Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
The Race Against Flooding of the Red River Continues
Aired April 10, 2001 - 09:16 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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Now to the flood fight in the Midwest. Crews are piling sandbags and raising levees in a race to stay ahead of the rising waters.
For the latest, we go live to Breckenridge, Minnesota. Joining us is reporter Rob Olson of CNN affiliate KMSP. Rob, what can you tell us?
ROB OLSON, KMSP-TV: Well, there's a little bit of good news, and that is the water levels have dropped in the last day or so.
But there's a lot of bad news. There's a huge amount of water up river. They expect that to hit here in the next couple of days, and there's rain in the forecast for tonight. So, right now, crews are just kind of topping off some of these levies, hoping to hold the water back.
Some people are waiting. Others are blowing off some steam.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RYAN SOCNESS (ph), BRECKENRIDGE RESIDENT: It's filled with everything, you know. There we go.
OLSON (voice-over): After days of watching the rising waters target his house, Ryan Socness is taking aim back.
SOCNESS: We're so tired and fatigued that we just had to find something else to do to keep your sanity, you know.
OLSON: Taking time with his son and brother so flood fighting is not all work and no play.
SOCNESS: Oh! Sliced her.
OLSON: His house sits at a bend in the swollen Otter Tail River, winds through Breckenridge. From the air, it's the Otter Tail that has caused all this, backed up because it meets the equally swollen Bois de Sioux coming from the South. Together, they form the Red and head North.
Ryan's already been bumping ground water from his yard. His basement's been emptied into a semitrailer. The dike around his house is raised two feet. All he can do now is wait. A few blocks away, though, the race is still on because there is rain in the forecast.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's worth fighting, I guess, to try to save it, but it makes you kind of scared that it might overtake you anyways. But you've got to try and save everything.
OLSON: Crews work fast to build more dikes. The dump trucks of dirt are endless, everything hauled from what's become a pretty big hole in the ground a few miles north of town.
JOE DAVIDS, BRECKENRIDGE RESIDENT: Oh, a lot. Basically anywhere from two to three feet through the whole town.
OLSON: For people like Ryan who did flood out in '97, though, it's a fight he's willing to wage again and again because he simply does not want to move.
SOCNESS: I like the river and, you know, it's peaceful. We've got lots of wildlife down here and stuff, and sometimes there's you've just got to deal with a little water once in a while.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
OLSON: They're expecting the river to rise about another three feet, but, again, the rain kind of throws a variable into that.
They got a little bit more bad news yesterday. A planned $21- million flood-control project by the Army Corps of Engineers didn't make it into President Bush's new budget. The mayor here says he'll go to Washington himself, if necessary, to lobby to try to get that money back.
In the next couple of days, though, the fight is right here with the river. Back to you.
PHILLIPS: All right, Rob. Thanks a lot. Quite a driving range there.
Turning it over to Jill Brown. She's following all the conditions, including Minnesota. How does it look, Jill?
JILL BROWN, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, Kyra, it doesn't look great. On the forecast, it looks worse than what it is right now.
As you can see, we have a thin band of rain, Grand Forks down to Fargo. That area in Breckenridge is right about in here, and across the river, is Wahpeton.
Take a look here at our forecast for the Red River and the Wahpeton-Breckenridge area. The flood stage is 10 feet, obviously. They're over that. Nineteen feet is what's expected by Friday, and then it should drop a little bit by Saturday.
That is the forecast. That's the forecast that may change, though, so keep it in mind, and that's for Fargo, for East Grand Forks, and for Drayton. All of these really expected to crest around Thursday or Friday and then start to recede a little bit on Saturday. But that may change because of our forecast for rain.
Take look at this. From now through Wednesday evening, that little thin band that you saw may expand quite a bit. And where the orange is on this map, that could be about an inch or so of rain in the forecast, and that is the last thing we want to see.
This developing low back into Colorado is what's coming your way. As that pulls to the North and we get plenty of moisture and -- that's when the heavy rain will start, especially as we get into Wednesday. It looks like tomorrow probably the heaviest rain day. Into Thursday, it will begin to wind down. Friday may be dry. And then we still have the chance of some showers into Saturday.
Let's expand our view a little bit, and I'll show you. So windy and wet here with this low that quickly moves up into Canada. It doesn't last long, but that one- or two-day rain event could cause a lot more problems. Friday's your dry day here. And then watch this front to the West. It looks like that will come your way, but at least the chance of showers on Saturday.
So, again, that forecast for the river crest may change quite a bit. They'll be putting it out every day. It will be updated once a day by the National Weather Service. The crest right now. Maybe Thursday, Friday a few feet higher than where it is. A forecast that could change very quickly.
So we'll keep you advised on the flooding situation. We also have severe weather and hot weather to talk about. We'll do that coming up shortly.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
