Estimated 12,000 homes damaged by flood
Forum and wire reports
As of Tuesday, the American Red Cross counted 403 Clay County homes and 171 Cass County homes damaged by floodwaters this spring.

The numbers include Fargo and Moorhead and cover minor damage, major damage – uninhabitable without major repair – and destruction, Red Cross spokeswoman Elizabeth Quirk said Wednesday.

One single-family Cass County home and three Moorhead homes were destroyed, Quirk said.

Five Cass County single-family homes, 18 Moorhead homes and one Moorhead mobile home suffered major damage, Quirk said.

Thirteen mobile homes in Cass and 16 mobile homes in Clay suffered minor damage, as did 364 single-family Moorhead homes, 107 single-family Fargo homes, one Moorhead apartment and one Fargo mobile home.

The Red Cross estimates 12,000 homes in the Red River Valley were damaged by the flood.

The agency has classified the flood a Level 5 disaster and expects to spend more than $12 million in the area, Quirk said.

Ten percent of the homes in Grand Forks, N.D., and in neighboring East Grand Forks, Minn., are considered destroyed by flooding, and some of the hardest-hit areas have yet to be surveyed.

"It is safe to say that between 15 and 20 percent of the homes will have major damage or be destroyed," said David Zerbe, damage assessment officer for the Red Cross’ flood project in the Red River Valley.

Zerbe said at least 11,000 – or 40 percent – of the homes and apartments in the two cities suffered some water damage.