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American Morning

Red River Communities Scramble to Contain Flood Waters

Aired April 10, 2001 - 10:01   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: But first, we begin in the upper Midwest where the drama is rising with the water line. Communities all along the Red River are scrambling to stack sand bags and contain the river, which has surged far beyond flood stage, and the threat of more rain and even more flooding is approaching.

Joining us with the view from Grand Forks, North Dakota is our Jeff Flock -- Hi, Jeff.

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you from Grand Forks. Of course, this is the community that was devastated in '97 and this, what you're seeing right here is some out fall of just how devastating things were in '97. The levee that you see being constructed back here, this is something that is now going well up beyond what they think the crest prediction is going to be, but they are still busy at this hour building this levee.

What they do is dump trucks come in and line up and dump their loads of clay and dirt here out along the river and then this Caterpillar up on top packs it down and they've got an additional, perhaps, two, three, maybe even four feet in some areas of additional protection.

We've got another camera out on the other side I think that kind of gives you a sense of what the levee looks like. As you can see, perhaps, the water is not yet all the way up on the existing levee. But they, frankly, do not believe the predictions that had been made by the National Weather Service and others of a crest of, they thought, 45 by the end of this week or perhaps into next week, 45 feet.

Right now the river level is at about 43 feet and just to give you an indication of where the production now stands, it's about 50 feet in Grand Forks. They're taking it to 54 feet because they just don't believe it based on what they had been through.

So they are right now, in any of the areas that need additional shoring, they're doing that now and at this point there is no additional new projection in terms of when the new crest might be because there's rain in the forecast tomorrow and into Thursday and they want to get a sense for how that plays all that into it before they come up with a new prediction for a crest.

So right now we're at 43 feet here in Grand Forks. The earlier crest was projected to be 45 and this levee will take it up to 54, so a lot of margin for error, at least they think.

That's the latest from Grand Forks -- back to you folks.

PHILLIPS: Jeff, can you still hear me?

FLOCK: Yeah, sure.

PHILLIPS: All the homes, I see all the homes behind the mounds of dirt there. Are those residents bailing out of there or are they sticking in there -- around?

FLOCK: No, in fact, they're not, Kyra. This house right here -- Rick, go ahead and show them. Give them a sense of what this neighborhood looks like. This is a neighborhood that was flooded in '97. This house right here, right behind us here there's a "Grand Forks Herald" photographer who lives in this house. He just went, left and went off to work. But no, these homes are full of people and these people are hanging here. But, of course, no one, you know, this time is watching this water rise and going ah, no, let's not worry about it. This levee is a testament to that, as to how seriously they're taking this.

PHILLIPS: Yeah, some courageous people. Jeff Flock, thanks so much.

All right, Jill Brown is following the conditions for us and gives us the latest on the Red River flooding. Oh, you've got the numbers up and ready to go, Jill.

JILL BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Kyra. Let's take a look at some of those numbers that Jeff had talked about. In East Grand Forks, 28 feet is the flood stage. As he mentioned, last he'd heard the report, the forecast was for 45 feet. This is what we have, the National Weather Service forecasting a crest Friday of 46 feet, and again, keep in mind, this is before we get this rain that we're expecting Wednesday into Thursday. Friday probably a dry day. So chances are these forecasts from Wahpeton into Fargo, East Grand Forks to Drayton (ph) may all change. It just depends on exactly how much rain we do get, and unfortunately it looks like it could be pretty heavy.

This is the Red River, right along the South -- the North Dakota and Minnesota state line, flows from south to north and it's farther south that the heavier rain is expected. This, about a two day total expected to be over an inch, perhaps over two inches in some locations.

Right now we have just a little bit of rain out here, from about Fargo to just south of Grand Forks. This is just the beginning. Really, our developing storm is still back here in the southwest. This low moving out and strengthening as it moves up into the plains will start to bring the heavier, more steady rain in during the next 24 hours. It looks like Wednesday probably our heaviest rain day, Thursday things winding down. Friday may be dry and then maybe more rain on Saturday. So let's take a look at it day by day. Watch that storm, right here. Heading into the northern plains, again, the rain will pick up. We have a little bit out there now, but there's much more and probably steady rain, probably heavy rain on the way. And then once this storm system moves eastbound, this next one to the west will come in and that's why we may have more showers back on Saturday after a one day break.

So, a lot more rain on the way in northern plains. We'll continue to keep you up to date -- Daryn, back to you.

KAGAN: Jill, thank you very much.

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