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American Morning

Fears of the Red River Flooding Again

Aired April 09, 2001 - 09:18   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Fears of a repeat of the 1997 flood of the century has protection efforts moving into high gear along the Red River in Minnesota and North Dakota. The problem begins in Wahpeton where the Bois de Sioux and Otter Tail Rivers meet to form the Red River. Snow melt and heavy rain are compounding the problem.

Lillian McDonald of our Minneapolis affiliate, KMSP, joins us now. The is in Breckenridge, Minnesota -- Lillian, hello.

LILLIAN MCDONALD, KMSP-TV REPORTER: I'll tell you what. You're right on. Three rivers merging into one, and this is the head waters where it's all happening, the Red River.

As I walk through it now, you'll note it's only about knee deep, but I'm standing on a boat ramp in Memorial Park. Part of the problem is this stuff right here, snow melt, and it's continuing to melt, rising the river slowly but surely, and folks in this town are ready.

Of course, they're well experienced from '97. The dikes have been built up to about 22 feet. They expect the Red to crest sometime this week at about 19 1/2 feet. That's a little bit higher than it was in '97, but experience is good for these folks, and all they can do now at this stage of the game is hope for the best.

Now, the Red River swallowed up some local streets. So far, only a few homes in low-lying areas are underwater. The river should crest later this week at about 19-1/2 feet. Dikes are built up to 22 feet, but because they're built out of mud, they may not hold.

Snowplows are pushing the waterbed from -- back so that the silt does not wash away into the street. Now roads are closed in some of the areas, making for some long detours along the river. Volunteers got a jump on the game by sandbagging early this spring, but it's still a wait-and-see game. So all eyes right now are on this river.

And if you take a careful look right now, you can see one of the key measuring sticks. At about 16 1/2 feet is where the marker is right now on the Red River. Right along the bridge here between Breckenridge and Wahpeton, if it goes a foot higher at this point, they will be shutting down the main drag in this town, and that's a real big problem here.

We'll be keeping an eye on it. Again, flood stage expected to crest sometime this week at about 19 1/2. Dikes are good to about 22 feet. All we can do now is hope for the best.

Reporting live, I'm Lillian McDonald, CNN.

KAGAN: Lillian, before we let you go, tell us more about some of the lessons learned in '97 and some of the things that people around there did so that, when this happened again, it wouldn't be quite as bad.

MCDONALD: Well, they lost about $35 million in property damage back then, and one of the things they did with the federal money they received is install a series of pumps. So, throughout this Breckenridge area -- and Wahpeton, I might add -- they have about a dozen pumps that are working overtime pushing the water and pushing the water.

Plus, the dikes. I mean, they didn't waste any time in this area to put dikes up this time. Beforehand, they waited until the last minute, and that was part of the problem in '97. So we're hoping for the best here.

KAGAN: Very -- very good. Lillian McDonald from KSMP in Minneapolis. Thank you so much for that report.

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