When the Levee Breaks: Part three
(WDAY News Script)
Four weeks ago...While the Red River was rushing over the dikes into Grand Forks and East Grand Forks... The flood fight was nearing a crisis In Fargo Moorhead as well...

Marv/News Center 6:
Tonight... In the final part of "When the Levee Breaks" John Wheeler looks at how Fargo-Moorhead narrowly avoided disaster...

John Wheeler/News Center 6:
Despite losing a few battles on the front lines, and nearly losing a surprize flank attack from the southwest, Fargo Moorhead won this spring's war against the Red River. But it wasn't easy. Fargo operations manager Dennis Walaker says even though the National Weather Service's predictions weren't perfect, they were an integral part of the flood fighting process.

Dennis Walaker/Fargo Operations Manager:
Well, first of all, as I view the Weather Service, whatever they do, it's a science, but it is not an exact science. And they need a tremendous amount of information. So we rely hourly on their information, but it's also part of the whole package to try and make sure that we feel comfortable. And if we see something that we don't understand, then we try to get that information to the National Weather Service.

Sounds Of... Airplane Engine

John Wheeler/News Center 6:
But many people still aren't aware of how close Fargo Moorhead actually came to disaster. If the weather hadn't been so cold the week after the april rain storm and blizzard, the overland flood would have flowed more quickly. With the red crest and the overland flood arriving at the same time, the red might easily have risen another foot or two. We asked Walaker how the city of Fargo would have fared.

Dennis Walaker/Fargo Operations Manager:
Eighty per cent of the city under water, of the city limits of the city of Fargo. We look at the picyures from eighteen ninety-seven, water on eighth street by the courthouse. Our infrastructure would've been basically in the same situation as Grand Forks. Our water plant, our sewage plant, all of these would've been going into recovery now... Forty-one feet... or forty-one and a half... I don't think there'd be any way we would've been successful.

John Wheeler/News Center 6:
And there were other scares. At one point, the dike in Woodlawn Park had grown soft. Another foot or two, and much of south Moorhead would have flooded.

John Wheeler/News Center 6:
The water would have been three to five feet deep where 8th street passes the Prairie Home cemetery. Even Fargo's mighty dike east had its troubles.

Dennis Walaker/Fargo Operations Manager:
For instance, our Dike that was constructed by the Corp. of Engineers down by Heartland Hospital, the Corp. dike, I mean I've never had anything but the utmost faith in that dike. I've never been concerned about that at all. Well, I got a call... I was up at Garbage Utilities sleeping... I heard this call from the Fire Department that it was about to overtop that dike. So we had four fireman trying to sandbag the top corner of that dike. And if water overtops, or if we'd had failure in that dike, that covers everything all the way to the courthouse.

Sounds Of... Fire Dept. Calling Volunteers

John Wheeler/News Center 6:
But this time, we were lucky. Next time, well, who knows. Red river flooding comes in spurts... Early history of the valley tells of flooding in eighteen twenty-four, eighteen twenty-five, and eighteen twenty-six. And again in eighteen fifty-two. There were major floods in eighteen seventy-three, eighteen eighty-two, and eighteen ninty-seven. Then the red went quiet for half a century. Floods in nineteen forty-three and nineteen fifty-two convinced the people, and the levees were built. Spring floods in nineteen sixt-six, sixty-nine, seventy-eight, seventy-nine, and eighty-nine; and summer floods in seventy-five and ninety-three; were largely held at bay. And most Fargo Moorhead residents have grown complacent. But winter snowfall has been consistently high lately. Our long-term average is forty inches a year, but the average for the last twenty years is fifty-one, and over the last five years, we've averaged seventy-seven inches a year. Until the weather changes. We'd better be more prepared than ever for a flood even worse than this year's. Early North Dakota explorer and trapper pierre bottineau often claimed that the settlers of the red river valley would one day see the Red River reach the level of the prairies on either side. Well, in the great flood of nineteen ninety-seven, it was nearly that. John Wheeler WDAY NewsCenter Six.