Insane

We managed to hold off the water on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. It was pretty scary though. We laid another row of sandbags at approximately 11:00 pm (in the dark, in the rain/snow). The water was rising rapidly at about ¾ of an inch every ½ hr. Insane! At that point, we had done everything that we could do. After several phone calls to my brother in Germany, we made the conscious decision to leave the house and climb to higher, safer ground. During daylight hours it was scary, but by darkness it was downright frightening. We couldn' see what was coming at us.

We waded out of there in 2 ft of icy water and a snow storm – saying prayers that when we returned the next morning, the main floor would be dry. Sleep didn’t come easily to any of us. We bunked down in the office of the local elevator – which was the communities flood control center.

Marna and I made the decision to go back to the house early the next morning to check on how it fared the night. We again waded through 2ft to water/ice and we were much relieved to find the main floor dry. The water had not risen much more during the night, slowed by the freezing temperature. Praise God!

To my dismay however was the fact that there was water seepage through the sandbags in the garage. The water was 5 inches from getting inside the mechanical room and up to the last step up in to the main floor of the house. We didn’t have any more sandbags with which to work with and even if we did, the sand we had was frozen and surrounded by 2 ft of water. We had to leave and head back to the elevator to call in reinforcements. Bless the friends and neighbors.

One young man, Lucas, had his basement full of water which was within an inch of flooding the main floor. Yet he was there helping us out and spearheading the flood fight in the community. When the water went over the road and flooded his house he said, “my place may be gone, but maybe it will help save three other homes.” I choked up on that one. Another neighbor lent us a brand new sump-pump that he had on order (and had just arrived in town) to pump out the water from the newly sandbagged area by the mechanical room. That’s the northern mentality for you – neighbors helping neighbors. No questions asked other than, “what do you need” or “what can I do to help you.”

There wasn't much else to do other than pray - which we all did.

As of today, the cold weather has slowed down the flow of water. The water is receding from around my brother's home - which we are all thankful for. However, with the cold weather comes another thaw. And with that thaw, comes more overland flooding and the potential for ice jams on the rivers and streams. The corps is starting water releases from the two dams surrounding our city - which of course means that the river levels will be rising downstream. Great, just great! We dodged a bullet on Tuesday and Wednesday, but it isn't over by a long stretch.

Fargo just received word that the dike system they built to handle a 41ft crest will probably not protect them - as they updated the crest levels to 43ft. Evacuations are being ordered for areas of Fargo as the dikes will almost certainly fail.

I've never heard of this being done, but the President has declared the whole state a disaster area. Un-flipping-believable. Insane!

This winter/spring will go down as one of the worst in history - certainly rivaling that of 66/67, 69, 79, and 97.

Say our prayers people - and strap yourselves in, it's going to be a bumpy ride.