Still Going

Another crazy couple of days in and around the Fargo Moorhead area. Our story is simple in comparison to people who have chosen to evacuate or forced to leave their homes.
Thursday night it was decided to have Kriston, Ben and Piper the dog pack up and head to the safety of Maplelag. The Richard's family is top notch and opened up one of their facilities for the Wenzels and two Fisher families. The situation changed rapidly Thursday with new crest predictions, road closures and general chaos in and around the city which helped with our decision. I know that Kriston is bummed, but we both know it is the right decision and I feel much better knowing they are safe and sound. Matt is a big strong kid that will last forever on a sandbag line so he stayed with me.

Thursday afternoon down in the Oak Creek addition behind Keith McGovern's home. We were here on Monday with what we thought was a strong dike. When the crest predictions went higher we had to come back and add more bags. The gazebo in the back is on the wrong side of the dike. I was kind of joking in the line that I hope it floats up to North Fargo because the siding and trim match our house and would look great in my back yard.

Early Friday morning up and around Peterson Parkway in North Fargo. This area north of 32nd Avenue has never had to sand bag. The Mike Astrup family amongst others we know live up here so that is where we concentrated our efforts.The dikes were reinforced to 43 feet. The pink spot underneath the plastic is the surveying mark noting correct height. High tech GPS and surveying equipment has been used throughout to assure things are as they should be.

With the dikes completed, we moved to filling extra bags. Four pallets of bags were stored in the garages of each house to keep from freezing. There was an official sign up sheet for 24 hour neighborhood dike watch. Two people walking the dry side of the dikes non stop. In the event that there is a breach, the drill is for one person to notify the home owner and the other to grab a vehicle and drive up and down the street honking the horn. The city also has a "code red" system that can alert specific areas by automated cell phone calls for all hands on deck. Rather impressive.

There are now almost 2000 National Guard members in the area helping out. Helicopters are used to not only evacuate but to monitor dikes. Kind of scary to hear non stop helicopter rotors.
I sent a good friend of mine, Matt Engen a text on Tuesday checking on his status down in the Briarwood addition of south Fargo. I did not hear back from him until yesterday (Friday). Bad deal, Matt and Julie fought hard, but were evacuated at 5pm Thursday evening. Matt sent the photo above looking back to his home from the air boat. There was not enough room in the boat for everyone so one of the rescue guys stayed back waiting for the return ride.

Everyone has been working their butts off for almost a week. We have numerous friends all along the river that have needed help but you can not be in more then one place at a time. I have not heard from a lot of people and am not sure of their status. I am looking forward to things slowing down so that all can be accounted for.

A couple of cool ones when things slowed down Friday evening. Skip Fisher's home by Oak Grove is still safe as I write this. Craig Lemieux (on the left) and I have kept in close contact throughout the week. Craig always seems to know where the hot spots are and who needs help first.