1997 Flood

[GeauxSioux]

Cities hit by 1997 river disaster offer lessons

Ten years ago this month, a record winter snowfall brought the Red River of the North out of its banks in one of the costliest and largest flood evacuations in U.S. history before Hurricane Katrina.

The river overpowered dikes protecting North Dakota's third-largest city and forced thousands to flee their homes in North Dakota, Minnesota and southern Canada. Eleven people died.

[andtheHomeoftheSIOUX!!]

I was reading in the local paper on the flood of '97. It must have been really something. It is mind boggling, some of the stuff I read about.

[proudsioux]

Ive been a life long resident of GF and i cant even count the number of epopel ask me about it and what it was like.

[farce poobah]

The events of those days are still vivid, but it all happened so fast its just a blur. I lived in the Twin Cities, but have a lot of family and friends in town. We got into town just after midnight on the 19th, and I will never forget the horror of driving across the Kennedy Bridge, seeing the water rushing down and knowing the Sherwood Park and Riverside bowls would inevitably fill. After that, 96 hours without sleep, the column of smoke from downtown, endless helicopters and sirens, a battle eventually lost, a canoe ride out, going home having failed but determined to help and recruiting volunteers for the cleanup, the once-a-weekend round trip up, fatigue after the adrenalin ran out.

What I'll remember most are the people, especially during cleanup, who were going through so much but so grateful. (I'd spend a weekend trudging through sewage in their basements, but I got to go home to my undamaged home on Monday morning.) Even today, I'll get bear hugs and thank yous. It is indeed humbling to be remembered, 10 years later,

http://www.grandforksherald.com/articles/i...rilyn%20Hagerty

I learned that if you do your very best and still fail, there's never any regrets to live with.

I learned that timing is everything.

I learned that a Saturn will float.

I learned that underneath the calm, stoic exteriors, people here really do care about each other.

I learned not to open a freezer after the power's been off a month.

I learned that 20,000 sandbags aren't that heavy if you have friends.

Having season tickets in the new Ralph, I get back a lot, and the recovery has been remarkable.

"Is this heaven? Almost. Its Grand Forks."

[star2city]

More national and regional coverage:

USA Today

Pioneer-Press

Star & Sickle's Coleman actually has a few good words

Winnipeg Free Press

WCCO

KSTP

Fargo Forum editorial

[PCM]

My wife and I took my parents to the SPA production of the "Keep the Faith" musical Thursday night at the Chester Fritz. I thought I'd gotten over the flood a long time ago, but it was obviously a very moving experience for many in the audience. If you saw the original production, this one is better in some ways. If you didn't, I urge you to go.

[82SiouxGuy]

My wife and I took my parents to the SPA production of the "Keep the Faith" musical Thursday night at the Chester Fritz. I thought I'd gotten over the flood a long time ago, but it was obviously a very moving experience for many in the audience. If you saw the original production, this one is better in some ways. If you didn't, I urge you to go.

I will second that recommendation. I only saw the original on video and thought it was great. I was at the Fritz on Thursday to see this one live. This one was better. This version brought back a lot of memories, some good and some not so good. The kids did a great job. If you have any interest in the Flood of 1997 and are around Grand Forks on Friday, I would recommend attending the show.

[dakotadan]

For anyone who may not have seen this yet, KVLYtv11.com has a great section about the flood. You can watch the original news from 10 years ago. For anyone who was not around at that time, it is a great way to be able to experience the flood almost as if you were here while it happened.

Direct link to KVLY's coverage of the 97 flood.

[Sioux-cia]

I watched on a clip about the news on MSN video highlights.

I still have remnants of anxiety, anger, helplessness and fear from ten years ago. Ten years............

[Sioux_Yeah_Yeah]

I was only 10 years old during The Flood, so I don't think I fully understood the ginormity of it at the time. Yesterday as I was sitting in my room looking for something to watch, I found that the Student Channel on campus (channel 17) was playing a documentary-like video of what happened on the campus and in the community. It did a very good job of explaining everything, and it showed a lot of the flooding in the buildings. It really opened my eyes and made me realize how big it really was and how it affected so many people. I really hope that it never happens again, because who knows what could happen next!!

Congratulations to the Grand Forks community for working together so hard and making Grand Forks a city again!!

[PCM]

From the Baltimore Sun:

Decade after disaster, Grand Forks thrives

North Dakota city has rebounded from devastating flood, fire of '97

By virtually every barometer, this northern outpost that gave the world Cream of Wheat and a perennial college hockey powerhouse is on a run that makes real estate agents and urban planners salivate.

In the past decade, the region added almost 12 percent more jobs. All the public schools are nearly new or rehabbed. A new river greenway twice the size of New York City's Central Park is a short walk from sold-out condos being built downtown.

[star2city]

From the Baltimore Sun:

Decade after disaster, Grand Forks thrives

Very positive story.

The Chicago Tribune's story: Grand Forks cresting after flood of 1997 which is apparently the original unedited version, is in its Sunday edition.

But the surest sign of confidence may have occurred last April. UND's Fighting Sioux hockey team again reached the Frozen Four, college hockey's national finals, in Milwaukee, while the Red River was rising, just six feet below the '97 flood.

A few thousand Fighting Sioux fans glanced at the flood-protection system then headed to Milwaukee.

[star2city]

Chicago Tribune Editorial: (Grand Forks) Reveling in a Whine-Free Life

One afternoon, a clot of TV reporters groused among themselves that none of the cheerful flood victims was crying for the cameras; the locals' chief worry was whether visiting news crews had plenty to eat. A Time magazine reporter dryly chronicled the aplomb of a city with 143 churches and only three psychiatrists: Residents would call a radio station, ask the on-air host about a certain block of a specific street and learn that their house was under 8 feet of water. A typical reaction: "Well, alrighty then. Thank you very much."

The Tribune's Ted Gregory, who covered the flood of '97, reported this week that a lavishly rebuilt Grand Forks is reveling in the whine-free life. The population is larger than it was (fortunately, nobody drowned in the flood). A new, 8-mile greenway of dikes and flood walls not only protects the city from the Red, but also features golf courses, picnic shelters, campgrounds, a sledding hill and a 20-mile recreation trail. Oh, and did we mention the city's new, $100 million hockey arena?

This page has noted before how North Dakotans think putting up with a little weather is a small price to pay for good schools, safe surroundings and life spans that would impress Methuselah. Add the quiet triumph of recovering from the flood and you have self-assurance that stops well short of arrogance. Self-assurance that should inspire the rest of us when events beyond our control disrupt our everyday lives.

[Let'sGoHawks!]

Chicago Tribune Editorial: (Grand Forks) Reveling in a Whine-Free Life

Like my signature says, I'm proud to be a GF resident!

[star2city]

Winnipeg Sun: Flood Series, Part 4, Grand Forks