Minnesota, the Dakotas Try to Combat Rising Rivers

National Guard soldiers helped pile sandbags Sunday as rivers fed by melting snow and rain rose quickly in Minnesota and the Dakotas.

The focus of attention Sunday was the Red River, which flows northward between North Dakota and Minnesota and caused devastating flooding four years ago in Grand Forks, N.D.

Guard soldiers helped with security, rescues and evacuations at Breckenridge, Minn., where the river was at 16 feet and expected to crest at 19 feet this week. Flood stage is 10 feet, but the city is protected by a system of dikes and pumps.

South of Breckenridge, guardsmen stacked sandbags at the tiny town of Dumont, as Lake Traverse rose toward the town.

“What I am hearing is that the effort really saved the town,” said National Guard Lt. Col. Denny Shields.

On the North Dakota side of the Red River, Fargo Mayor Bruce Furness put the city’s flood-protection plans into high gear Sunday and said work would begin immediately on an earthen dike to keep the river out of downtown.

The goal was to build the dike high enough to protect Fargo against 36 feet of water, the crest that the National Weather Service has forecast for Thursday or Friday. Flood stage is 17 feet, and the river was at just over 27 feet Sunday.

Grand Forks officials issued a new flood warning Sunday afternoon as the Red River rose past 36 feet there, up more than 4 feet since Saturday morning and on its way to a forecasted crest of 43 to 45 feet.

However, the city had already been shoring up its dike system, which is designed to protect to a river level of 50 feet, said city spokeswoman Christine Page Diers.

Grand Forks did not have that dike system during the devastating flood of 1997, when much of the city had to be evacuated and hundreds of homes were lost.