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Valley City is calling for a voluntary evacuation of half of the city, primarily targeted at vulnerable populations but also aimed at those living in the floodplain.
For those of you who can get there to volunteer, Lisbon is also looking for sandbagging volunteers, who are being asked to report to the Ransom County Fairgrounds.
Unlike the situation here in Fargo/Moorhead, the Sheyenne will probably be running consistently high for quite a while, as the Upper Sheyenne is very full and the tributaries are full as well. I looked at the Sheyenne south of Maddock (about 100 miles further up the river) on Sunday, and I can honestly say that in 30 years of seeing the Sheyenne river in the spring, I have never seen water running into it at that rate. The ditches were running like river rapids.
Valley City is calling for a voluntary evacuation of half of the city, primarily targeted at vulnerable populations but also aimed at those living in the floodplain.......
Thanks for posting, Travis. I've not had a chance to get on the computer since things started falling apart here a few days ago.
Valley City is not a fun place to be living right now. We can use all the prayers & good thoughts we can get right now.
Over the weekend we had sewer backup in our house/basement and then there were 2 breeches and 3 smaller leaks in the dikes within 36 hours. Fortunately, all were caught early, tho one was touch & go for a bit...It didn't occur in a very populated area, all that got wet was part of the football practice field and part of the softball/baseball complex. They took the bulldozers & just started scooping up a couple of the ballfields to try to fill the hole and to build a contingency d*ke, so that whole area is a big mess. The hole wouldnt stay plugged, so a blackhawk hellicopter placed 11-one ton sand bags in the area that finally got it to stop leaking. Besides having National Guard members on nearly constant d*ke patrol, the dikes are also checked from a hellicopter a couple times a day, and there are nearly 450 National Guard members (along with enough equipment to fill more than 2 city blocks)in town, and about 50 dump trucks from local contractors hauling clay, and 10 flatbed semi-trucks to haul pallets of sandbags.....quite a boost to our normal 6800 population, but it sounds and feels like we're under seige, and not just from the river. Oh, and pumps running on every street corner near the river pumping the storm sewer into the river and other pumps on the same intersections giving a boost to the sanitary sewer. There are 5-2 & 3" pumps, 1-8" pump and 3-6" pumps within a block or so of our house, so 24/7 noise.
Of the 11 bridges in town, only one is still open, so traffic is terrible, plus on Main, 2nd & 3rd Streets, there were problems with the manhole covers on the storm sewers leaking real bad and then the water getting in the sanitary sewer which could take the whole system down from overload. Sometime ever night the Nat'l Guard and city built little ring dikes around every manhole cover in a 3-4 block area on those 3 streets, so it looked realy strange when we went to sunrise Easter services. Later on Sun, all the little sandbag ring dikes were filled in & packed down with sand and another load of sand was dumped on each and packed around the sides of the sandbags. Some intersections may have 6 or 7 of these plus a few more scattered along in the block, so it's a real obstacle course! I'll try to post pics soon...
The **** isn't real good behind the grocery store, so a backup was built in the street to the south, the alley in the north, and the east side is also diked thru the middle of the parking lot with an opening wide enough to get a couple shopping carts thru. Yesterday AM I had to pick up a few things & it looked so crazy....the delivery truck (tractor/trailer) was parked about 1/2 block away & here came the delivery man pushing a cart piled high with packages of fruits & vegies.
Anyway, I'd better go get some sleep...another long day tomorrow.
Oh, and the voluntary evacuation would be about 1/2 the town, maybe a bit more, a few over 1400 houses.....
Last edited by 3-Oaks; 04-14-2009 at 10:48 PM..
Reason: typo
Thanks for posting, Travis. I've not had a chance to get on the computer since things started falling apart here a few days ago.
Valley City is not a fun place to be living right now. We can use all the prayers & good thoughts we can get right now.
Over the weekend we had sewer backup in our house/basement and then there were 2 breeches and 3 smaller leaks in the dikes within 36 hours. Fortunately, all were caught early, tho one was touch & go for a bit...It didn't occur in a very populated area, all that got wet was part of the football practice field and part of the softball/baseball complex. They took the bulldozers & just started scooping up a couple of the ballfields to try to fill the hole and to build a contingency d*ke, so that whole area is a big mess. The hole wouldnt stay plugged, so a blackhawk hellicopter placed 11-one ton sand bags in the area that finally got it to stop leaking. Besides having National Guard members on nearly constant d*ke patrol, the dikes are also checked from a hellicopter a couple times a day, and there are nearly 450 National Guard members (along with enough equipment to fill more than 2 city blocks)in town, and about 50 dump trucks from local contractors hauling clay, and 10 flatbed semi-trucks to haul pallets of sandbags.....quite a boost to our normal 6800 population, but it sounds and feels like we're under seige, and not just from the river. Oh, and pumps running on every street corner near the river pumping the storm sewer into the river and other pumps on the same intersections giving a boost to the sanitary sewer. There are 5-2 & 3" pumps, 1-8" pump and 3-6" pumps within a block or so of our house, so 24/7 noise.
Of the 11 bridges in town, only one is still open, so traffic is terrible, plus on Main, 2nd & 3rd Streets, there were problems with the manhole covers on the storm sewers leaking real bad and then the water getting in the sanitary sewer which could take the whole system down from overload. Sometime ever night the Nat'l Guard and city built little ring dikes around every manhole cover in a 3-4 block area on those 3 streets, so it looked realy strange when we went to sunrise Easter services. Later on Sun, all the little sandbag ring dikes were filled in & packed down with sand and another load of sand was dumped on each and packed around the sides of the sandbags. Some intersections may have 6 or 7 of these plus a few more scattered along in the block, so it's a real obstacle course! I'll try to post pics soon...
The **** isn't real good behind the grocery store, so a backup was built in the street to the south, the alley in the north, and the east side is also diked thru the middle of the parking lot with an opening wide enough to get a couple shopping carts thru. Yesterday AM I had to pick up a few things & it looked so crazy....the delivery truck (tractor/trailer) was parked about 1/2 block away & here came the delivery man pushing a cart piled high with packages of fruits & vegies.
Anyway, I'd better go get some sleep...another long day tomorrow.
Oh, and the voluntary evacuation would be about 1/2 the town, maybe a bit more, a few over 1400 houses.....
Prayers coming your way 3Oaks. I sure hope the water goes down quickly and doesn't overwhelm your town.
Here's another place for donations. They match dollar for dollar (great deal!!!) and you can specify where you want the dollars to go, which is also cool.
Her dad is head of the street/water dept. He was supposed to be taking pics of everything for FEMA, but didn’t have time, so he brought Stacie along a few days. She’s also gotten pics from a flyover, and a couple other people. She adds more as she gets them, so there are additions every few days.
Kara
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