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Apr 1, 2009 9:07 pm US/Central
Fargo Exhales As Red River Continues Steady Drop
FARGO, N.D. (AP) ―
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Richard Thelen shovels the sidewalk in front of the Empire Tavern as a heavy snow falls on March 30, 2009 in Fargo, N.D.
Daniel Barry/Getty Images
Fargo was back in business Wednesday, as shops reopened and residents returned to work amid signs that the retreating Red River had spared the city.
There were dark reminders, however, that not everyone escaped damage.
Across the river in Moorhead, Minn., Roger Degerman snapped on rubber gloves and hauled away couches, toys and carpeting after water came up through the sewers and wiped out his basement. He estimated the damage would soar above his $10,000 flood insurance policy.
"You go through every emotion. You're speechless, you say things you shouldn't say, you laugh, you cry. Then you're grateful," he said. "We lost the basement. The neighbors across the street lost their home. The reality of all this will not sink in for awhile."
But there was a growing sense the region had dodged a major disaster.
Businesses in both cities reopened and Fargo streets were packed with vehicles as the Red River dropped further below the sandbags and the top of the permanent floodwalls. Officials began scaling back their flood response, and schools prepared to resume Monday.
"Our word for the day is restore and recharge," Mayor Dennis Walaker said.
Fargo also began looking ahead to the enormous effort of removing the roughly 3 million sandbags stacked atop the dikes. Walaker said the job would begin soon.
"We don't want them sitting in their living room watching the National Guard doing this," he said. "We can't do that. People don't understand how many bags are out there."
Fargo also wants to work with state and federal officials to come up with a long-term flood plan. "It's something that we want to get done as quickly as possible," the mayor said.
City officials insist they'll breathe easier when the river falls to 36 or 37 feet or lower. By mid-afternoon Wednesday, it was down to 36.98 feet -- far above flood stage but below the top of the floodwalls, which are topped with 5 feet of sandbags.
Forecasters say the river could rise again when more snow melts. But even future crests aren't expected to approach the levels feared during the past weekend, when the river reached a record 40.82 feet early Saturday.
In areas south of Fargo, Cass County officials had begun assessing the damage in neighborhoods where about 50 homes were protected only by individual rings of sandbags. County engineer Keith Berndt said some of the dikes were more sophisticated than others, and so far about half of the homes appeared to have damage ranging from sewage backup to flooded basements to water on the main floor. Others, he said, were dry.
"I'm amazed that some of the homes didn't get wet," he said. "Some of those people went up against unbelievable odds."
Some of the hardest hit communities were in rural areas outside the flood protection system.
In Oxbow, N.D., a Cass County subdivision jammed up against the Red River's banks, 66-year-old Bob Liebelt spent Wednesday pumping 10 feet of water from the basement of the "dream house" he bought with his wife three years ago.
Floodwaters that burst through a basement window ruined two bedrooms, a bathroom and game rooms. Soggy mattresses and leather chairs were left piled atop one another by the receding flood waters. Floating in the remaining murky stew of sewage and river water were several shampoo bottles, an empty bottle of gin and a dead mouse.
"You build the dikes and man the pumps -- and then you still lose," said Liebelt, who'd spent 48 hours fighting the flood before evacuating. "I'd move in a heartbeat if they offered to buy me out."
In Moorhead and much of surrounding Clay County, city leaders and residents moved from flood-emergency to flood-recovery mode. The city lifted most of the remaining recommended evacuations, leaving only a small area on the north side under such a warning.
Tammy McRae walked into her Moorhead home for the first time and paused in the kitchen, overwhelmed by the prospect of cleaning out the two bottom floors of her four-level home, which filled with water and river silt.
Just yards away, the river flowed past the 5-foot dike they'd built, just as they had three other times when water threatened their home in the last 12 years.
This time, she said, they lost.
"We couldn't keep up," she said. "It was just coming too fast."
The family has no insurance. The house is paid off, but it represents the family's savings, she said.
"We just got to do it," she said. "Got to fix her up. This house is what we've got."
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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