Tuesday, April 07, 2009
Volume 36 Issue 20
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Residents of N.D. and Minn. begin to recover from flood

By Kelley Matney

Staff Writer

As the Red River in North Dakota and Minnesota finally starts to recede, citizens try to start the cleanup process and get back to their normal lives.

President Obama declared North Dakota a federal disaster area because of the statewide flooding that was taking place. This means the federal government would cover 75 percent of the cleanup costs, while the rest is up to the state and local governments.

Initial estimates suggest tens of millions of dollars in damages to roads, bridges, and wastewater treatment plants and other public resources, as well as damage to some homes and businesses.

In Minnesota, preliminary assessments have showed more than $20 million in public damage in seven counties, with the most damage in Clay County, where the city of Moorhead is located.

In North Dakota, Fargo’s city administrator said the cost of cleaning up the Fargodome, home of the North Dakota University football team could total $1.5 million. The building was used for filling sandbags to hold back the river.

Forecasters have said the river may rise again when more snow melts but it isn’t estimated to reach the levels it reached over the last weekend in March. The river hit record heights on March 29 when it reached 40.82 feet.

Fargo Mayor Dennis Walaker said in an interview with the Associated Press that they had no immediate plans to clean up the close to 3 million sandbags at the river’s edge, just in case the river level rose again.

Businesses in Fargo were allowed to reopen on April 1.

"It’s going to be a slow process," said Holly Scott, at the city’s emergency operations center on April 2. "We need to make sure it’s safe for folks to be back at home again."

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