Heavy snow and difficult travel expected again, heaviest snow in southern Minnesota

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Volunteers are busy filling sandbags in a cavernous warehouse at the Cass County Highway Department in North Dakota this week.  

The goal is to fill and stockpile 200,000 bags by Friday. 

Cass County Administrator Robert Wilson hopes they won’t need all of those bags, but he said they provide a margin of safety for an uncertain flood forecast. 

“It's much easier to overprepare and not need everything that you have prepared than to be in the opposite position,” said Wilson.

Many of the filled sandbags will likely find their way to rural homes in Cass County. 

Several thousand people in rural areas of the county will likely wage individual flood fights as rivers rise and overland flooding spills onto roads due to the rapid melting of deep snow.

“The required response is much less now than it was say 10 years ago because of buying out flood properties, and accounting for many of those areas that were most susceptible to flooding 15 to 20 years ago,” said Wilson. 

It's a similar story in Moorhead where hundreds of flood-prone homes along the Red River were purchased and replaced by permanent levees. 

Moorhead city engineer Bob Zimmerman anticipates a possible top ten or even a top five flood this year, but he said the city will need no sandbags for public infrastructure and only a few hundred feet of temporary levees. Since the record flood of 2009, Moorhead has made significant improvements to its flood infrastructure. 

“It's not anywhere near what it used to be,” said Zimmerman of the city’s emergency flood measures.  “In cooperation with the state funding, the city has completed about $113 million worth of improvements — about 13 miles of levees, 276 properties acquired. So, we have a lot of permanent improvements in place.”

Across the Red River in Fargo, N.D., about $350 million has been spent on flood mitigation projects since 2009, said city engineer Nathan Boerboom.

“To date we're at about 27-and-a-half miles of levees and flood walls built. If we had a flood fight similar to 2009 this year, that would reduce our sandbag count by about five-and-a-half million,” Boerboom said.

This year the Red River is expected to reach a level about three feet lower than the record flood, and Fargo expects to need fewer than 100,000 sandbags. 

Fargo needed about six million sandbags in 2009 and Moorhead used more than 2.5 million. 

Fargo-Moorhead region prepares sandbags for potential flooding

 project is currently under construction and is expected to be operational in four years, eliminating the need for any emergency flood fights in Fargo or Moorhead.

Fargo and Moorhead have been purchasing riverside homes and improving infrastructure since the communities narrowly escaped flooding in 

. Those efforts accelerated after the 2009 flood. 

Meanwhile, both cities say they are well prepared for expected high water this year. 

But the National Weather Service says because of the late melt, there is significant uncertainty in the flood forecast.  

This year might bring the latest flood crest for a top ten flood in Fargo-Moorhead. Zimmerman, the Moorhead city engineer, worries the later the flood lingers into April, the greater the risk for significant rain. 

record Fargo Moorhead flood

Long term flood control: 

 “That's a huge concern,” said Zimmerman. “That's the one wild card at this point that we really can't predict, and significant rain could have a major impact on the magnitude of the flood crest. That's what we really have to watch out for.”

Cass County Commissioner Chad Peterson is encouraging volunteers to help fill sandbags in preparation for whatever happens over the next couple of weeks. 

But he reminded local residents that the Fargo-Moorhead area has never lost a flood fight. 

“Know that we are good at fighting floods. Know that this local government is here to support you as you see fit. It's incredibly important that you know that, that you are not worried.”

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Fargo-Moorhead News

Dan Gunderson

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The cities of Moorhead and Fargo are preparing for significant spring flooding. Officials are not sure how high the water will get — the late spring melt has delayed the flood and rain is in the forecast this week. But the communities say they are better prepared than at any time in the past. 

Fargo-Moorhead well-prepared for spring flooding

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Dan Gunderson | MPR News

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Fargo-Moorhead well-prepared for spring flooding

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