.
We told ourselves it was just another weekend at the cabin as we drove out of Fargo Friday morning. A disability family, we knew the wise course was to be safely out of the danger zone of the flood of the millenium. Mayor Walaker has enough on his plate, and we are doing our part along with other evacuees so we do not become a distraction on resources.
Heartsore and muscle weary, we left the work of sandbagging and walking dike patrol and all the rest of the urgency of fighting against the river to others to sustain.
We're like the rest of the country now, watching from afar.
But in that, there is much to learn, because truly this is a teaching moment. For those of us of Fargo-Moorhead, where our city leaders and the allies they have in this battle--from FEMA to the National Guard to volunteers from all over the region--the learning curve is swift and essential.
When a permanent floodwall started leaking at the base threatening a school, news reports tell us the response was swift although the river overwhelmed for a time. Now military helicopters drop one-ton sandbags to divert the river's wearing course. A Predator drone patrols the miles-long course of sandbags looking for signs of breach or leakage.
Infrastructure that should have been built along the Fargo river corridor languished since the flooding of 1997. The urgency wasn't there for Fargo as it was for Wahpeton and Grand Forks. It should have been. Hmmmm, what could possibly have diverted all those resources from things like infrastructure since 1997....
Local officials are already at work planning for the recovery and cleanup. Even while watching the weather forecasts and the over three million sandbags that may need to withstand the crashing waves and whitecaps a winter storm could bring. And directing the teams into hot spots to strengthen the dikes.
Multi-tasking. Stepping up to the work that needs doing. Brushing aside the naysayers who prod for evacuating the whole city. Surrendering. Fargo's mayor, and Fargo, will have none of that. Lesson to be learned, America.
When the imminent danger is passed, we'll be going home. We've seen floods before and filled and hefted our share of sandbags. And because we've been richly blessed in ways no financial statement could measure by a lifetime of living in Fargo, we will give back in ways we can contribute. We'll be community activists again.
We'll help rebuild. Students and volunteers and dedicated city staff and leaders have fought to keep the river at bay. Now we'll take the city as we find it and make it better.
One city, one country...we will rebuild.
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crossposted at firedoglake's Oxdown Gazette
Showing posts with label flood. Show all posts
Showing posts with label flood. Show all posts
Monday, March 30, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
Flood-in-Progress
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Evacuations are beginning in Fargo and Moorhead. It's neighborhoods, now, and nursing homes, and even the city's larger hospital complex. People have a city to save, so those at-risk are moving --and being moved--now.
The river is rising, uncharted territory now. Over 40 feet and possibly going as high as 43 feet.
The students of the communities are being sorely tested and responding heroically. Residents on the river's edge and neighbors, too. And new friends from hundreds of miles away....
Heroic, too, are the city leaders, Mayor Denny Walaker, Deputy Mayor and self-described parttime surgeon Tim Mahoney and their city staff. They are our leaders, they are our neighbors, they are our friends. They are making decisions that may cost them their own home.
The reporters on local media [kfgo.com, wday.com] report with dispatch CodeRed alerts of their own neighborhoods.
This is a war zone. The war on water.
The scoundrels are few [don't get me started on the ND Chamber of Commerce smear'n'fear ad campaign against Employee Free Choice wallboarded amid the announcements and news flying thick and fast on the radio this morning].
Four blocks away, a mandatory evacuation near our own neighborhood.
This is our home. This is our heritage.
And we are determined this is our legacy.
The city will win this war.
.
crossposted at firedoglake's Oxdown Gazette
Evacuations are beginning in Fargo and Moorhead. It's neighborhoods, now, and nursing homes, and even the city's larger hospital complex. People have a city to save, so those at-risk are moving --and being moved--now.
The river is rising, uncharted territory now. Over 40 feet and possibly going as high as 43 feet.
The students of the communities are being sorely tested and responding heroically. Residents on the river's edge and neighbors, too. And new friends from hundreds of miles away....
Heroic, too, are the city leaders, Mayor Denny Walaker, Deputy Mayor and self-described parttime surgeon Tim Mahoney and their city staff. They are our leaders, they are our neighbors, they are our friends. They are making decisions that may cost them their own home.
The reporters on local media [kfgo.com, wday.com] report with dispatch CodeRed alerts of their own neighborhoods.
This is a war zone. The war on water.
The scoundrels are few [don't get me started on the ND Chamber of Commerce smear'n'fear ad campaign against Employee Free Choice wallboarded amid the announcements and news flying thick and fast on the radio this morning].
Four blocks away, a mandatory evacuation near our own neighborhood.
This is our home. This is our heritage.
And we are determined this is our legacy.
The city will win this war.
.
crossposted at firedoglake's Oxdown Gazette
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Mother Nature's Shovel Ready Stimulus
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Nothing like an impending natural disaster to focus the mind and energies.
Right now in Fargo, we're preparing to face by this weekend what may be the worst flooding on record. Or second worst, to 1997. Whichever, we'll be ready, we'll have exerted maximum effort to guard against it.
High schools and universities have called off classes, volunteers are rallying in the thousands to Fargo Moorhead and our satellite communities. A neurosurgeon works side by side with a county jail prisoner. National Guardsmen—who've already given so much in Iraq—and volunteers from the Grand Forks Air Force Base, and ordinary citizens, neighbors, farmers driving into North Dakota's biggest city. We have 8th graders joining in today for sandbag building, plus giant "spiders" capable of filling sandbags in the hundreds of thousands.
The forecast for the crest is daunting—39 to 41 feet.
The exactitude is still to come...depending on what Mother Nature contributes overnight. It's blizzarding to the west of us. And that's heading our way. Ice jams are backing up the mighty Missouri river, which flows to the south.
But the basin of the Red River [the ancient Lake Agassiz lakebed] is rising fast and furious and the subsoil is still frozen, so there's no mitigation by absorption.
Coordinating the volunteers and city workers are seasoned teams of flood fighters--city engineering staff, cops, city planners, the mayors and commissioners. They are fighting for their homes, too. And the homes and businesses of neighbors. This is what we pay them to do.
This is we, the people.
Government and citizens, teaming up to take on a common challenge. In this case it's a flooding river basin.
It could be securing a border. Or funding schools. Or finding a solution that serves the common good instead of special interests in health care.
But it starts with a government that acts—and plans—for the common good. And a citizenry with a spirit of volunteerism and community service to make it work.
.
crossposted at firedoglake's Oxdown Gazette
Nothing like an impending natural disaster to focus the mind and energies.
Right now in Fargo, we're preparing to face by this weekend what may be the worst flooding on record. Or second worst, to 1997. Whichever, we'll be ready, we'll have exerted maximum effort to guard against it.
High schools and universities have called off classes, volunteers are rallying in the thousands to Fargo Moorhead and our satellite communities. A neurosurgeon works side by side with a county jail prisoner. National Guardsmen—who've already given so much in Iraq—and volunteers from the Grand Forks Air Force Base, and ordinary citizens, neighbors, farmers driving into North Dakota's biggest city. We have 8th graders joining in today for sandbag building, plus giant "spiders" capable of filling sandbags in the hundreds of thousands.
The forecast for the crest is daunting—39 to 41 feet.
The exactitude is still to come...depending on what Mother Nature contributes overnight. It's blizzarding to the west of us. And that's heading our way. Ice jams are backing up the mighty Missouri river, which flows to the south.
But the basin of the Red River [the ancient Lake Agassiz lakebed] is rising fast and furious and the subsoil is still frozen, so there's no mitigation by absorption.
Coordinating the volunteers and city workers are seasoned teams of flood fighters--city engineering staff, cops, city planners, the mayors and commissioners. They are fighting for their homes, too. And the homes and businesses of neighbors. This is what we pay them to do.
This is we, the people.
Government and citizens, teaming up to take on a common challenge. In this case it's a flooding river basin.
It could be securing a border. Or funding schools. Or finding a solution that serves the common good instead of special interests in health care.
But it starts with a government that acts—and plans—for the common good. And a citizenry with a spirit of volunteerism and community service to make it work.
.
crossposted at firedoglake's Oxdown Gazette
Friday, March 20, 2009
Flood Waters Be Risin'
.
There'll be lots of shovel work in Fargo this weekend...folks filling sandbags, preparing to defend the city against the predicted flood. 1.5 million sandbags, to start.
We've hefted more than a few over the years, growing up in this community. There's work to be done.... and this is how it goes hereabouts: Everybody, from bankers to students to Teamsters to ladies clubs. Everybody pitches in.
No dallying, no whining for a bonus, no what's in it for me...well, there was that cluster the last time that sat on their decks watching volunteers save their asses. But rumor is they didn't have what it took, riff raff, they're long gone. Along with a scurvy BCBS exec and his severance more lately. And good riddance. But that's another story.
Keep a good thought for Fargo and the small towns and cities up and down the basin of the Red River of the North. Floodwaters heading our way in coming days. We've been here before. We've kept 'em at bay. We will again.
And go, Bison!
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