Open Discussion: Red River flood preparations in Fargo-Moorhead

No, I cannot imagine it. I've been through struggles to clean up after huge storms when water and sludge and who-knows-what filled our basements. We've had sudden melts and floods, hours and hours of rain leading to floods, but the situation along the Red is mind-boggling.
I thought after the last horrendous flooding that some permanent dikes had been built, something to forestall the kind of damage we saw in the past. I wish I could help, but even if my back were 20 years younger, I couldn't heave sandbags along a line of volunteers. Maybe others will know more about how we can help - send soda and juice to the workers?

I'd like to quickly weigh in on a side issue related to this flooding. A few years back there was a television show called "American Inventor" that televised pitches from inventors and picked one winner for funding. One of the finalists was a man that invented a sand-bagging tool that drastically sped up the time it takes to fill and close the bags. I'm wondering where that invention plays into all of this prep?

Radio and newspaper reports refer to some kind of machine that takes a team to operate. Could be that's his baby.

I've dealt with flooding three times, in three very different circumstances, and 3 ot 5 feet of water rather than forty. still, I'd say the flood waters are a challenge, and the cleanup is even more so. good wishes to all affected by this.

So they are pushing the water further downstream so Grand Forks and Winnipeg have to deal with it?

Did the mortgage industry inforce the rules that you must have flood insurance as part of your automatic mortgage payment? Or did they "forget" that AGAIN?

How come "100 year" floods come every 10 years? Could it be we now levy all our rivers and push the problem downstream? Do taxpayers bail people out that now don't have flood insurance for the second and third time?

Why do we think we can control nature? Why do we continue to bailout the people that live there without insurance?

I can. I live here. I've been sandbagging for days and my body HURTS.

There were dikes built in 1997 after the last flood but this flood kind of makes that one look like nothing. It's not high enough. The sandbag walls are only around four feet in people's back yards, but that's still a LOT of bags. The wall has to be like three or four feet wide and just keep going and going for miles. It's not easy.

I live in an apartment on the second floor. I'm far enough from the river that if it DOES flood, I won't be hit. Yet, I help out. We need to help each other out. If we don't, who will?

Ms. Meacham, I think you're talking about the octopus. It's SO handy! Not only does it fill the bags about ten times faster than we can with a shovel, it keeps the weight even. I haven't just been filling bags, I've been in lines to hand the bags up to create the wall. It's VERY difficult when someone tosses you a half-filled, super light bag and the next one is overfilled and so heavy you almost drop it. It comes at you less then two seconds later. It's hard to adjust to the weight change. The octopus fills them exactly the same so you always know what to expect.

Right on Samantha. Thank you for letting me know that indeed a tool like this is in use "in the field." It sounds like a fabulous invention for making things easier for everyone involved!

I've read about the sandbag tool. Now if someone can invent something to empty and haul the used sandbags, once flooding danger is over.. I understand that's also pretty labor intensive/exhausting.