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New levee system in North Dakota and Minnesota helps communities stay dry from flood waters
 | 04.06.2006 | 10:28:03 | Views: 4743 | ID:

April 6 '06: Farmers and residents of North Dakota and Minnesota have been battling heavy spring rains and rising flood waters, the Associated Press reported Thursday.

The Red River's flood waters caused "anxiety ... along the Minnesota-North Dakota line," the AP reported. The flood waters crested near the city of Grand Forks, rising 47.8 feet, only to be stopped by the new levees installed, according to reports from the National Weather Service.

The Christian Science Monitor reported Thursday that state leaders were mobilizing their resources to make sure their past preparations will help to avoid the flooding in 1997 that turned the Red River "into the 'Red Sea' and engulfed dozens of towns."

"To further prepare," the Monitor reported, "Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty this week authorized the mobilization of 135 National Guard troops to work in three counties to aid with dike patrols, security and traffic control. ... In East Grand Forks, a brand new systems of walls and levees virtually surrounds the town, higher than before."

Across the country in California, local communities in the Sacramento Valley are trying to cleanup and repair their levee system after heavy rains called "pineapple express" came and washed out the burms sending flood waters into the agricultural area.

The focus on levee readiness in back in the Red River area is high on priorities, the Monitor reported. "It's taken the cities years to recover - East Grand Forks lost some 15 percent of its population, and had to rebuild three of its four schools - but it also forced some serious planning and tough decisions. ... Whole neighborhoods were kept from rebuilding, and the river's floodway was turned into a greenway. Levees and flood walls now ring both cities, and diversion channels were built."

Those types of decisions are plaguing rebuilding efforts in other parts of the country, particularly New Orleans and the Gulf Coast area where entire neighborhoods and parts of the city were destroyed by flood waters from Hurricane Katrina after the levee system broke.

 

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