Random musings about the flood
Mike said about 200 people showed up to fix the dike (and he ran into his cousin, who is a pastor at a local church and has been spending a lot of his last week volunteering). It apparently had some low spots, so they got it fixed up. The water was about two feet from the top of the dike. Someone asked where the water normally is, and they were told that it was usually very far from the dike.
I love that. They send out a call for volunteers, stating that you should only go if you are within walking distance. They get 200 people, and things are fixed up within an hour or two.
I think most people are breathing easy tonight because the river stopped rising. It's going to start warming up, though, and that's where it gets scary. They've had so much snow even in the past week. When that starts melting, things could go higher in the next couple days (which is what the national weather service is predicting).
It makes me feel good that I live in a place where, if things start going bad, 200 random people will show up to help. I have a lot of hope that, if something does go wrong, people will be there to help in nearly a moment's notice.
I moved to the Los Angeles area after the Rodney King trials. My impression was that people were "taking care of their own" and pretty much would've let everyone else go to a warm place in a small, cramped handbasket. You know, I just can't see people in Fargo and Moorhead doing that. Mike said the same thing about living there versus living in Seattle area. I guess in the F/M area, there's more a sense that everyone is in it together...and I've not really gotten the sense that it has ever been any different (until people start discussing their alma maters). ;-)
Some people have wondered about Grand Forks. From the looks of it, they're fine. They have permanent dikes at 60 ft., and the water is supposed to crest at 52 ft. In Fargo, we have the confluence of several tributaries slightly upstream that are all managing to crest at about the same time...on top of the huge amounts of snow that showed up in the past month. As has been noted in the major media, Fargo doesn't have the flood protection that GF has because of the fact they rode out the '97 flood relatively well. I guess this goes to show that, as Henry Petroski has pointed out, failure can be a good thing. I hope, however, that nothing fails this time AND that Fargo gets some permanent dikes.
And, when this is done, we can move on to worrying about Manitoba and our friends there.
I love that. They send out a call for volunteers, stating that you should only go if you are within walking distance. They get 200 people, and things are fixed up within an hour or two.
I think most people are breathing easy tonight because the river stopped rising. It's going to start warming up, though, and that's where it gets scary. They've had so much snow even in the past week. When that starts melting, things could go higher in the next couple days (which is what the national weather service is predicting).
It makes me feel good that I live in a place where, if things start going bad, 200 random people will show up to help. I have a lot of hope that, if something does go wrong, people will be there to help in nearly a moment's notice.
I moved to the Los Angeles area after the Rodney King trials. My impression was that people were "taking care of their own" and pretty much would've let everyone else go to a warm place in a small, cramped handbasket. You know, I just can't see people in Fargo and Moorhead doing that. Mike said the same thing about living there versus living in Seattle area. I guess in the F/M area, there's more a sense that everyone is in it together...and I've not really gotten the sense that it has ever been any different (until people start discussing their alma maters). ;-)
Some people have wondered about Grand Forks. From the looks of it, they're fine. They have permanent dikes at 60 ft., and the water is supposed to crest at 52 ft. In Fargo, we have the confluence of several tributaries slightly upstream that are all managing to crest at about the same time...on top of the huge amounts of snow that showed up in the past month. As has been noted in the major media, Fargo doesn't have the flood protection that GF has because of the fact they rode out the '97 flood relatively well. I guess this goes to show that, as Henry Petroski has pointed out, failure can be a good thing. I hope, however, that nothing fails this time AND that Fargo gets some permanent dikes.
And, when this is done, we can move on to worrying about Manitoba and our friends there.