Forks refugees swelling Fargo
By Deneen Gilmour
The Forum
As many as 10,000 to 12,000 flooded-out Grand Forks residents are living in Fargo, Cass County Social Services Director Kathy Hogan told Cass County commissioners Monday.

Most of them are coping with temporary or permanent losses – homes, jobs, cars and belongings. Rebuilding flooded homes will take at least six to 12 months, Hogan estimates. In the meantime, many Grand Forks residents will continue to live in Fargo. Hogan said some will move into area college dormitories soon.

Other signs of immense hardship caused by the Red River’s record-breaking flood that displaced 50,000 people in Grand Forks:

• So far 6,000 people – mostly from Grand Forks – have filed disaster unemployment claims at Fargo’s Job Service office. Statewide, spring flooding has caused 10,000 people to seek disaster unemployment benefits.
• By last Thursday Cass County had enrolled 450 new households in the emergency food stamp program, Hogan said. Another 100 displaced households ask for the food-buying help each day.

"The human impact of this is immense," Hogan said. "Something we hopefully won’t see again in our lifetimes. We’ve got people who lost their homes in the last week and they don’t even know what they need yet."

Yet, Cass County Social Services and 60 other public, private and church groups have formed a coalition to anticipate and meet those needs. Work groups have been formed to focus on medical care, mental health, cleanup, housing and donations.

As Cass County marshals its resources to help Grand Forks evacuees, it also copes with the Red’s aftermath within its own borders.

County Engineer Keith Berndt told commissioners 200 county roads and 1,000 township roads were damaged by flooding. He said crews are patching roads to make them passable. Later, when soil dries out, crews will permanently repair the roads.

Berndt said widespread flooding in rural subdivisions should prompt commissioners to consider if Cass County will move toward "providing urban-type public works services to rural subdivisions."

"Never has it been more apparent that there’s a considerable gap between expectations of rural subdivision residents and the ability of the county or township to deliver," Berndt said.

Berndt is arranging for loaders to pick up sandbags in rural subdivisions late this week or early next week. Residents should haul sandbags to curbs or common areas. Pickup will start south of Fargo and move north.