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American Morning

Threat of Floods in North Dakota

Aired April 11, 2001 - 11:30   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.
STEPHEN FRAZIER, CNN ANCHOR: Flood-weary folks in the northern plains are being warned that the Red River could crest at least one foot higher than estimated in some cities, including Fargo and Grand Forks, North Dakota. We all remember what happened in Grand Forks four years ago. They called it "hell and high water." Fargo is just 80 miles south of Grand Forks. Standing by there is CNN's Jeff Flock.

Jeff, good morning.

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Stephen. As perhaps you can see behind me, they are continuing the efforts to raise the dikes here. They're looking for an insurance policy in both the towns of Fargo and in Grand Forks.

Here is what they're doing here. They're taking this dike up to -- this clay dike that they're putting up on top. And watch yourself behind you, Rick, because there's a front-end loader coming behind you. They are taking this dike up to a level of between 38 1/2 and 39 feet. The crest projected for next Monday or Tuesday of next week, between 37 and 38 feet, so not a whole lot of breathing room.

And in Grand Forks, farther off the north, they are looking for an even bigger insurance policy, because of course, as you mentioned, "hell and high water" four years ago. As you can see out there, the Red River is well outside its banks now, flooding park land. And that's the headline on this pretty much. So far, the floodwaters that are outside the bounds of the river, mostly flooding park land. Not a whole lot of homes affected at this point. But as these river levels continue to rise, that becomes a problem.

Here is the other headline today, and that is weather. We've got rain in the forecast for tonight here on into tomorrow. Just came back from a briefing in downtown Fargo, where the mayor says if we get steady rain, not heavy rain, we can handle that. But if you begin to get heavy rain in this basin, that's when you really start to get into a problem, because this ground is very, very saturated. Obviously, the river levels very, very high. And the fact is they just don't know what the weather is going to bring them tonight, how much. We're starting to already get some wind and in some areas, some scattered rain already. Later tonight is when it's supposed to really kick up. That is the very latest from here.

In terms of threatened homes, in both Fargo and Morehead, which is a neighboring town across the river in Minnesota, a total of about 120-130 homes threatened in the short term. But obviously, if you get breaches on some of these levees, or if you get enough water to where they start to get overtopped, now you've got real trouble.

We will of course continue to watch it here. This diking procedure is going to continue throughout the day today. As you can see, the procedure is this: Trucks like this one come in -- and this is sort of an interesting one. This is what they call a side dumper. And in a moment, this truck is going to dump its load up on top of that dike, and then the front-end loaders or the bulldozers come along and they try smooth it down and try to make the dike as high and as tight as they can get it.

We'll continue to watch this throughout the day today. That's the latest from Fargo. Back to you, Stephen.

FRAZIER: Jeff Flock, thank you. We always wondered how they did that so quickly. Now Jeff gave us a sense of how it works.

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