When the Levee Breaks: Part Two
(WDAY News Script)
Back in February, the National Weather Service warned the people of the Red River Valley of the possibility of record spring flooding. This early warning helped local officials prepare for the flood.

Marv/News Center 6:
But in Grand Forks and East Grand Forks, the river rose even higher than the predictions... Tonight... In part two of when the levee breaks... John Wheeler looks at whether or not the disaster could have been prevented.

Sounds Of... Drum Beat, Guitar

Mike Anderson/National Weather Service:
Something took place that wasn't the norm in Grand Forks. It just was not in the mode of what was happening in the other locations in the Valley.

John Wheeler/News Center 6:
The National Weather Service clearly had no idea that the red would eventually go to fifty-four feet twenty six feet over flood stage and two feet higher than the dikes that had been sandbagged to fifty-two feet. Early crest predictions had said forty-nine feet, but then came the rain and snow on april fifth and sixth. Severe flooding hit Breckenridge, Minnesota. Still, the forecast of forty-nine feet did not change. Cold weather made it difficult for the weather service to gauge the effects of overland run off. A week later, on Monday, April fourteenth, with the stage at forty-three point seven feet, the crest prediction was raised to fifty feet. By Wednesday, the river had risen dramatically to forty-eight feet, and the crest prediction was raised to fifty and a half. But the river continued to rise at two feet a day. And the Weather Service had a hard time keeping their predictions ahead of the river.

Mike Anderson/National Weather Service:
Really the five bridges... the four or five bridges in Grand Forks definitely had a major impact... of those being overtopped and the ponding in back of those bridges and the rate of rise that those constrictions had.

Sounds Of... Helicopter

John Wheeler/News Center 6:
But what if the forecast had been right? Would higher dikes have contained the water? We asked that question of Tim Bertschi of the Army Corp of Engineers.

Tim Bertschi/Army Corp Of Engineers:
I think there would've been significant problems. I don't really see... if we would've had additional time... I don't see the results being changed. I really don't. When you're putting raw clay up on top of that thing and you have velocities of eleven feet per second in the river, which is phenomenal for that river, I just don't have a whole lot of confidence that the protection would have held even if it had been high enough in those areas.

Sounds Of... Helicopter

John Wheeler/News Center 6:
And because of the incredibly flat terrain in the Grand Forks area, it would have been difficult to have found ground high enough to have built a second line of defense.

Tim Bertschi/Army Corp Of Engineers:
In order to fully protect Grand Forks, you almost would've had to fall back to Washington Avenue, which we did after the flooding and built a levee to dry out the western part of town.

John Wheeler/News Center 6:
As far as the alledged controversy between the weather service and the Corp of Engineers, Bertschi says this is not as important as it seems. Bertschi says the corp didn't really know the water would go as high as it did until the last two days before the disaster, not in time to build the levees higher. And the force of the water was breeching levees at fifty-one and a half feet anyway. It is likely that this disaster was simply bound to happen. John Wheeler, WDAY NewsCenter Six. Tomorrow... In part three of When the Levee Breaks... John Wheeler looks at how Fargo Moorhead avoided a disaster like the one in Grand Forks.