Flood Watch

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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

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.
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crossposted at firedoglake's Oxdown Gazette

Flood Waters Be Risin'

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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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Something's Gotta Give

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Michael Kinsley issues an invitation this morning on Huffington Post, with a link to his new website conversation about Creative Capitalism. Taking the structural selfishness of capitalism and turning it to a greater good.

Bill Gates is about to do that full time. With the same zeal he put into becoming arguably the world's most important capitalist ever, he's about to step full time from businessman to philanthropist.

We worry about the cost of gas at the pump and what's happened to the 401K with yesterday's 350 point drop in the market. Oil is up over $140 a barrel. We're killing people in Iraq for Bush and his cronies' oil profits. Sorry sorry times indeed.

We wring our hands. What can we do. Our leaders blow us off as advocates while they "lead."

We can vote. In November. But for now, let's get to work. Or for starters, get to know the problems, so we can be part of the solution.

Yesterday, while making my carefully charted out route of errands [no backtracking!], mindful of my carbon footprint, I heard a report on Minnesota Public Radio about the state of nonprofits in rural counties and communities.

It's not good.

The high price of oil, the rising prices of everything that oil goes into—transporting food, anyone?—are not only reducing grants and personal contributions to charities and nonprofits, they're cutting down volunteer hours. Volunteers can't afford to drive the long distances in rural areas. They're going back to work, or working longer hours, just to pay their own price at the pump.

Looks like a rainy weekend coming up in Prairie Country, I'll be learning more about this Creative Capitalism business, because it seems to me there's a whole new mindset in this that could affect not only philanthropy, but also the way we all live on this planet together.

Because plainly, something's gotta give...
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