Citizens of Fargo, N.D., and neighboring Moorhead, Minn., appear to have dodged another bullet, but only after an heroic, all-hands effort in late March in advance of floodwaters that ultimately surpassed a 1997 record flood. With little more than a week’s notice, an army of federal, state and local resources, along with sandbag-packing volunteers, built a maze of temporary dikes atop existing levees to withstand the onslaught of the rising Red River.
At ENR press time, floodwaters in Fargo were slowly receding from a record crest of 40.82 ft on March 28, and it appears that the area has escaped major flooding. Officials were optimistic that the worst was over and that—barring a significant levee failure as the Red River recedes over the next few weeks—Fargo would be spared the economic devastation experienced by Iowa cities last summer and by Grand Forks, N.D., in 1997.