Grand Forks (ND) Herald, by Grand Forks (ND) Herald

By Randy Bradbury

Herald Staff Writer

Water continued to drive residents of Grand Forks and East Grand Forks from their homes Saturday. Too much water, and too little.

In Grand Forks, those who weren’t flooded out by the spreading waters of the Red River of the North were put on notice that the city soon would be unable to provide that most essential of services: safe drinking water.

Late Saturday afternoon, the crisis ratcheted up yet another notch when fires began to consume several buildings in the heart of downtown.

The entire city of East Grand Forks was put on notice for mandatory evacuation due to extensive flooding, flood damage and lack of city services. The Point area in the southern part of the city remained isolated, although workers were rescuing people stranded on high ground there.

Residents fled both cities by the thousands, flocking to shelters in Crookston, Thompson and Mayville, N.D., and Grand Forks Air Force Base, among other places. Many others sought shelter with friends and family in other cities.

The National Guard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other local, state and federal agencies stepped up their efforts to respond to emergencies, set up security and assess damages.

Through it all, the Red continued to rise. As of late Saturday, the river stood at just over 53 feet, and the National Weather Service predicted it would continue to rise slowly over the next two days to a crest of 54 feet.

The flood turned destructive Friday, when dikes began breaking, sending river water into the lower areas of town adjacent to the river.

By Saturday, city engineers had a good grasp on what had happened in Grand Forks.

Ken Vein, Grand Forks city engineer, said floodwater first began leaking out of the north end of Lincoln Park Golf Course. That water cascaded into low-lying areas, causing immediate destruction. But it also began creeping north along city streets, pushing up and filling in behind dikes farther north.

That water began to flow into the downtown area by about 9:30 p.m. A short while later, the Emergency Operation Center — command post for the flood fight — had to pack up and head to higher ground on the UND campus. EOC Director Jim Campbell said that, 20 minutes after they left their basement quarters in the Grand Forks Police Department, the basement filled with water.

By Saturday morning, there was 4 feet of water in parts of the downtown.

But city and state officials said Saturday that the Red was not done doing its damage.

Vein said another foot would make a difference in the amount of damage, even given that the water was over the dikes and at least half of the city already was flooded. Because the city is so flat, he said, even tenths — even hundredths — of an inch of increase in the level of the Red can translate into flooding over a large part of town. A person could travel a mile or more throughout much of Grand Forks and not change as much as a foot in elevation, he said.

While some of the initial flooding Friday was quick and final, flooding Saturday was mostly in slow motion as the Red pushed its way farther west into the city. Dry streets acquired puddles, then became difficult for cars to negotiate and finally became impassable.

Late Friday night, Grand Forks Mayor Pat Owens issued a voluntary evacuation order for all of Grand Forks. Throughout the day Saturday, more areas were added to the growing portion of the city where evacuation was mandatory.

By noon Saturday, 75 percent of the city was under mandatory evacuation, and 50 percent of the city was experiencing some flooding.

By 8 p.m., 75 percent of the city was experiencing flooding, and officials were moving toward a 100 percent mandatory evacuation order.

‘‘We’re piecemealing it,’’ said Grand Forks Police Lt. Byron Sieber, press officer for the emergency management office. ‘‘A general evacuation of the whole area causes problems at the shelters because you have so many people coming at once. We thought it would be best to do it in stages.’’

Although some areas of the city are not expected to flood, citywide evacuation is necessary, in part, because soon — perhaps today — residents will turn on their water faucets and nothing will come out.

Late Friday, floodwaters surrounded the Grand Forks water treatment plant, which stands along the banks of the Red just south of the downtown area. When the plant stopped operating, Vein said, there were about 11 million gallons of purified water in the city’s storage system.

Once that water runs out, there will be no more.

Although officials told each other all day that ‘‘This, too, shall pass,’’ it became clear Saturday that it won’t pass quickly.

The river crest is expected to hang around for another seven to 10 days. Then the river will begin to fall slowly, a process that could take days, even weeks. Only then will the city be able to fully assess the damage, determine what must be done and begin reconstruction.

Little else will be possible until the city water plant is put back on line.

Vein said workers may try to dike around the plant, pump out water and get a head start on recommissioning the plant.

But he acknowledged that it still could be two or three weeks, perhaps more.

For the displaced residents of two entire cities, it will seem like an eternity.

© 1997, Grand Forks Herald

By Liz Fedor

Herald Staff Writer

In the ultimate of ironies, water prevented firefighters from getting water to a burning downtown block Saturday night.

It was the latest assault on the soul of Grand Forks. Residents survived an April ice storm, power outage and brutal blizzard. When the dikes collapsed, people assumed it was the final indignity.

But the 4-foot floodwaters lapping at the buildings in downtown Grand Forks delivered yet another blow.

Firefighters were forced to watch buildings burn Saturday night because floodwaters prevented them from dousing the buildings.

"Flames were about 25 feet high," according to Rex Sorgatz, who was evacuated from his second-floor apartment at 111Ë North Third St.

Deputy Fire Chief Peter O'Neill said at 7:30 p.m. Saturday that the entire 100 block of North Third Street was on fire. "Everything on that block with the Security Building is in trouble," O'Neill said.

St. Paul Pioneer Press reporter Tim Nelson said at 8 p.m. he could see fires burning in three downtown locations. "There's a thick black smoke," said Nelson, who was walking through the downtown area. Sparks from the Security Building appeared to cause fires on adjoining blocks, he said.

At about 4:15 p.m., a fire was reported in the pink brick building at 100 North Third St., which houses Boxing Inc., the state chapter of the American Diabetes Association and other businesses.

"We originally got close enough to start a fire attack," Fire Chief Dick Aulich said, but more than 4 feet of water in the street stymied the fight. A diesel engine pumper was sucking street water into the engine, Aulich said. So the Fire Department called the U.S. Forest Service from Brainerd, Minn., for help.

At about 7:15 p.m., a plane dropped a bright-red chemical retardant on the fire. The plane arrived at about 6:50 p.m., but the pilot couldn't make the initial chemical drop until firefighters evacuated downtown residents who'd ignored the mayor's order to leave the area because of high floodwaters.

A shivering O'Neill returned to the Fire Department after standing in the chilly water for three hours. "Our interest was in trying to get the people out of the other buildings," O'Neill said, so firefighters couldn't focus their efforts on containing the fire that spread to the old downtown buildings.

Conflicting reports emerged from the scene about precisely which buildings were burning. The Security Building was destroyed by 7 p.m., O'Neill said. He reported a fire all along the block, which included the Grand Forks Herald building. Other buildings that were in trouble were the former Griggs Landing bar, an adjacent apartment building and Handy Mail, which is owned by the Herald.

"I was hesitant to leave at first," said Sorgatz, a 24-year-old UND student. He bought water and food and planned to remain in his apartment throughout the flood. "I was in the evacuation area for over 24 hours," Sorgatz said.

But he was given five minutes to pack a bag and vacate his apartment building. "The firemen pounded on the door and were telling me to leave," Sorgatz said. Once he got outside, he saw the flames lapping through the Security Building. "There was a boat that picked me up and took me to a Humvee a block away." The National Guard drove Sorgatz to UND, where he planned to spend the night.

While Sorgatz was safely at UND, Nelson reported he saw repeated chemical drops in the downtown area between 7:15 and 8 p.m.

"It was a long battle," O'Neill said, adding that he's never fought a fire under such difficult conditions. The surplus of water on the ground blocked the firefighters from getting water to the burning buildings. They had trouble moving their fire trucks through the standing river water and they were forced to siphon water off the streets to fill their hoses. Pressure in the fire hydrants is so low that firefighters couldn't use city water to battle the blaze.

© 1997, Grand Forks Herald

By Mike Jacobs and Mike Maidenberg

Herald staff

Our hometown will never be the same. How could it ever be? The catastrophe that has struck Grand Forks calls everything into question. All of our plans and projects will be re-evaluated in light of the enormous events of April 1997 -- ice and water and fire.

Our relationship with the river has changed. Of course, our river has flooded before, several times catastrophically. But it has never delivered such a stunning blow. In the last week, the Red River has been an inexorable force, and its current tore at our levees and our lives. In neighborhood after neighborhood, the water found its level, and in most, it was well above the level of our daily lives, in our homes and in our consciousness.

Grand Forks has sustained deep wounds, and there will be scars. On Saturday evening, as we write, the river continues its historic rise and fire is tearing at the heart of downtown. Thousands of buildings are immersed. Several of the town's most historic structures are alight. There is no apparent power that can save them. These buildings were part of our past.

The Herald's buildings may have been among them. We can't know. Water keeps us from our usual workplace. We are producing this edition at a UND computer lab. The loss of these structures -- unwitnessed by most of us -- was among the unexpected, dramatic moments of our community's catastrophe. Our notions about ourselves must also have changed. Thousands of us found the strength of character to help selflessly, even heroically. As our homes were destroyed, we reminded each other that "It's only stuff," and that "So many others have it so much worse."

We must have wondered, all of us, whether any community anywhere had ever suffered so much, and yet we know that others have. Miraculously, we have been spared loss of life. Marvelously, we have found friendships we didn't know about, as strangers came to offer labor, called to offer shelter, reached out to offer strength. Could it have been so in any other town? Yes, perhaps. But never on such a scale in our hometown. And it is in that spirit, from that indomitable strength, that our hometown will go forward. It is going to be a difficult time. Let us begin this morning.

Today, we remember another community not unlike our own -- geographically isolated, demographically homogenous, chronologically mature. Rapid City, S.D., was devastated by a flood in the early 1970s. The heart of the town was destroyed. Rapid City remade itself, embracing the stream that struck it. Now, Rapid City is among the liveliest cities of the Plains, economically successful and culturally unique. This is the status that Grand Forks has long sought, most often successfully. Can this be our city's destiny? It is certainly our city's opportunity.

© 1997, Grand Forks Herald

By Ryan Bakken

Herald Staff Writer

Craig Charbonneau spent Friday night in his residence at 1104 Oak St., unaware of the evacuation order.

"I fell asleep; that's what happens when you're awake sandbagging for two days," Charbonneau said. "When you crash, you crash."

Charbonneau's crash ended at 10 a.m. Saturday. He quickly noticed his isolation and the water lapping around his neighborhood. The streets in his area were too flooded to escape by car. So he took his canoe.

He was surrounded by dry land and streets when he went to sleep, but by Saturday afternoon he had to paddle 11 blocks to the west, to South 19th Street, before portaging.

The water continued its westward route on Saturday, resulting in roughly 50 percent of the city being under a mandatory evacuation order. The Red River's rise was slight in the past 24 hours, so it wasn't the culprit. And Washington Street served as an unintentional dike that kept most of the heavy water to the eastern side of the main artery in Grand Forks.

Instead, most of the new water-filled territory was a result of storm sewers continuing to back up.

"The water continues to go from one service area to the next service area," said Tom Hanson, an engineer with Webster, Foster and Weston Consulting Engineers of Grand Forks. "We've been trying to catch it but have been unsuccessful."

Before Charbonneau docked his canoe in a friend's garage on 19th Street, he took a tour of the evacuated Lincoln Park and Central Park areas.

"I hate to even say this, but houses are literally floating on the Lincoln Drive area," Charbonneau said. "Some are literally tilted -- off their foundations."

And, Charbonneau said, you can see just the tip of the sandbags atop the Lincoln area dikes. He said he needed to be careful of a strong current in the neighborhood, a fact that National Guard members mentioned when they booted him out of the area.

On the way out, Charbonneau checked on the homes of several friends.

"It's strange," he said. "There's all this water, but then there are islands of perfectly dry homes. My house didn't even have water in its basement."

Others who were on the new water edges included neighbors Dennis Anderson and Bob Thompson from the 1400 block of South 17th Street. They watched water run down their street with a mix of worry and confidence in their voices.

"We heard that we're on one of the highest points of the city, over 54 feet," Anderson said. "I'm not so sure I believe that right now."

Thompson said almost all of the women and children in the neighborhood had left, even though the area was not under a mandatory evacuation order. They were considering doing the same.

"You've heard about the rats jumping off a sinking ship?" Anderson said. "My wife is a teacher at Kelly School and she took the white rats from there with her."

The entire area from Washington Street to Columbia Road had pockets of high water on the streets and boulevards -- but not lapping at houses -- by late afternoon.

The first six blocks of University Avenue west of Washington had three feet of water. DeMers Avenue was filled with water, invaded from the east and west, and passable only by trucks and recreational vehicles.

Washington was a lake south to 15th Avenue, but dry south of there.

The water also was claiming new territory on the west edge of town. Joe Lewandowski stood in his yard at 3518 Sixth Ave. N. with a "Fort Hope" wooden sign stuck in a snowbank. Two blocks to the north, the English Coulee was creeping toward them. In the opposite direction, 100 feet away of the corner of Stanford Road, water began gurgling from a storm sewer.

"I'm not leaving," Lewandowski said. Told that anyone resisting a mandatory evacuation order could be arrested or forcibly removed, Lewandowski replied, "I'm not leaving."

A few blocks away at McVey Hall, junior aviation major Jeff Edgerton was packing his Toyota Land Cruiser with his belongings. He said he was one of the last to leave McVey after UND President Kendall Baker's morning announcement of classes being canceled for the semester.

"Everyone just wanted to get out of here," Edgerton said. "With no classes, no water and everyone needing double the time to get home because of detours, everyone felt there was no reason to stay."

Edgerton had a longer trip than almost everyone. His home is in Redding, Calif. "I've never seen anything like this before. This is unbelievable. I just want to go home."

There was little sandbagging for the students to do. Only small pockets throughout the city, almost all of them private areas, had operations. An exception was around United Hospital.

A five-foot wall of clay was being built in front of the hospital, with the dike angling across the parking lots of the Grand Forks Clinic and Orthopaedic Clinic.

The plan was to build a rink dike around the entire complex, protecting it from the storm sewers falling like dominoes to the west and the coulee behind it. Heavy equipment worked as helicopters landed and took off to evacuate some patients.

"With the nursing home, clinic and orthopaedic clinic all connected, you're talking about a mile's worth of ring dike," engineer Hanson said. "They're all connected, so if you lose one, you lose them all."

The dike still seemed exceptionally high considering the elevation and any water being still distant. But a United Hospital employee who didn't want to be identified cast light on that.

"As a member of the EOC explained it, they'd lost a lot of battles and they sure weren't going to lose this one," he said.

© 1997, Grand Forks Herald

By Liz Fedor

Herald Staff Writer

Traumatized Grand Forks residents continued their exodus from flood-ravaged neighborhoods Sunday, even as they struggled to cope with the devastation wrought by fires that left the downtown looking like a war zone.

After burning for more than a day, the fires left 11 buildings in ruins or severely damaged.

"We're still fighting this flood," said Emergency Manager Jim Campbell. "We haven't given up."

But two more battles were lost Sunday.

The city's water supply was exhausted Sunday morning, which prompted many residents on dry ground to leave their homes.

Public officials also were forced to close United Hospital. Patients were evacuated by 7 p.m., and hospital administrators set up a first aid station at the National Guard Armory.

The Red River rose to 53.9 feet as of 9 p.m. Sunday — about 26 feet above flood stage. The river is expected to crest at 54 feet today and City Engineer Ken Vein said it's projected to hover between 53 and 54 feet for about a week.

Also on Sunday, Toby Baker, wife of UND President Kendall Baker, went on the radio to plead with people to help "save our university." Water from the English Coulee was spreading across campus, and water coming up through the storm sewers made a slow advance down streets across Grand Forks.

The advancing waters are becoming painfully common in Grand Forks. Since a Lincoln Drive dike failed Friday, three-fourths of the city — about 37,000 people — have been evacuated. It's not unusual for homes in the evacuation area to be swamped with 4 to 6 feet of water.

Some locals in the evacuation area, however, are insisting on remaining in their homes. City officials are exceedingly frustrated by residents who've ignored the evacuation notices. Lt. Byron Sieber of the Grand Forks Police Department said authorities are prepared to arrest residents who refuse to leave their homes.

Fire-fighters were stymied Saturday when they had to evacuate apartment dwellers before they could attack downtown fires. Several people living in second- and third-floor apartments defied the flood-evacuation order and their lives were in danger when the fire quickly spread to nearby buildings.

"We're going to have loss of life if we don't do something," Sieber said. Officials implored holdouts to get out of their homes or hang white sheets out of their windows or from their roofs so they can be visible to National Guard rescue equipment.

Four city blocks were affected by the fire that destroyed major downtown landmarks, including the First National Bank and Grand Forks Herald buildings.

The fire erupted at about 4:15 p.m. Saturday in the Security Building at 101 N. Third St. It rapidly spread to buildings in that block; embers from the blaze ignited fires on nearby blocks.

Jerry Vein, a fire department spokesman, said a row of five buildings on North Third Street was completely destroyed. The Herald's newsroom and circulation departments were obliterated by the fire as well as a separate Herald business in the Handy Mail building. The other structures on that block were the former Griggs Landing bar and an apartment building.

First National Bank, at 322 DeMers Ave., sustained what Vein described as "heavy, heavy damage." The nearby First Financial Center also was struck by the fire.

Vein described Bonzer's restaurant at 12 N. Fourth St. and Formal Affair at 20 N. Fourth St. in a single word: "Gone."

Vein said the fire department would go building-to-building Sunday to assess the damage.

Meanwhile, city officials said there will be a street-to-street search for holdouts in mandatory evacuation zones.

Mayor Pat Owens announced a 24-hour curfew in those areas. "This is not meant to discourage people or keep them away from their homes," she said. "But at this time, we have to think of their safety."

Public health also was a concern Sunday. The mayor said the city will distribute drinkable water to residents who are still in town and living in the southwest section of Grand Forks. Between 7 and 11 p.m., water will be distributed at a closed Mobil gas station on North 43rd Street and at the Big Sioux Truck Plaza, which is near 32nd Avenue South and west of I-29.

Ken Vein, who directs the public works department, said it will be at least three weeks before Grand Forks will be able to restore some water service to residents.

It could take longer. The river level must drop several feet before the city can even begin to repair the water plant.

So far, the city still has electrical power, but Vein said that's also a worry. However, safe water and electricity were not his main worries Sunday. In the wake of the mass evacuation, Vein said, "We don't have a public to serve right now."

© 1997, Grand Forks Herald

By Monte Paulsen

Herald contributor Monte Paulsen toured the burned-out downtown area late Sunday afternoon. Here's what he saw.

Clouds of steam rose lazily from the mounds of twisted metal and blackened brick lining Third and Fourth streets on Sunday afternoon as Grand Forks leaders struggled to figure out how their city will rise from the worst disaster it has ever faced.

The Grand Forks County Commission will meet today to begin sorting out how the county will do business in the coming weeks. The meeting is scheduled for 1 p.m. in the Larimore (N.D.) American Legion Hall.

Sorting through the rubble downtown will take a long time.

Small fires licked at the water's edge Sunday, finishing off what Saturday's inferno had left behind. Trees, benches, dumpsters and debris of all description surged through downtown, whisked along by currents of up to 25 miles an hour. Giant U.S. Army Reserve trucks and U.S. Coast Guard skiffs prowled the streets as Grand Forks firefighters battled the downtown blaze from pumper trucks hauled in atop massive military flatbeds.

© 1997, Grand Forks Herald

By Liz Fedor

Herald Staff Writer

Grand Forks Mayor Pat Owens worried Sunday about evacuating her 92-year-old father from his farm home, but she proved she’s not a quitter when she delivered an inspiring message that drew applause.

The mayor was fourth in a lineup of seven speakers during a news conference that was called to outline the latest bleak facts about the worst natural disaster in North Dakota’s history.

Owens announced a 24-hour curfew in mandatory evacuation zones. But she used most of her time to speak from her gut.

‘‘As I talk to you this morning, my own home is going under,’’ Owens said, ‘‘Now I’m in the same bucket with the rest of you.’’

In effect, she asked residents to be brave and keep drawing sustenance from each other. ‘‘I do not feel bad for one reason, because we will rebuild and we do have faith. Together, we will all come out of this, and our city will be courageous,’’ Owens said.

The mayor empathized with Grand Forks residents but asked them to focus on what’s most important. ‘‘It is very hard to turn away from your home and watch it go under water,’’ she said, ‘‘That home can be replaced, but the lives of our valuable citizens cannot be replaced.’’

Wearing a navy blue sweatshirt, the mayor pointed to the slogan that was emblazoned across the front. Encircling a yellow sun, it said, ‘‘Grand Forks: A Place of Excellence.’’

Addressing flood victims listening over the radio, Owens said, ‘‘I still believe in my heart today that that saying is true.

‘‘What makes a community a place to live is not the buildings or anything else in that community. It’s the people — the spirit and the faith that are in those people.’’

No deaths have been caused by the flood, and Owens said the safety of every resident remains her top concern. ‘‘Walk away from those homes. Walk away from those buildings,’’ she said, ‘‘We will rebuild and we will be stronger, and we will be in it together.’’

The mayor reminded residents that their plight has drawn support from people across the United States. She told them they are not fighting alone. She thanked the people from federal and state agencies who joined local officials and residents in battling the historic flood.

‘‘We have no differences at this point,‘‘ she said, ‘‘We are all in it together, and we will survive.’’

Later in the day, Owens said she didn’t have prepared remarks when she walked into the news conference. She simply spoke from her heart.

Owens, 56, spent 32 years of her life serving as the assistant to four Grand Forks mayors. Now, she’s leading the effort to fight the worst flood in the city’s history, and people are looking to her to spearhead recovery efforts.

‘‘I hope people will have a lot of patience,’’ Owens said, because the rebuilding effort will take time.

It appears she has plenty of support. As she left the Emergency Operations Center cafeteria, a food service worker thanked her for doing a great job. Ten minutes later, a man walked up to the mayor in a University of North Dakota parking lot and told her that his wife hopes she runs for governor. The man’s wife listened to the mayor’s news conference and was moved by what she heard.

‘‘People need to stick with me because I need them, too,’’ Owens said. ‘‘We have a future. We’ll rebuild as long as all our people are safe.’’

Now, Owens is a connection to the outside world. You can see her on CNN and ABC telling the nation about the devastation that’s swept her community.

But she’s more than a mayor. Sunday, she spent part of her day arranging for the U.S. Coast Guard to pick up her father, Willard Guerard. He turns 93 next month, and he lives alone on a farm five miles outside of East Grand Forks.

He was just fine until overland flooding forced his departure Sunday. ‘‘He would not leave his animals,’’ Owens said, so the Coast Guard let him take a dog and three cats into the helicopter.

Guerard was at home proudly monitoring his daughter’s interviews with the national media. Then, he was forced to abandon his home. Pushing the century mark himself, Guerard flew for the first time to flee the flood of the century.

© 1997, Grand Forks Herald

By Jaime DeLage

Herald Staff Writer

Every flood victim at the high school and the shelters is surviving the same crisis, but each individual's situation is unique.

CROOKSTON, MINN. -- Fully a third of the population of East Grand Forks passed through the doors of the new Crookston Senior High School Saturday and Sunday, seeking shelter, clothing and other necessities.

The Crookston Emergency Operations Center took charge of registering and aiding hundreds of families leaving East Grand Forks after Mayor Lynn Stauss issued a mandatory evacuation order Saturday afternoon. More than 2,500 people had registered at the school, just off U.S. Highway 2 west, by Sunday morning.

Officials believed that as many as 1,500 had passed through the high school doors without registering. Emergency managers urged evacuees to check in at the school on arrival and departure, even when staying at private homes.

"So many family and friends are looking for these people," said Kim Feiro, a volunteer at the high school. In many cases parents are separated from children and husbands separated from wives. Feiro knew of thirteen children staying with their grandparents in Solway, Minn. The grandparents didn't know where the children's parents were.

A woman from the Grand Forks Air Force Base was separated from her husband. "She called six times. She needed her husband. Finally she found him, thank goodness," Feiro said.

Six phone operators stayed constantly busy Sunday starting at about 3 a.m., fielding calls from people seeking family members. "They've lost everything else, so they have to hold on to each other," Feiro said. Half of the people who called the school yesterday were connected with their loved ones.

Many evacuees have arrived at the high school with little more than the clothes on their backs. Crookston volunteers have provided blankets, pillows, towels, clothing, and toiletries. From the high school the evacuees are sent to shelters at 12 local churches, two public schools and at the University of Minnesota in Crookston.

Volunteers have jumped to the calls for help. Feiro said that when requests for bedding or food go out over KROX 1260 radio, the townspeople respond within minutes. Four people respond to every call for one volunteer, she said.In the shelters, families formed clusters in rooms of 80 or more beds. Sunday school classrooms were converted to single family dwellings when available.

Every flood victim at the high school and the shelters is surviving the same crisis, but each individual's situation is unique.

Frailan Narvaiz Jr., moved to East Grand Forks from Texas just two months ago. He and his family of 10, who were evacuated Friday from their 5th Ave NE apartment, have found shelter at the University of Minnesota, Crookston. While he has never seen a disaster of this magnitude, the flood has not frightened him away.

"We'll have to wait and see what's going to happen," said Narvaiz, adding that he would not leave his new job.

Another large family was sent to the Crookston Cathedral, where refugees fill two large rooms, a few smaller rooms and a hallway. Chris Rodriguez, with her five children and a grandchild, occupy a small collection of cots in the community room of the Cathedral.

"I woke up with sore muscles, but we'll get used to it, I guess," Rodriguez said. "They're being very patient and they've helped out a lot," she said of the Crookston community that has donated the clothes, diapers and milk she has needed.

Jan Hangsleben, who has two of her children with her and three on the other side of the river, has "never seen anything like this." "We've got a few clothes and that's all," she said, headed for the piles of donated clothes at the high school.

Hangsleben appreciates all the community is doing to help. She said a few teen-agers have entertained her son for hours playing basketball. And workers at Salem motors who fixed her car, which barely made the trip to Crookston, fed her family a full breakfast.

"That means a lot," Hangsleben said.

Omar and LaVern Syrstad came to the high school looking for a ride to Minneapolis to stay with their son. Less than 60 seconds after a call to KROX, a Climax resident phoned to offer a ride.

"We feel relieved now that we're out of it, we don't have to look out the window at that river," Omar Syrstad said.

© 1997, Grand Forks Herald

By Ryan Bakken

Herald Staff Writer

Frank Kilgore lost six days of pay this past winter. Snowbanks prevented him from getting to work.

That's a way of life in Richards West, a subdivision west of Interstate 29 best reached by traveling west on University Avenue. While the winter was dreadful for everyone, perhaps no place in Grand Forks had it worse than this disconnected neighborhood of about 200 homes.

"We really get blasted out here," said Kilgore, who lives at 4855 Fifth Ave. N. "We're like an open end, and the snow just dumps into us. After a snowstorm, you can't go anywhere unless you have four-wheel drive."

Since it's on the city's fringes, the neighborhood also is among the last to see snowplows.

High and dry

But, from hell in the winter, Richards West became the paradise of Greater Grand Forks on April 20, 1997. While almost all residents east of I-29 have been sent out of town, those west of I-29, such as those in Richards West, are living comfortably.

Mothers push strollers and children shoot baskets on a day Grand Forks residents have been yearning for since September. Only a few remain to enjoy it.

The only moisture comes from a few sump pumps and the last of the snow melt. The biggest nuisance is the thick dust kicked up by National Guard trucks leaving Sandbag Central. Those trucks piled with sandbags provide the only visible reminder that there's a flood a half-mile to the east.

"There's no water on the streets or the basements here," Kilgore said. "Good God, we're the fortunate ones now."

Laurie Holcomb, on a walk with three of her seven children and her displaced aunt, Connie Lowe, feels the same way. She also feels the irony.

"It's rough here in the winter," she said. "We get a snowdrift 5 to 7 feet high in our driveway for each and every storm. Not just this year, but every year. It's the wind pattern.

"I'm happy and thankful today that we're high and dry. I'm surprised we are because of all the snow out here."

In her temporary home, Lowe was thankful for life's basics that she had taken for granted three days earlier. 'There's no better place to me; Laurie is keeping me dry and fed," she said.

Conserving water

Then Lowe gleefully described how water is being conserved, both the bottled water that had been stockpiled and the city water that had been salvaged before the treatment plant quit working Saturday night. A bathtub and garbage can were filled with contaminated city water needing to be boiled before use.

The water is first used to rinse dishes. It's next used to wash the dishes. Its final function is to flush the toilet.

With a water purification unit expected today, Holcomb and her neighbors hope to ride out the flood. If so, they'll be in a small percentage of residents so blessed.

But, while thousands of evacuees wish they were so lucky, the remaining fortunate are not without their demons.

"I feel somewhat guilty that I'm safe," Kilgore said. "But I also feel good about myself because I spent so many hours sandbagging, helping others. But what I mostly feel is helpless."

Will it last

National Guardsmen told the residents they'd be the last section of Grand Forks to be evacuated. That has them feeling secure. So does the distance of the water and the forecast that has kept the crest at 54 feet.

But such security has been shattered often in the last few days. This is not lost on Lowe, who lost her home at 803 13th Ave. S.

"I was in Hugo's the other day and picked up one of those 'I survived the flood of 1997' T-shirts and put it in my cart," Lowe said. "But then I put it back. I realized I hadn't survived it yet."

© 1997, Grand Forks Herald

By Randy Bradbury

Herald Staff Writer

The Flood of 1997, which smashed into eastern Grand Forks Friday and Saturday, oozed its way onto the UND campus Sunday, setting off a flurry of activity to save precious documents and other valuables.

The English Coulee, a source of much of the damage from the 1979 flood, continued its slow rise as flood waters from the Red River backed into the coulee channel. As it rose, it topped hastily constructed dikes and crept up the streets leading to campus from the north.

Water flowed over the sandbag dike protecting Smith Hall, flooding the lower floor of the dormitory and food service building. UND President Kendall Baker said the flooding couldn't be prevented; fortunately, most of the equipment had already been moved to upper floors.

The only place where university officials continued to battle the water, rather than simply working to lessen the damage, was outside Wilkerson Hall, a food service and office complex. At that site, the city donated a powerful pump to bring water back over a sandbag dike.

At midmorning Sunday, Baker called available university administrators and began to plan for an emergency rescue operation.

A cry for help

The president's wife, Toby Baker, went on the radio about 9:30 a.m., with an appeal to university faculty, staff and students to help with the effort. Within minutes, people began coming in the door of the university's Plant Services building. By the end of the day, nearly 200 people had responded to the call and were bused to various sites on campus.

Many of those who turned out to help had spent much of the past two weeks slogging sandbags, and now were carrying books, records and other valuables from ground-level floors and basements to safety on upper floors.

In addition to pure muscle power, the university sought to bring in people who could make intelligent decisions about the items in each location.

These included the basement of Chester Fritz Library, the lower floors of the Law School, the Student Health Service on the first floor of O'Kelly Hall (student health records), the basement of Oxford House (alumni records), the Medical School and the lower floor of Merrifield Hall (North Dakota Quarterly).

Let's do it again?

The volunteer mobilization shut down about 5 p.m. University spokesman Peter Johnson said a decision will be made this morning on whether a similar effort will be necessary today. The university devised a schedule to keep staff members on campus 24 hours a day for at least the next five to seven days.

Kendall Baker said he was gratified and encouraged by the response. He was visibly stressed about 10 a.m. Sunday, while the plans were still being pulled together. By midafternoon, he was back to his usual cheerful self, praising volunteers, and even taking time to grab a bite to eat. "I was a little worried this morning," he said at 3 p.m. "I feel a little better now."

© 1997, Grand Forks Herald

By Stephen J. Lee

Herald Staff Writer

An ivory tower comes in handy when the academy goes under water.

Dozens of volunteers from miles away answered Toby Baker's plea for help in getting UND's good stuff off the ground before the flood. In the below-ground first floor of Chester Fritz Library Sunday, professors Ted Pedeliski, Chuck Wood and Doug Munski showed volunteers which books and journals in the first four shelves needed to be moved to second floor.

Professional journals such as "Ethnomusicology," "Lubrication Engineering," and "The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society," were loaded on library carts, rolled into the elevator and stacked on the next floor.

Some journals were left at expected water levels, though, even as the Red River inexorably moved above history, menacing the library.

But the other publications, while not exactly nighttime reading for most folks, are essential for those who toil in academia, said Pattijean Hooper, a communications instructor pushing carts Sunday. "Some are so old. I saw original maps of the Panama Canal," Hooper said. "These are just priceless."

Many of the journals cost UND thousands of dollars a year to purchase, said Wes Edens, business reference librarian. "We have lost so much in library funding, so every dollar we save means a lot," Hooper said.

Within hours of the radio request by Baker, whose husband is UND president Ken Baker, volunteers showed up ready to work, said Mark Thompson, Baker's lieutenant in the flood fighting effort.

"Hey, it's my alma mater, man," said Marv Larson, a 1969 graduate in business, who farms near Gilby, N.D. It looked like the Fritz's treasures were safe, he said, leaning against a desk and looking at orderly shelves he had helped empty and put in jumbled stacks upstairs. "But you wouldn't want to be a freshman in library science next year."

© 1997, Grand Forks Herald

By Kevin Fee

Herald Staff Writer

The new makeshift home of East Grand Forks city hall is the Comfort Inn on U.S. Highway 2.

‘‘It’s not the called the Comfort Inn today,’’ East Grand Forks mayor Lynn Stauss said at a flood press conference Monday morning at the hotel, ‘‘but we’re going to get through this.’’

No knock on the motel, Stauss said, but it had no water or sewer system Monday. Those were minor inconveniences compared to what people will face in the flood-ravaged East Grand Forks area for the next month.

They are displaced and will remain that way for two to four weeks, Stauss said. All but about 250 residents in the community of 9,000 have adhered to a mandatory evacuation.

‘‘Some of them hide, because they know they want them out,’’ Stauss said of those left and the rescue workers. ‘‘The bad part of it is, they’re going to have to man the pumps for weeks to come.’’

Most of those who left the city face an uphill battle, too.

‘‘There’s nothing to come back to now,’’ Stauss said. ‘‘We have to basically, rebuild our community.’’

In the meantime, Stauss is urging residents to stay away for safety reasons. The up to 25 feet of water that is above land is contaminated with everything from raw sewage to fuel.

And the Red and Red Lake rivers were continuing to rise Monday.

‘‘Have patience,’’ Stauss said. ‘‘It’s going to take time. We’re with you.’’

East Grand Forks has shifted some of its gears from the flood-fighting and rescue stages to recovery — both emotionally and monetarily. Officials are stressing the most popular 800-number in the area: (800) 462-9029 (from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.). That’s FEMA, which has grants of up to $13,100 available. The Small Business Administration has low-interest loans for homeowners, renters and businesses available for victims.

Many who leave homes behind are wondering how much damage their homes and possessions suffered as a result, Stauss said. Officials will try to shoot a video of most areas to be shown in towns around the region.

The hope is that those from East Grand Forks will be able to see the areas in which they live on the video.

‘‘This really is a disaster and is going to be with us for a long time,’’ Stauss said. Rent and house payment help, unemployment compensation, and counseling should be available, officials said. FEMA is opening a temporary office in Crookston, which also may include staffs of northwest Minnesota+s Congressional delegation.

Luminaries in East Grand Forks Monday included Gov. Arne Carlson, who arrived for the first time during the flood late in the afternoon, and Sen. Rod Grams and Rep. Collin Peterson. President Clinton and Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., plan to fly over the flood-ravaged area today. Peterson said he believes damages in the Dakotas and Minnesota from flooding will be in the billions.

The congressman also pleaded with those to the north of East Grand Forks along the Red River to evacuate. Some were busy sandbagging Monday.

So was the National Guard and other agencies. The cellular communications tower, the water plant, the police department and other essential areas were their targets.

‘‘I don’t think there+s been a neighborhood that’s been spared,’’ said Jeff Granger, a conservation officer for the Department of Natural Resources.

Bill Steinbar, who lives on Bygland Road Southeast, may be one of the fortunate. His wife, Rosie O’Leary-Steinbar, was attending the pumps at their home Monday. Her husband, who has been staying in the home, went to Crookston for a tetanus shot.

That was the first time he left his home during the flood. Two neighbors also have declined to evacuate. ‘‘They’re cleaning out their freezers and having barbecues at night,’’ O’Leary-Steinbar said.

They’re getting by, just like the mayor.

© 1997, Grand Forks Herald

By Liz Fedor

Herald Staff Writer

President Clinton will see a ghost town today when he flies over Grand Forks to view floodwaters that have sent houses swirling off their foundations.

The Red River reached 54.11 feet Monday, which is 26 feet over flood stage. City Engineer Ken Vein said he hopes the river has reached its crest, but it still could rise higher.

Since the Lincoln Drive dike collapsed Friday, the floodwaters have continued to spread across Grand Forks. By Monday, almost 85 percent of residents were forced to leave their homes.

In East Grand Forks, Mayor Lynn Stauss said all but 250 residents have left the town of 9,000. Stauss said he has raw sewage on the first floor of his own home at 831 James Ave. on the city’s south end.

Today, Clinton will make his first visit to Grand Forks to console flood victims and hear pleas for more federal aid. The president will land at 11:30 a.m. at Grand Forks Air Force Base. He’ll take a one-hour helicopter tour of the flood devastation, then he’ll meet with local officials about the extent of the flood damage. At 2:15 p.m., he’ll talk with Grand Forks residents who sought shelter at the base after abandoning their homes.

‘‘There’s no way you can understand this unless you see it firsthand,’’ said U.S. Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn.

‘‘The normal disaster relief is not going to work,’’ Peterson said. Congressional delegations from North Dakota and Minnesota will accompany the president on his visit.

At 4 p.m. Monday, there was a strategy meeting at the White House to discuss federal aid that can spur recovery efforts in the Red River Valley. James Lee Witt, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and members of Congress took part in that meeting, Peterson said.

Grand Forks Mayor Pat Owens and Peterson announced the president’s historic trip during a Monday news conference at the University of North Dakota.

‘‘We are very pleased this is going to happen,’’ Owens said. ‘‘We’re just taking it one day at a time. I hope the water crests.’’

At a shelter, the mayor said she talked with elderly people and residents with special needs. One woman told the mayor how happy she will be when she returns to her home. ‘‘I did not have the heart to tell her her home isn’t there any longer,’’ Owens said. The woman lived in an apartment that was destroyed in a Saturday fire that left 11 downtown buildings in ruins or heavily damaged.

Jerry Vein, a fire department spokesman, said they still haven’t found a cause for the fire. Monday, crews moved in with cranes to knock down some of the brick walls on the skeletal structures that remained on North Third Street.

‘‘It was our town that was burning,’’ Deputy Fire Chief Peter O’Neill said Monday. ‘‘It doesn’t seem real. You want to wake up from some dream.’’

Police Lt. Byron Sieber said authorities still are helping people evacuate their homes. Sunday, eight people were taken out of their houses by water rescue teams. Sunday, the mayor imposed a 24-hour curfew in mandatory evacuation zones in the city.

Sieber said people can still get help to leave their homes, but they risk arrest if they refuse to abandon unsafe areas.

Monday, he reported two ‘‘forced evacuations.’’ A heavily medicated 96-year-old woman was taken from her home, Sieber said. The second person was an individual who refused to leave.

Sieber said he’s aware of only two burglaries since the flood emergency unfolded Friday. Those burglaries were at an audio store and pawn shop, he said.

Owens still is emphasizing personal safety, but she also said recovery efforts are getting under way. Flood victims are urged to call FEMA at 1-800-462-9029 to register for assistance.

Peterson said he and other members of Congress will be pushing for additional aid, because FEMA individual grants of $13,200 are inadequate. Many elderly people have most of their assets tied up in their houses, Peterson said, so it’s impractical to give them a low-interest loan to rebuild their homes.

© 1997, Grand Forks Herald

By Dominic P. Papatola

After suffering through floods and fire, the last thing Grand Forks needed was another disaster. Fortunately, rumors about a possible toxic chemical discharge turned out to be false.

At a morning press conference given by city and emergency management authorities – and broadcast live on the radio Monday – there was discussion about a possible loss of electrical power at the CF Industries Inc. plant.

There was cause for concern, authorities said, because the plant stores anhydrous ammonia, a gaseous fertilizer that can be toxic if released into the atmosphere. A loss of power would mean a loss of pressure in the facility’s two giant storage tanks and a possible chemical discharge.

At the CF Industries plant on North Highway 81, plant superintendent Ron Boonstra said there was no cause for concern.

Yes, Boonstra’s men had been sandbagging around the plant’s transformer. And yes, he had asked the Emergency Operations Center to construct a clay dike around the plant to keep the floodwaters back.

But there was virtually no chance that anhydrous ammonia would be released, he said Monday afternoon.

The threatened transformer – secured to an underground electrical connection – was the primary source of electrical power for the plant, but the plant is also serviced by auxiliary overhead power lines. Monday afternoon, Boonstra was also looking for a backup generator for the facility as a third line of defense.

Even if all those systems failed and power was lost, Boonstra said, the area’s air would likely remain safe. The plant has a fail-safe system in place that burns any ammonia released through a venting system.

Those backup plans may never go into effect, however. Boonstra said that water levels around the plant stabilized Monday afternoon.

© 1997, Grand Forks Herald

By Grand Forks Herald Staff

The Grand Forks Herald will rebuild its offices in Grand Forks, said Tony Ridder, chairman of Knight-Ridder, the company that owns the Herald.

‘‘I want to assure you that we absolutely plan to rebuild the offices,’’he said.

‘‘We are committed to Grand Forks and the Herald is an important institution in the community, and I intend for the Herald to serve GrandForks for a long time to come,’’ Ridder said in a message to the Herald’s employees.

The Herald newsroom and its circulation department were destroyed by a fire over the weekend. Handymail, a business owned by the Herald, also was destroyed.

Ridder and several other officers will be in GrandForks today to talk to employees.

‘‘We’re delighted with the news. It’s a big step toward rebuilding our newsroom and our community,’’ Herald Publisher Mike Maidenberg said.

© 1997, Grand Forks Herald

By: Liz Fedor, Kevin Bonham, Randy Bradbury and Monte Paulson
Herald Staff Writers

‘‘Can’t we go tonight?’’

Fighting to choke back the emotions she’s held in check for most of the past week, Grand Forks Mayor Pat Owens told President Clinton on Tuesday: ‘‘You bring us hope.’’

And hope was all that most people were expecting from the president, who came to the region to see firsthand the incredible destruction caused by an ice storm, a blizzard, the Flood of 1997 and last weekend’s devastating downtown fire.

Local officials and citizens alike said they were satisfied the president will now personally understand the painful series of blows that have been dealt the region.

‘Welcome to Water World’

Before the President spoke to flood victims Tuesday afternoon, he was greeted by a sign that read: ‘‘Welcome to Water World Mr. President.’’

It was a glimmer of wry humor in a five-day period that has overflowed with human tragedy.

‘‘Be good to yourself,’’ Clinton told a crowd of about 3,000 huddled in a giant airplane hangar at Grand Forks Air Force Base. ‘‘You don’t have to be ashamed if you’re heartbroken.’’

Olive drab cots lined the back of the hangar where Clinton spoke. Thousands of dislocated Grand Forks residents are staying at the base because their homes are flooded by the Red River, which continues to hover at 54 feet, 26 feet above flood stage.

Clinton said he’s never seen such a series of catastrophes as severe as those that have pelted the Grand Forks region.

‘‘When I saw pictures of some of you stacking sandbags in a blizzard, I thought at first that I had a problem with the reception on my television,’’ Clinton said.

Surveying the damage

Air Force One arrived at Grand Forks Air Force Base about 11:30 a.m. Clinton greeted local officials, then climbed aboard a helicopter for a personal tour of the devastation.

The president nodded his head in wonder as he looked down on the Red River Valley. Three-fourths of Grand Forks and virtually all of East Grand Forks are submerged.

Neat rows of homes, churches and schools sit in neighborhoods that have no traffic, except for boats and Army National Guard trucks.

The flood did not discriminate. Wealthy neighborhoods have been destroyed along with the rest.

On one helicopter, state and federal officials stared silently out the window at the widespread damage. Nobody attempted to shout above the noise of the helicopter. Midway through the tour, Donna Shalala, secretary of Health and Human Services, walked over to U.S. Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and merely shook her head.

Mayor Owens and East Grand Forks Mayor Lynn Stauss stood side by side as they scanned the disaster.

Worst to come

After his flight, Clinton took an hour to listen to the men and women who have been battling the flood, fire and ice tell him about the problems they face now.

Owens spoke movingly of the city’s plight, as she has so many times in the past week.

‘‘The hardest part is going to be when people are taken back to their homes, when they see the damage that has been done,’’ Owens said.

Owens, who, like most Grand Forks residents has been a refugee, joked that she had a hard time deciding what to wear to meet the president.

‘‘You look good,’’ Clinton said.

But Owens answered her own question: ‘‘What I wear,’’ she said, ‘‘is the heart and soul of my community.’’

Clinton reciprocated with promises of money. He authorized Federal Emergency Management Agency to reimburse local governments for 100 percent of their flood expenses, rather than the usual 75 percent. He asked FEMA to add Minnesota and South Dakota counties to the grant program. And he asked Congress to authorize an additional $200 million in relief, raising the total Clinton has requested for these Midwest disasters to $448 million.

Curt Kreun of East Grand Forks told Clinton how painful it was to see neighborhood dikes fail. He said he tried to console his neighbors. ‘You take and hold them in your arms and you tell them it will be all right,‘ Kreun said.

City Engineer Ken Vein delivered the worst news. He spoke of the ‘‘domino effect’’ of water cascading over dikes and destroying the city.

‘‘Some parts of the city may never be rebuilt,’’ Vein said. ‘‘There are homes that are floating. The water is eroding new channels.’’

Vein said it may take a month before the water and sewer systems are running at all, and much longer before they are fully restored.

As Vein talked, Emergency Manager Jim Campbell leaned against a pillar at the back of the room. ‘‘I feel a few pangs of guilt about being here,’’ Campbell said. ‘‘We’re still out fighting this flood.’’

Evacuees remain stunned

As Clinton took the stage at the hangar, one of the large spotlights hanging from an overhead scaffolding fizzled, then popped loudly. The crowd flinched, and the Secret Service jumped.

As the crowd looked nervously around, Clinton tried to calm them. ‘‘That’s up there,’’ he said. After everyone calmed down, he added: ‘‘Well, we’ve had a fire, a flood, a blizzard – I think we can handle this.’’

Laughter and relief swept across the hangar.

It took a lot of fast work to prepare for the president’s visit. Brig. Gen. Ken Hess, commander of Grand Forks Air Force Base, said he had 24 hours notice to prepare for Clinton’s visit.

Among the evacuees who stayed to hear Clinton was Paul Trettel. He’s been staying at the GFAFB shelter since Friday, and he admits it’s been a tough time.

Trettel is a truck driver. Or was. Like hundreds of others, he’s not sure what the future will bring for his job.

Trettel listened closely as Clinton spoke, a strained look on his strong but haggard face. Later, Trettel fought back emotions as he discussed Clinton’s message.

‘‘We were hoping he would answer simple things, like when showers will be available. Where do we go from here,’’ Trettel said. Although the president didn’t answer such questions, Trettel was glad Clinton came.

‘‘It’ll mean a lot toward getting people back in their homes.’’

Many of those who are staying at the shelter seemed to agree that the biggest value of Clinton’s visit was to call attention to the seriousness of the disaster here. They also agreed that the programs Clinton announced will be helpful in the long run and will be much appreciated as individuals and governments work to recover.

But, they said, the president didn’t answer their pressing questions: What happens next? How do I contact missing loved ones? Will I have a job? Will I have a home?

Overall, people in the converted hangar showed little emotion as the president spoke.

Julie Britsch, pastor of the Petersburg and Dahlen Lutheran churches who has been working as a chaplain in the shelters since Friday, said the lack of emotion didn’t surprise her.

‘‘I think people are really numb. I think it’s going to take a long time for it to soak in.’’

Moving one more time

Floodwaters forced John and Darlene Stansbury’s family from their Second Avenue North home Saturday. On Tuesday, they had to relocate again, this time to make room for President Clinton. The shelter in the 3-Bay Hangar was rearranged for the president’s visit.

‘‘When they tell me to move my bed, they’re telling me to move my home,’’ Darlene Stansbury said. ‘‘This is my home, because I don’t have a home. They searched all of our things.’’

The Stansburys listened intently to what the president said. His message gave some hope to Darlene and John Stansbury, and to their three sons, 19-year-old Matthew, 18-year-old Mark, and 14-year-old Joshua.

But Darlene Stansbury was a bit skeptical. ‘‘I thought it probably was just words,’’ she said. ‘‘But it was good to hear.’’

After the president’s speech, as hundreds of people rushed to the stage for a chance to shake his hand, the Stansburys stayed away. They were listening to a volunteer describe another shelter at the Park River Bible Camp, near Park River, N.D.

‘‘You can’t stay here for another week,’’ the volunteer said. ‘‘It will be much nicer there.’’

Darlene and John Stansbury looked at each other and nodded.

‘‘It sounds great. I think we could go tomorrow,’’ John Stansbury said.

To which their son, Mark, replied, ‘‘Can’t we go tonight?’’

© 1997, Grand Forks Herald

By Lori Lessner

So, when can we go home; or, for some of us, at least stand at our address and see how far our homes floated from their foundations?

It’s a question Grand Forks Police and city engineers want to answer now, so people don’t get impatient once the Red River crests and the water starts going down.

‘‘They’ll read about the water going down, they’ll see it on TV or hear it somewhere, and they’ll think it will be OK to go back, but it won’t,’’ Lt. Byron Sieber said. ‘‘It’s going to be awhile.’’

‘‘We can’t start seriously thinking about a recovery effort until the water comes down to a 50-foot crest range,’’ said Al Grasser, assistant city engineer. ‘‘That will be at least a week, probably more than that.’’

The water level hovered at 54.11 feet Tuesday afternoon – 26 feet over flood stage – and was expected to waffle between 53 and 54 feet before cresting later in the day.

‘‘Fargo has crested,’’ Sieber said. ‘‘If we haven’t crested yet, it’s going to happen soon, I think. It’s basically already there.’’

Only when the water recedes to 50 will officials begin pumping the water out. The process is a slow one, and people won’t be able to return home even then, he said.

Much of Grand Forks and East Grand Forks remains under a mandatory evacuation order, and people won’t be allowed even a peek anytime soon.

Police Sgt. Leon Chromy said returning homeowners would complicate their efforts to protect possessions from looters because officers do not have enough time to screen every person going to and from the city.

Security will be tightened at checkpoints in anticipation of an influx of homeowners.

Fifteen checkpoints have been in place since Thursday, including the intersections at 17th and Columbia, 26th and DeMers, 32nd and South Washington, 42nd and DeMers, 42nd and Gateway and 42nd and University, said Larry Anderson, a sergeant-major with the National Guard.

When it is safe to return, people will come back the same way they left: a few neighborhoods at a time to avoid the chaos that comes with flooding an area with thousands of people at once, Sieber said.

According to Chromy, if the need to return home is special or an emergency, a person may call the Police Department or the Emergency Operations Center.

Herald volunteer Jay Johnson contributed to this story.

© 1997, Grand Forks Herald

By Ryan Bakken

Herald Staff Writer

Editor’s note: Ryan Bakken toured the near south side of Grand Forks, the first part of the city to get hit by flood waters, in a U.S. Coast Guard boat. Here’s his report.

It looks like a water amusement park a block north of the corner of South Washington Street and DeMers Avenue.

The water flowing north down Washington meets an obstacle in the railroad bridge a block north of DeMers. That’s where the underpass is. And that means the water is 20 feet high there.

Debris – plastic pop cans, balls of all sports, lumber, a bobber, a light bulb, an oar, a sled, a snow board, among other objects – piles up against the southern edge of the bridge.

But tires and garbage cans aren’t stopped. As if they’re trapped in a whirlpool, the tires circle between the bridge and DeMers, where the current sends them back north. They look like tiny rafts floating in a water amusement park.

They’d look that way, that is, except the water is the color of hot chocolate. And where debris has collected, the water has become stagnant. It smells like a fish-cleaning house.

If it’s like this in the busiest and most central location in Grand Forks, what’s it like closer to the Red River? Before we find out, our U.S. Coast Guard boat must help evacuate a man who held out for three days in a mandatory evacuation area.

Mark Olson, who lived at 1208 Sixth Ave. N., signaled the boat with a white towel hanging from the front door. It was his white flag of surrender.

‘‘I just decided it was no use,’’ Olson said. ‘‘I didn’t know we had to be evacuated, because I have no TV or radio. I knew something was going on, but I wanted to stay with my bird and fish. I thought I could wait it out. I couldn’t.’’

Lee Kerniskey, a member of the Coast Guard from Omaha, Neb., has been a part in many such evacuations the past few days in areas supposed to have been cleared.

‘‘Yesterday, we picked up two guys from the roof of a bar,’’ Kerniskey said. ‘‘They were drunk, so they were real friendly. But they wouldn’t go unless we took their dog, so we did.

‘‘I don’t understand why they do it, but I don’t get mad. I just do my job and that’s to ask people if they want out.’’

Destruction and hope

The boat tour offers horror, humor and hope:

¤ At DeMers and Washington, the current runs west and north, the stoplights are still working, the billboard advertising the Shrine Circus in Grand Forks April 25-27 is obviously in error, and the electronic message board continues to flash its advertisements.

¤ The construction of a dike made of sand and gravel along Washington duels with the current.

¤ The fire station on DeMers is protected by sand bags, has three Jet-Skis out front and still carries this on its sign – ‘‘Sandbaggers needed. Please report to the Civic Auditorium.’’

¤ A washtub filled with garden hose and a sprinkler attachment float past.

¤ We exit DeMers on Fourth Avenue South, but need to dodge a station wagon in the roadway – water up to its windshield and pointing the opposite direction.

¤ On Oak Street, the water is 2 feet high, too shallow for the motor to operate. This is the first of the surprises – and hopes. Contrary to popular belief, not every home east of South Washington is flooded on the first floor. In fact, in this area, most aren’t.

As we head east, about 75 to 80 percent of the homes appear to be dry on the first floor. Virtually all of the concrete foundations have water against 1-2 feet high, meaning basements are full. But most homes are built up a few steps, meaning the ground floors are dry. The margin between wet and dry is a few inches – the water being either a few inches shy of the first floor or a few inches above it.

A dog barks from a house. Our Coast Guard coxswain says he tried to rescue that dog a day earlier, but retreated when the dog bared its teeth.

¤ On Cherry – from downtown to 13th Avenue South, anyway – the wet-dry ratio remains about the same. The current is strong. In front of one home is a huge John Deere tractor pumping the basement. On our return trip an hour later, one wader-wearing man is videotaping another wader-wearing man carrying out his belongings.

¤ The scene changes at Belmont Road. The wet-dry ratio is 50-50 here. Ground levels need to be built at least five steps high to be without water. Amid the lake is an island – 918 Belmont Road. It has a ring dike only three sandbags high – no higher and mostly lower than the many other remnants of failed ring dikes we’ve seen. But for some reason, there’s only lawn and sidewalk to be seen inside the dike.

¤ Reeves Drive is another story. Almost every home has a foot of ground-level water. Some of the finer, more historic homes in the city have water up to the windows. The closer to the downtown, the deeper the water.

¤ Reaching Almonte Avenue is like reaching another world. We have to duck to avoid power lines overhead. Only the backboard and half of the net is visible from a basketball hoop. The water reaches to the eaves.

Some sandbags are still visible on the dike, showing we were capable of building it high enough, but were incapable of building it strong enough or defending the backed-up storm sewers and English Coulee at our back doors.

The current is so strong the media members unanimously vote not to go any farther to the east. So we have to view the Lincoln Drive area from a distance. We see at least a dozen homes knocked off their foundations, sickeningly tilted.

The Coast Guardsmen haven’t been to this part of Grand Forks before. They’ve worked other disasters and they’re still stunned by the sights. The boat is quiet a while.

¤ The quiet is broken by our coxswain, who shouts, ‘‘Look out, there’s a bump ahead.’’ We see the sign carrying the same message to brace ourselves, realize we’ve been had, and share a laugh. The mood has been broken.

¤ We head west to South Washington. There, it’s the same as it is west of Reeves – inches determining the fate of ground levels. Gerrells Sports Center has water inches from its front door, while neighboring Hockey World is swamped. Denny’s is wet, Dakota Vacuum next door is dry. Taco John’s drive-through is dry; its front door is wet.

¤ On the west side of Washington, the news is considerably better. Most of the homes don’t have water up against them, meaning their basements are dry unless they suffered from seepage or sewer backup. Perhaps only 20 percent have water scaling the foundation.

The tour has covered only about one-eighth of Grand Forks – the Central Park and Lincoln Park areas, to 13th Avenue to the south and 17th Street South to the west. While aerial views show a sea of water in Grand Forks, it’s not a deep sea everywhere. There’s hope for those wondering what they will see when they return to their homes. Most people say they can handle basement water; they were prepared for that.

While saddened by the destruction, I feel better than when I disembarked on the boat tour. Although horrible, it’s not as horrible as imagined. Pictures – on television and newspapers – deal with the most dramatic. Not everywhere is it as bad.

I feel better, that is, until I reach over the boat’s side to pluck a floating, white object from the murky water. I’ve seen dozens of these on our excursion and curiosity finally wins. I need to know what it is.

It’s an unfilled sand bag.

© 1997, Grand Forks Herald

The Herald is reinventing itself; but it also is restoring itself. Today, Marcia Harris’ column is back. Thursday, Marilyn Hagerty returns.

Today, we introduce an expanded help page, which will direct readers to an array of agencies ready to aid in flood recovery.

As for the Herald staff: We are situated in Manvel, N.D., a community whose generosity continues to overwhelm us. We’ve proven we can publish a daily newspaper under adverse circumstances. We’ll be working to restore and improve as much of the old Herald as we can.

We know readers appreciate the Herald’s persistence, and we appreciate your loyalty and your patience. We’re all standing, and we’re standing together.

-- Mike Jacobs, editor

By Wayne Nelson and Kevin Grinde

Herald Staff Writers

The unforgiving Red River slowly began to loosen its devastating grip on Grand Forks on Wednesday.

But the Red continued its relentless flow northward and continued to rise in the nearly-evacuated towns of Drayton and Pembina. The increase at Pembina especially was dramatic.

According to a National Weather Service spokesman, the river in Grand Forks fell by approximately 6 inches since its crest between Sunday and Monday.

At 7 a.m. Wednesday, the Red stood at 53.6 feet.

Unlike the northern valley, there was good news to the east of Grand Forks and East Grand Forks, as the Red Lake River in Crookston, which flows into the Red in East Grand Forks, was on a steady decline.

The news to the north, however, was not encouraging.

‘‘We’re going absolutely crazy around here,’’ said Kathy Nelson, office deputy at Cavalier County Sheriff’s Department. ‘‘People are calling about water problems all over the place.’’

Water was building up on the Interstate 29 off-ramp in Pembina, but evacuees were traveling through it to get out of town anyway.

In a weird twist, Nelson said county commissioners gave permission to one farmer to fence in a portion of road across County 55 between North Dakota 18 and I-29.

Why? ‘‘It’s the only high ground available he can put his cattle on,’’ Nelson said.

The official crest of the river in Grand Forks won’t be known for a while, according to Wendy Pearson, National Weather Service hydrologist. ‘‘We don’t have an exact number, but we can figure it out by high-water marks later,’’ Pearson said. She estimated the crest at the 54-foot mark.

Estimating the crest has been guesswork for the service because the gauge in East Grand Forks malfunctioned Saturday.

A sophisticated measuring device was installed Tuesday in East Grand Forks by the U.S. Geological Service that allowed emergency management officials to accurately read river levels for the first time in four days.

The device, called a data collection platform, was installed near the gauge house that measured levels before the river’s massive show of force last weekend. An antenna hooked to the platform sends river information to a satellite and the satellite beams the information back to weather service officials. The device was flown to Grand Forks on Tuesday and installed.

Pearson provided the following river level readings and projected crests from Fargo to Pembina:

• Fargo: 37.5, down sixth-tenths of a foot since Tuesday.
• East Grand Forks: 53.6, down approximately six inches.
• Oslo: 38.1, holding steady. Pearson said the river was projected to crest Wednesday or today. The city is still dry because water is bypassing the city, she said.
• Drayton: 45.2, up two-tenths; crest of 48-49 feet today or Friday.
• Pembina: 53.3, up 1.1 feet; crest of 58-59 feet Sunday or Monday.

How fast the river will fall in Grand Forks won’t be determined until today, Pearson said.

At Crookston, the Red Lake River fell to 17.89 feet as of 2 p.m. Wednesday, a one-foot drop since Tuesday. The river, which crested at 28.30 on April 17, is on a steady decline.

No major flooding problems were reported Wednesday there, and emergency officials deactivated their operations center at midday. However, phones still were being staffed in case of emergencies.

© 1997, Grand Forks Herald

By Kevin Bonham

Herald Staff Writer

PEMBINA, N.D. -- People in North Dakota’s oldest city staged a frantic fight against time Wednesday, raising dikes to hold off the rising Red River of the North, even as they were ordered to leave their homes.

‘‘They should give us a chance to whip this,’’ said Charles Walker, a Pembina resident and husband of Mayor Hetty Walker. ‘‘All we want is an honest chance at it. No one wants to lose their homes.’’

But flood-fighting efforts stalled for a time Wednesday as conflicting reports spread through the community about whether or not they should give up on their 200-year-old town.

On Wednesday, the Pembina County Commission ordered residents to halt sandbagging when the river level reached 56 feet, or when the spreading water closes off Interstate 29 – the town’s only escape route.

With the river at 53.5 feet Wednesday morning, the city still had time. Pembina officials urgently called for volunteers to raise the city’s ring dike to 59 or 59.5 feet. The National Weather Service predicts the river will crest between 58 and 59 feet sometime this weekend.

As the calls spread, some radio reports told volunteers not to go to Pembina to help.

It took a visit and a hastily called meeting by Gov. Ed Schafer to resolve the issue.

He calmed their fears and settled the dispute, which he attributed to fatigue and miscommunication.

‘‘People are tired,’’ Schafer said. ‘‘They’re up to their eyeballs. And sometimes people can’t see the whole picture when they’re up to their eyeballs in mud and stuff.’’

City, county and state officials are worried about residents’ safety, he said.

The county issued the evacuation order only after consulting with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, State Water Commission and Pembina County Emergency Manager Becky Ault. The city imposed a mandatory evacuation Tuesday evening, except for people raising dikes.

The county wants a chance to save Pembina, too, but safety is an issue, said Corene Vaughn, County Commission chairwoman.

‘‘We do not want to endanger people,’’ Vaughn said Wednesday.

The evacuation order sets out a series of actions, all of which will be triggered by the river.

Here is the order: The City of Pembina must be evacuated when the river level reading reaches 56 feet, or when water makes I-29 impassable at Pembina.

The order also restricts the number of maintenance and law enforcement crews that will be allowed to stay in town and bans media requests for assistance.

It was that last message – a ban on requests for volunteers to help sandbag – that caused the confusion and a confrontation between city and county officials.

Many listeners, including the Walkers, thought radio reports meant that sandbagging efforts should end immediately. Charles Walker, who is a Pembina County Commissioner, did not attend Wednesday morning’s commission meeting because he was working at Pembina’s city emergency operations center.

‘‘We have the people to put up the fight,’’ Mayor Hetty Walker said. ‘‘We are safe. Why panic?’’

Meanwhile, truckloads of sandbags rolled into Pembina Wednesday afternoon. The number of volunteers hovered around two dozen in the morning, growing to about 60 or 70 by midafternoon.

With the crest predicted for the weekend, local residents hope they have enough time, if nothing else gets in their way.

‘‘If we can keep going a couple of more days, we can save this place,’’ Chuck Walker said.

© 1997, Grand Forks Herald

By Erik Siemers

Herald Staff Writer

PEMBINA, N.D. -- University of North Dakota President Kendall Baker has offered his university to Grand Forks.

The idea is to allow the residents of the city to live at UND while they get their homes and livelihoods in order. As evacuees move back home, others can move into the university.

UND is a city within a city and has housing and infrastructure to support 4,000 to 5,000 people. At the western edge of Grand Forks, it’s relatively high and was one of the last parts of the city to go under. It’s relatively undamaged, Baker said Wednesday.

‘‘We want to be the hub, the core for the reconstruction of Grand Forks,’’ he said from his office at the UND plant services building.

‘‘We can provide housing, we can provide space for business and industry, we can provide day care for their children,’’ Baker said. ‘‘We want to use the university in that effort.’’

This will obviously be a big change for the university and its students, who left frantically after Baker’s decision to close the university for the school year.

‘‘We’re going to do everything we can possibly do to facilitate that transition,’’ Baker said. ‘‘The campus will be cleaned, and the residence halls will be fresh.’’

Baker praised his students, thousands of whom turned out to fight the flood.

‘‘I want to congratulate them and commend them on the effort they made to save their city,’’ said Baker who worked along with students at dikes and at Sandbag Central, he said.

‘‘The stories that I heard from people about our students were really something to behold,’’ Baker said. ‘‘I was on the dike with our students the night we tried to save Smith Hall; we had to pull those students off the dike.’’

Smith Hall, along with other buildings on campus, suffered damage despite all the work.

The Medical Science North building suffered the most damage on campus, taking 4- to 6-feet of water, Baker said.

‘‘We’ll reconstruct it,’’ he said.

The Hughes Fine Arts building on the west bank of the English Coulee was surrounded by water, but water reached only the lower-level storage area. Baker said no musical instruments or equipment were damaged.

Baker’s home, also next to the coulee, has water in the basement.

Baker said he and others ‘literally built a bunker’’ to save a transformer that provides electricity to most of the campus.

Faculty and staff saved books and records at the Chester Fritz Library and the Law Library.

‘‘We worked so hard to save things so we could preserve our university,’’ Baker said.

The English Coulee was dropping Wednesday. The bridge over it was passable for the first time since the city was evacuated. A day earlier, Baker said, it took a large military truck to get him across.

‘‘That’s what enabled us as a community to take the valiant stand they did,’’ Baker said.

© 1997, Grand Forks Herald

By Lori Lessner

PEMBINA, N.D. -- Forget the federal flood relief money President Bill Clinton promised. Publisher’s Clearinghouse could come to the rescue of Meridith Gozdal, who was forced out of her home here by the bulging Red River.

Gozdal picked up her mail Wednesday at the Masonic Lodge in St. Thomas, N.D., for the first time in four days, and under a mound of credit card applications and a pet magazine, sat a fat, rectangular letter notifying her that she is ‘‘scheduled’’ to win $1 million in 48 hours.

‘‘We don’t have problems anymore,’’ her husband Todd Gozdal teased. ‘‘We’re going to win Publisher’s Clearinghouse. All right!’’

Her family could sure use the money if the river decides to wreak the same havoc it did in Grand Forks, she said. She and her husband, both sets of in-laws and her sister’s family evacuated the Drayton area recently.

With no other relatives to stay with, the Gozdals turned to the home of a friend of a friend in Milton, 40 miles west of here. Todd’s parents are renting an apartment in St. Thomas, and Meridith’s parents are living in a camper off a dirt road in Kittson County (Minn.),15 miles to the northeast.

They’ve been uprooted. That, combined with all the work they’ve done over the years to make their home cozy, has taken its toll on the couple.

And their cats, too. One of their two cats got car sick on the long drive to Milton, and left a mess in the pickup.

But the Gozdals returned Wednesday to this town of about 900 and joined fellow residents in packing the last of their belongings. The couple took a television from their sister’s house for their parents to use as well as some videos, including ‘‘Blues Brothers,’’ ‘‘Stripes,’’ and ‘‘Crimson Tide.’’ The town was evacuated at 3 a.m. Monday, though National Guard soldiers allowed people to come back during daylight to collect what they may have overlooked in the early-morning scramble.

Soldiers set up a checkpoint in which they tracked cars going in and out of the city by recording the license plate numbers. Everyone had to be out by dark and won’t be able to return until the river level crests and settles down.

That will be at least a few days, if not longer, Drayton Fire Chief Francis Bellamy said. The National Weather Service has said it expects the river to crest Thursday or Friday at 48 or 49 feet. But the fact that the water is rising only a tenth of an inch per hour leads Bellamy to believe it will crest sooner – and at 46 or 47 feet. It reached 45.31 feet at noon Wednesday.

Some parts of town looked deserted Wednesday afternoon, while a couple blocks on South Third Street were jammed with minivans and pickup trucks with trailer hook-ups. Vehicles were stuffed to the ceilings with clothes and furniture. It looked as if a bunch of people had over-packed for college by taking everything except the kitchen sink.

One of those was Sharon Dakken, who had her washer and dryer loaded onto a trailer. Another woman had her refrigerator and electric stove taken away. And what they left behind – used couches or rusty dishwashers that weren’t working very well to begin with – were mounted above the first-floor of their homes in strange and creative ways. Most used wooden beams; Nancy Nelson laid wooden closet doors from the basement across the top of a round carpet-cleaning machine.

Volunteers from neighboring towns estimated that, in the past three days, they’ve helped people in 60 Drayton homes move out their furniture. The items will be stored at homes and warehouses in the St. Thomas area. While the volunteers said they were glad to help, the generosity of some St. Thomas folks left a few Drayton residents feeling guilty.

‘‘We had one woman who didn’t want to take up too much space on the trailer with her things,’’ volunteer Jeff Whelan said. ‘‘You could tell she had a lot of nice things and that she wanted to move them, but she wouldn’t let us. We had to keep telling her that we had plenty of room for all her things and other people’s too. I mean, we have three pickups and three trailers.’’

Dakken said she felt bad that she had been moving furniture for four hours while others were sandbagging, and still more sandbagging could be done. (About 20,000 sandbags filled by volunteers at the Emergency Operations Center in St. Thomas were dropped off in town by the morning, said Gail McMartin, a St. Thomas city council member and one of three disaster relief coordinators.)

She also said she has mixed emotions about packing up most everything in her house, when a clay dike bolstered by plywood stretches down river throughout the 2 miles of town.

‘‘Most of the time I think what I’m doing is worth it, because everything will definitely be saved,’’ she said. ‘‘But with the plywood just put up, this dike really looks wonderful and stable. Then I feel foolish for packing everything.’’

About 40 families who have been evacuated from the northeast part of the state are staying in St. Thomas, 25 of whom are Drayton residents. About 15 miles west of the river, St. Thomas is in no danger of flooding; in fact, water run-off from fields already came and receded, McMartin said.

‘‘Their resources are strapped because of what they’re doing in the Grand Forks area,’’ she said. ‘‘All that’s happening here – dispersing food and water, hauling sandbags from here to Drayton in trucks, finding housing for evacuees – is happening because we’re such a close-knit community. Farmers and businesses have made donations, and hundreds of people are volunteering to sandbag.

‘‘People here have had the opportunity to watch what happened in Grand Forks,’’ she said. ‘‘They’ve had time ever since then to prepare to get their things out, and they are. But they’re also coming back to sandbag and help save the town, and I think that’s incredible.’’

© 1997, Grand Forks Herald

Here’s an update on buildings affected by flooding at UND:

• Hardest hit: School of Medicine and Health Sciences building, with 4 to 6 feet of water.
• Affected residence halls: Smith/Johnstone/Fulton complex, Bek, Noren, Squires, Swanson, Walsh and Wilkerson.
• Affected buildings: Memorial Union, Energy and Environmental Research Center, International Centre, Era Bell Thompson Center, Conference Center, and Chester Fritz Auditorium.
• Affected academic buildings: Babcock, Hancock, Hughes Fine Arts, Leonard, Montgomery, Sayre and Witmer halls.

By Kevin Bonham

Herald Staff Writer

PEMBINA, N.D. -- Volunteers worked 24 hours a day through Thursday to raise the ring dike around Pembina to 58 feet as the Red River of the North inched upward toward the 55-foot level.

The massive effort brought new hope to North Dakota’s oldest community that people could stave off major flooding, even as rising water has left it a virtual island.

‘‘We’re going to make it,’’ Pembina Mayor Hetty Walker said Thursday afternoon.

The Red River is expected to crest at 58 feet in Pembina, either Sunday or Monday, according to the latest National Weather Service forecast. By 1 p.m. Thursday, it stood at 54.5 feet.

Flood-fighting efforts were hampered by a lack of access to town. The Pembina River, which flows into the Red at Pembina, continued to back up, spilling more than 18 inches of fast-moving water across Interstate 29 by early Thursday afternoon.

Hundreds of volunteers arriving to help with sandbagging efforts had to be ferried into town via HEMTTs, 10-ton National Guard cargo trucks. Except for sandbag trucks, the highway was closed .

Pembina, with a population of about 650, has been under a mandatory evacuation since Tuesday evening.

People registered to help with the flood-fighting effort can stay overnight. That number totaled about 70 Wednesday night.

© 1997, Grand Forks Herald

BISMARCK -- Forecasters raised Devils Lake’s expected peak level for the second time in a week, bringing the projected level just 2.6 feet short of spillover height.

Tim Heisler, emergency management director for Ramsey County, said the new projections issued Thursday were ‘‘overwhelming.’’

The National Weather Service revised its predicted peak level to between 1,443.5 and 1,444 feet in late June or early July. The new peak level is 1.5 to 2 feet higher than the adjusted increase issued last Friday.

The lake’s present level is 1,438.9 feet above sea level.

Dale Frink, assistant state engineer, said the weather service revised its projections after further analysis of water flowing through the lake’s tributaries.

‘‘There’s very, very large runoffs into those tributaries,’’ he said.

Indications are that about 500,000 acre feet of water will dump into Devils Lake this spring and summer, compared with about 300,000 in 1979, 1993 and 1995, Frink said.

The lake, which has no natural outlet, would begin spilling over east toward Stump Lakes in Nelson County at 1,446.6 feet, he said.

Heisler said it will take about two weeks for water in outlying coulees and streams to make its way to the lake.

If the lake reaches 1,444 feet more homes, roads and rural utilities will be endangered.

‘‘We’re all worried here in Devils Lake about the protective dike that rings the city,’’ he said.

The rapid rise of the lake may not give crews enough time to complete the dike to desired levels, Heisler said. ‘It’s going to be a fight to complete this,’’ he said.

Devils Lake’s previously known record peak was 1,441 feet in 1830, before North Dakota was a state.

Sharon Etemad, executive dean of UND-Lake Region in Devils Lake, mentioned the new, higher level Thursday during a Board of Higher Education meeting in Bismarck.

She was speaking from Devils Lake, where UND-Lake Region has been sheltering Grand Forks flood refugees.

‘‘It’s our practice run for the summer, maybe,’’ Etemad said, prompting some nervous laughs.

© 1997, Grand Forks Herald

By Greg DeVillers and Wayne Nelson

Herald Staff Writers

Dick Dahl’s heart was pounding as he walked down the sidewalk to the door of the family home.

After only a few days away, the family’s sanctuary suddenly was a mystery.

‘‘I was scared that we’d have water in here,’’ Dahl said about his home at 2209 S. 22nd St. ‘‘But we’re completely dry. When I saw that, it was a sigh of relief.’’

For hundreds of Grand Forks residents, Thursday was the day that they’ve simultaneously dreaded and anxiously awaited — a chance to re-enter their homes for the first time since the flood of the Red River forced their evacuation last weekend.

Re-entry — not permanent, but a chance to check homes and grab necessities — was held from noon until 4 p.m. in a designated portion of southwest Grand Forks. The area was bordered by 13th and 32nd avenues and South Washington Street and Columbia Road. Security in the re-entry area was tight as the North Dakota Army National Guard, with the help of other state and federal agencies, monitored the return.

‘‘It’s a matter of putting this (security) together in an orderly fashion without having to call for martial law,’’ Grand Forks Mayor Pat Owens said.

Once residents reached the checkpoint, they were required to show identification and log in. They also received an orange pass for the dashboards of their vehicles.

‘‘I expect there will be a bell curve of people coming in and out,’’ National Guard Brig. Gen. Murray Sagsveen said. ‘‘But if they haven’t logged out by 4 p.m., we’ll go looking for them.’’

The return had mixed news for the residents.

The Dahls were among the lucky ones, with no water damage.

‘‘We’re so thankful,’’ said Linda Dahl, who had cried when the family evacuated. ‘‘Then you start thinking about your friends, what they might be going through, and you feel guilty, remorseful. But you can’t help but feel ecstatic for yourself.’’

Others weren’t so lucky.

Diane Brenno returned to her townhouse at 2715D Knight Drive to find 4 feet of water in the basement, and that was down from the water marks left on the walls.

‘‘We’ve had about 6 feet,’’ Brenno said. ‘‘Everything was floating in the basement — personal items, clothing, stereo equipment. The washer and dryer were under water. And there was some sewer backup.

‘‘We kind of expected it. But it’s still a major disappointment.’’

No matter what the news, residents seemed to take it well. Little emotion was shown as they exited the area by passing through the checkpoint at 17th Avenue South and Columbia Road.

Even those who were high and dry felt the effects.

Marilyn Steiner lives in a second-floor apartment, so her living quarters were dry. ‘‘But everything in the fridge and freezer was gross-smelling,’’ she said.

‘‘It doesn’t look like it got wet on the lower level of our apartment, either. It doesn’t look like there was a lot of water on the street. But there’s a lot of debris — papers, cans, stuff lying around that you don’t usually see.’’

Don Boggetto, who lives on the 1400 block of 15th Street South, had an aroma of a different variety. ‘‘It’s all sewer backup,’’ he said.

In addition to satisfying curiosity, re-entries were a chance to grab necessities left behind in the haste of the evacuation, such as clothes, medicine, etc. Most of the cars leaving the checkpoint at 17th Ave. South and Columbia road contained clothes and personal papers. Some were taking out food that had spoiled since power was cut to the area.

Becky McDonald, whose house at 1426 S. 26th St. only had a few inches of water in the basement, already was looking ahead. ‘‘We picked up more clothes. And some personal papers that we’re supposed to need for when FEMA calls us,’’ she said.

Also surviving was Ken Carlson’s mobile home in the Columbia Heights Park, which is off Columbia Road. Water was only up to the trailer’s foundation. He saw landscaping timber floating in other yards and skirts torn off the base of other mobile homes. ‘‘It was a real mess,’’ Carlson said.

Carlson came out with only two blankets. ‘‘They’re something we curl up in every night, watching TV,’’ Carlson said. ‘‘It will be like our security blanket from home.’’

Re-entry also was a chance to see neighbors and neighborhoods. Roger Chisholm took time away from the 18 inches of water in his basement to walk up and down South 19th Street.

‘‘Walking down the block, it seemed like the east side of our street had more water than the west side,’’ Chisholm said. ‘‘We’re thankful we only got 18 inches; some of our neighbors across the street had 4 feet of water in their basement.

‘‘It’s still kind of devastating, though, to go down and see your rec room, your laundry room, still all ruined. The sheetrock just sucks up that moisture. It’s ruined.’’

The city still remains in charge of security, but Owens called upon the National Guard for help. Sagsveen, who until Monday was a private attorney in Bismarck, said 100 Guardsmen were deployed. The Guard is receiving help from the Grand Forks Police Department, the State Highway Patrol and the state Game and Fish Department. U.S. marshals also have been made available if needed.

The Guard made two sweeps of the area before determining it was safe enough for residents to return for essentials.

‘‘When the water receded, we inspected the area, and then we made another cursory inspection to see if there were any power lines down or manhole covers blown off,’’ Sagsveen said.

Sagsveen said he didn’t anticipate looting during the limited re-entry. He said homeowners could be additional eyes and ears for security patrols.

‘‘By bringing people back in, it may even reduce that (looting) possibility,’’ Sagsveen said. ‘‘People here are upset that they’re away from their homes. But they’ve been polite. If everyone is courteous, we can avoid confrontations.’’

At the 17th Avenue and Columbia Road checkpoint, Lt. Mark Cutshaw said the re-entry appeared to run smoothly without major problems. ‘‘We’re not allowing any moving trucks in or anything like that,’’ Cutshaw said. ‘‘Basically, we’re just opening the area up so people can go see what the damage is.’’

Owens said residents of other areas will be able to inspect their homes when it’s safe. She gave no indication when that would be nor did she speculate about the next area that is likely to get similar privileges.

The same area opened Thursday will be open again today, again from noon until 4 p.m.

© 1997, Grand Forks Herald

By Tim Fought

Herald Staff Writer

How’s my house? That’s the question for most people.

We can’t tell you, with any specificity, about your house. You’re not going to know for sure until you get to go back. Even then you won’t be entirely sure until you get your foundation inspected.

But here are some observations and generalizations based on a four-hour tour of Grand Forks on Thursday morning.

• A lot of houses that weren’t in the lowest areas but were near those areas might escape first-floor damage. We saw a lot of houses with watermarks halfway up the part of the foundation that’s visible.
• It makes a lot of difference in this flood whether the foundation is high. Houses set low on the foundation appeared to be in much more trouble. On the south side, this might mean, for example, that older homes might do better than newer ones, elevations being equal.
• Besides calling into question development practices next to the Red River, the flood might lead the city to question the construction of garden-level or below-ground apartments. At the Chateau Condominiums on the north end, for example, the lower-level units appeared to be full, while the ground-level units probably escaped damage. Similarly, west of Immanuel Lutheran Church on Cherry Street north of 17th Avenue South, it appears that water has damaged low-level apartments.

Here are some specific observations from some Grand Forks neighborhoods. The tour was taken on a five-ton truck with members of the National Guard. It concentrated on neighborhoods along the river but back from the worst flooding.

• On the west side, Parkwood Place looked to be in good shape, along with the rest of the medical complex and clinics in the area.
• There was a lot of water in the yard at the apartments southeast of the Columbia Road overpass.
• Both the cemeteries on North Columbia had water.
• Fat Albert’s on Gateway had water halfway up to the door handles, but next door, the water was only lapping at the bottom of Taco John’s. Farther down the streets, water was at the base of the door of Charlie Brown’s. Assuming that the water had fallen considerably, all three businesses probably took a lot of water.
• At the Simonson’s station next door, the pump islands were, in fact, islands.
• At Seward and North Third Street, water seemed to be flowing out of a storm sewer. There’s current in the Riverside area but closer to the river. As you move east in Riverside, the water deepens, but many houses had a fringe of yard showing.
• Down Conklin Street toward Lewis Boulevard, conditions worsened, but the height of houses may be decisive. At 1618 Lewis Blvd., there were a few courses of brickwork showing, but farther north, houses looked to be in worse shape. At 1501 Lewis Blvd., water was at the top step.
• Across Gateway Drive, houses along North Third Street, just across the street from a dike and the river, appeared to be in reasonable shape. A few had more than a fringe of yard showing. At North Third and Fifth Avenue North, the water appeared to have risen only to the second porch step on one house.
• The less said about downtown, the better. A measure of the height: Even the Chamber of Commerce building, set high in an old railroad depot, appeared to have taken water. The Federal Building was not damaged by fire.
• At Central High School, water was on the steps. At the southwest corner, four steps showed. At the west entrance, more showed. In the new addition, water was visible inside the lobby.
• At North Fifth Street and Fifth Avenue North, houses built low appeared to have taken water at the first floor.
• St. Michael’s Catholic Church will have water in the basement, as will the old Washington School building.
• The Knights of Columbus club on University Avenue was clearly hard hit.
• Basement apartments at the Presidential Arms on North Sixth Street will obviously be in big trouble, but the first floors should be OK. Across the street, the Social Security building has six courses of wet brick.
• At the Civic Auditorium, once a flood shelter, the water apparently had been at the top of the basement windows.
• Across from the police station, about 10 a.m., the new clock in the mini-park read 2:42.
• At the First Presbyterian Church at Belmont Road and Fifth Street South, the water line appeared to be below the door handle. Across Fifth, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church was in better shape. Across Belmont, the water was halfway up the pumps at Valley Dairy.
• On Reeves Drive, most of the big houses had soggy lawns. Some of the lower, ranch-style places clearly will have more problems.
• We’ve all seen the Lincoln Drive damage. Below Almonte and Plum, it looks awful. Above, some houses probably will be OK. It’s really hard to tell.
• At Reeves and Ninth Avenue South, most of the houses looked to be well above the water line.
• On Belmont Road farther south, where water still was flowing, yards looked soggy, but you could see ground.
• The stretches of Walnut and Chestnut south of 13th Avenue South have lots of damage, as has been obvious for several days. Even as far west as Walnut and 15th Avenue South, water lines were halfway up picture windows.
• On Cottonwood Street south of 15th Avenue South, several low-built houses probably had taken water on the first floor. Houses with higher foundations might be better off.
• The Grand Forks County Historical Society’s museum has two courses of concrete blocks showing beneath the boards.
• West of Belmont, the Olson-Elmwood area is another section in tough shape. But it’s possible that some homes are in decent shape, especially those closer to 32nd Avenue South.
• Farther south on Belmont, past 32nd Avenue South, the coulee is full to the bank, and some houses along it clearly have been lost. South of that along Belmont, the road rises some. In a couple of houses, generators were running.
• On Circle Hills, there’s a lot of variance as a result of drainage courses. Some of the curvilinear streets are bare, but a lot of houses low on the foundation have taken water on the first floor.
• ¤ On Chestnut between 32nd and 24th avenues south, most of the houses showed a lot of yard.
• On Cherry north of 24th, the street was full of water, but the houses looked to be in decent shape. The Grace Baptist Church had water showing on two courses of wet brickwork above ground. At Park Avenue, the water appeared deeper, and some of the one-story houses may well have had water on the first floor.
• Just south of 717 Cherry, a house burned.
• It looks like there’s a lot of water in the parking lot at Leever’s.
• Along South 12th Street, yards were completely uncovered. Four days ago, water had lapped at the foundations of the houses.
• At Lewis and Clark Elementary School, there will be lower-level damage. Two courses of brickwork were wet.
• All along the east side of South Washington, water is pounded along the frontage road and business property. That’s a result of the dike thrown up in the middle of the street.

Caveats for the reader

These observations come with big qualifiers, and here are two of them.

• You can’t tell from the outside of most houses whether floor joists are wicking moisture into the first floor and ruining wood and carpet. Again, you won’t know for sure until you get back home.
• The level of water in many residential areas of Grand Forks is falling. We saw places where the water had fallen a depth equal to six courses of brickwork and receded a few feet from the foundation. The recession seems more pronounced to the west. A National Guard escort said the approaches to the Columbia Road overpass had been covered Wednesday. They were mostly dry Thursday.

© 1997, Grand Forks Herald