devastation beyond belief in Grand Forks and East Grand Forks"
Sources used in writing this entry: Beyond the Flood. Videocassette. Minnesota Broadcasters Association, 1997.
Floodwatch '97. Videocassette. WDAY Television News, 1997.
Orvik, Jan, and Dick Larson. The Return of Lake Agassiz: the University of North Dakota and the Flood of 1997. Grand Forks, ND: University of North Dakota, 1998.
This Grand Forks Herald article recalling the events of April 19, 1997 was put together by staff writer Mike Brue.
Floodwaters covered most of Greater Grand Forks 10 years ago today, just as one smoldering city ran out of water.
It was a Sunday, and thanks to television and print images, a captive nation and even international audiences was seeing the breadth of disaster that struck the 60,000 residents of Grand Forks and East Grand Forks.
"It's even worse than you could imagine," said Joe Simon, working with Grand Forks emergency operations. "We're getting the hell beat out of us by the river."
Stunned area residents struggled to believe their own eyes, while the innocent questions of children gave them pause.
"Mom," Sharon Fox Bogen's 3-year-old son asked while watching TV, "is that our town?"
Fox Borgen, a lay minister, and her husband, the Rev. Phil Bogen, fought floodwaters at their Central Plains Court home, but ended up evacuating and staying with friends. On this morning, she preached at Evanger Lutheran Church in rural Grand Forks to a congregation that included other flood victims. "Jesus is our strong dike, one that will never give way," Fox Bogen said, her voice at times breaking. "One that can protect us and deliver us from evil."
In Grand Forks, it seemed as though the only visible smile was on a water tower and both were empty. The city's water supply dried up. The water treatment plant on downtown's southern edge was inoperable and surrounded by floodwaters. Running water might be at least three weeks away, City Engineer Ken Vein said.
Without water, even many remaining residents on dry ground chose to leave. By day's end, the city's estimate of evacuees numbered at least 37,000 of its 52,000 residents.
In East Grand Forks, where floodwaters from the Red and Red Lake rivers reportedly touched almost the entire city, at least 95 percent of its more than 8,000 residents were gone by Sunday night, Mayor Lynn Stauss said.
Daylight revealed the damage downtown from a fire that began Saturday afternoon in the flooded Security Building. The morning-after televised images seemed war-like. Firefighters, forced to battle flames in bone-chilling floodwaters well beyond midnight, acknowledged that damage could have been even worse.
The Security Building's burned-out brown brick shell left a lasting impression as it towered over brown water. Ten other buildings, scattered over four city blocks, were in similar ruins or severely damaged. The victims included First National Bank, First Financial Center, Griggs Landing bar, Bonzer's Sandwich Pub and the Formal Affair shop.
Fire also destroyed the [Grand Forks] Herald's annex building, which housed the newsroom, finance and circulation offices and the paper's library, with its decades of newspaper clippings and photos. "I care less about my house than I do about those archives," said Jenelle Stadstad, the paper's library manager. "My stuff can be replaced, but all of our history is gone."
The newspaper left its Saturday home at UND and moved into the Manvel, N.D., public school. With the Herald's pressroom flooded, the St. Paul Pioneer Press printed the Herald's Sunday edition and would handle Monday's, too.
At UND, spring semester was cancelled Saturday, leaving the university facing a growing flood concern. Red River backwater into the English Coulee moved into the campus from the north. Like some other still-dry neighborhoods, UND was in the path of a slow, relentless spread of water pushing up through storm sewers.
As administrators planned how to rescue flood-vulnerable books, records and other documents, Toby Baker, wife of President Kendall Baker, issued a plea on local radio for remaining students, faculty and staff to "save our university." The first of about 200 volunteers began arriving within minutes, setting off a daylong race to beat floodwaters.
South of DeMers Avenue, workers continued using heavy machinery to build a dike around United Hospital and the rest of Medical Park. Many hospital patients were evacuated Saturday, and all rehabilitation hospital patients and Valley Eldercare Center residents were moved to other regional locations.
With the city out of running water, and with its own staff reduced, United Hospital evacuated remaining critical care patients by helicopter and emergency vehicles to larger regional hospitals. The evacuations were done by 7 p.m.
Grand Forks' last open grocery store, Hugo's on 32nd Avenue South, closed late on this morning as water threatened the building and stressed shoppers made final purchases. Said employee Rick Hogan, "You always see these disasters somewhere else."
With the memory of downtown fire evacuations fresh, Grand Forks announced plans for a street-by-street search in evacuation zones. Mayor Pat Owens declared a 24-hour curfew in those zones. She noted that no deaths had been reported.
"What makes a community a place to live is not the buildings or anything else in that community," she said during a news conference that aired live on TV and radio. "It's the people the spirit and the faith that are in those people. . . . Walk away from those homes. Walk away from those buildings. We will rebuild, and we will be stronger, and we will be in it together." Her words were applauded.
Owens later noted, "I hope people will have a lot of patience."
A shelter at Grand Forks Air Force Base held about 3,000 people. Shelters at Thompson and Mayville, N.D., and Crookston continued to take in refugees or at least help provide basic items, such as clothes, food and toiletries. Some evacuees were parents separated from children, or separated spouses. Phones rang constantly as families searched for loved ones.
Flood fight preparations escalated downstream, especially at Pembina and Drayton, N.D., where Red River towns had been alarmed, even frightened, by images coming out of Greater Grand Forks. At Manvel, sandbag operations supported rural residents dealing with record floodwaters, while farmers battled to save livestock..
By 9 p.m. in Greater Grand Forks, the Red reached 53.9 feet about 26 feet above flood stage. And it was still rising.
The article includes information from Herald and wire service reports. ------------------------- By April 20, the scope of the disaster in Grand Forks and East Grand Forks had become painfully clear. Grand Forks had become the scenes of some of the worst flooding ever to befall an American city, and the engorged Red River of the North had become the largest river by volume in all of North America.
On the UND campus, the reality had set in that flooding, and subsequent damage, was now unavoidable. Floodwaters were approaching too quickly, from too many directions, and there just wasn’t enough time or resources on hand to halt water from overtaking buildings. What could be done, however, was lessen the flood’s impact on campus.
To that end, President Kendell Baker quickly assembled a team on April 20 to come up with a list of facilities and collections that were either most threatened or most valuable to the university. The list this team came up with reflected the different roles of the university and included
The science journals, microfiche, and microfilm collections in the basement of the Chester Fritz Library
Holdings in the lower level of the Thormodsgard Law Library
Pieces in the University’s art collection at the Hughes Fine Arts Center
Theatre Arts’ collection of costumes the kept in the basement of the Burtness Theater
Library materials and Student Health service records in the lower level of O’Kelly Hall
A power transformer near the Hughes Fine Arts Center that had made UND one of the last places in Grand Forks still with electricity
Telecommunication equipment in the basement of Merrifield and Carnegie Halls
It was then up to the volunteers alluded to in the article above to make sure these “jewels” of the university could be protected as best as possible.
Elsewhere on campus, the situation the School of Medicine had been described as “gruesome,” with Larry Zitzow, Associate Director of Plant Services, recalling the building being “filled to three and one-half feet with sewage. With sewage, yep. The smell was unbelievable! It was so brand new, everything in there, all the instrumentation and lab equipment. It was just something you couldn’t believe. Then, with the different levels in there, some places were even deeper. It was something else!”
Most buildings on campus were completely devoid of people by this point, but there were a few exceptions. One was in the university’s science buildings, where a handful of people (often instructors or UND Plant Services personnel) volunteered to baby-sit electrical generators providing electricity to crucial experiments, research projects, and laboratory animals. The university was committed to saving as much of this irreplaceable work as possible.
Another place where people could be found was on the far western side of campus, the part not at threat of going underwater. All administrative offices had been moved to the Plant Services Building, which, upon addition of mattresses on the second floor and porta-potties outside, was also transformed into a home for many of the administrators still there. Others would find temporary lodging 7 miles to the south in the Thompson Public School.
Even though there was still a present threat of flooding, UND officials started to take a look beyond the flood by starting twice-daily meetings on April 20 that would assess plans for the future. UND, like much of Grand Forks, was already beginning to look down the arduous path of flood recovery.
Check back tomorrow for the next installment in this series.
Videos related to this entry: KSTP-TV tags along with U.S. Air Force Personnel as they go through the flooded streets of Grand Forks looking for people who haven't heeded the orders to evacuate http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q70QCMSla34
WCCO-TV tags along with the U.S. Coast Guard as its personnel rescue a man from flooded Grand Forks
With the foresight that this flood was going to have an enormous impact on the Red River Valley, I pushed the record button on my VCR on the evening of April 20, 1997 to capture the 10 o'clock KARE 11 news. Here's the first 8 or so minutes of my recording.
Sources used in writing this entry: Beyond the Flood. Videocassette. Minnesota Broadcasters Association, 1997.
Orvik, Jan, and Dick Larson. The Return of Lake Agassiz: the University of North Dakota and the Flood of 1997. Grand Forks, ND: University of North Dakota, 1998.
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