Flood Victims Allowed Home Temporarily

Officials gave permission Sunday for residents to return to their homes temporarily in nearly three-quarters of flood-ravaged Grand Forks and said a key bridge may soon be reopened.

Signs of progress, however, did not diminish the enormous cleanup task ahead. There still was no power or drinking water in Grand Forks or neighboring East Grand Forks, Minn., and visits to flooded homes were restricted to daylight hours.

Grand Forks officials said the Red River of the North had receded far enough so that 70% of the city was open to those who wanted to check out their property and begin cleaning up--but not to return permanently. The Red Cross was assembling 30,000 cleanup kits to assist.

In East Grand Forks, where all 9,000 residents have been out of their homes for more than a week, city officials said many homes will have to be rebuilt. They said they hoped to set up a trailer park or other form of temporary housing to accommodate displaced people.

Sunday was also the first time some East Grand Forks residents were allowed back in the city for brief inspection tours.

Grand Forks engineers inspected the Kennedy Bridge, one of three spans crossing the Red between North Dakota and Minnesota, and said no structural damage had occurred.