Water water everywhere!

[Hammer]

The second time in 15 years that Eastern North Dakota has a 100 year flood.
Many people that have no flood insurance (because they live 20 miles away from any river) are being flooded. I29 between Fargo and Grand Forks is under water and again north of Grand Forks under water. The interstate system was built with floods in mind to be unfloodable. But this water is epic in scope. Yesterday when the interstate was still open one could drive down the highway and look out left and right and see nothing but a lake for as far as the eye can see. It appeared that one was driving on water as many spots had a few inches of water covering the road. As of now we have a few feet of water covering the highwway. You can drive a speedboat down the highway right now.

Devils Lake to our west some 90 miles has set an all time record level. Another main highway that crosses what used to be the end of the lake now more in the middle has been raised 6 times over the last 10 years. The highway is now 18 feet higher than when it was first built. It also has 3 bridges one over the other staked 3 high in one crossing. The previous 2 are now under water.

The land here is so flat that a 1 foot rise in the river can cover 5+ miles of land as that water spreads out. This year is odd in that we have a fast melt of snow and a lot of it is not running in river beds but is flowing across farm lands and across roads as it heads toward a river bed. People are getting surges of water coming at them from overland directions rather than from rivers which cuts off escape routes as roads go under.

Many small towns are building ring dikes around them to protect them which makes them isolated as they get surrounded by water. They will be cut off for about 1-2 weeks until the water goes down enough to get out of town. My house will be ok I think but the road to my house may go under water soon. For about 1 week I think.

Most people are not working this week in eastern North Dakota. We are all flood fighting to protect one anothers homes. And many of us are cut off from getting to work anyway.

[HilbillyHomeboy]

That's crazy. Sounds more along the lines of a 500 year flood. Twice in 15 years, seems as if FEMA needs to re-evaluate the flood plain(s).

Take care and stay safe.

Jeremy

[Ninja Performance]

Very Sad.

-Chris

[CoreyB]

Wow thats crazy. Be safe and I hope your house stays dry.

[UTRacerX9]

Wow, be careful! Send some of that water down to TX, we are fighting wildfires in many parts of the state.

I remember about a decade or more ago now when Iowa flooded. When I went back to visit my Grandmother, you could see the water line on barns and grain silos... about a good 12-15 ft above the ground. Crazy stuff.

[Granny]

Be safe!
You never know what to expect in these kind of conditions.

[j2k4]

Hope Mother Nature decides to smile on you all pretty quick.

[AgentOblivious]

My old high school architecture teacher had a good hypothesis...this is what happens when you funnel all the water straight into the river through storm sewers instead of having the ground hold it.

[Hammer]

My old high school architecture teacher had a good hypothesis...this is what happens when you funnel all the water straight into the river through storm sewers instead of having the ground hold it.

I wish it was that simple. How to explain this in terms easy to understand. Think of a bar table with a raised drip edge to contain spills on the table. Now use a router to cut a 1/4 deep groove around the edges of the table. That is your main river system. Now use a wood chissel and make some wandering shallow cuts across the table surface to connect up to the router groove at the table edge. This is the tributary system across the state. Now throw a few thick coasters on the table. These are the cities in North Dakota generally raised a bit above surrounding terrain. Now take a large bucket of crushed ice and dump it on the table top to a depth of 1 inch. Turn up the heat and watch it melt. What happens? Can the router groove hold that water as it melts? Does the entire table top get flooded? This is what is happening in Eastern North Dakota. We are too flat and too much water for the ground to hold and the drainage is too slow because it is so flat the speed it runs off is slow. So it just pools up like filling up a bath tub with a slow drain.

Perhaps the indians had it right with there nomadic nature. Perhaps we try to hard to make mother nature conform to our way of life. Perhaps we should bend more and conform to mother natures way of life. Just an observation it explains a lot like trying to live in hurricane zones or near a volcano or on fault lines or in flood prone areas.

[Emilie@GZP]

That's crazy. Sounds more along the lines of a 500 year flood. Twice in 15 years, seems as if FEMA needs to re-evaluate the flood plain(s).

Take care and stay safe.

Jeremy

FEMA doesn't know squat about flood plains.

We had 3 100 year floods in a span of 3 years, give or take. Yea, they're idiots.