Remember the Red River Valley...

I moved to northwest Wisconsin in the summer of 1996. It was a harsh winter that year with above average snowfall. I was commuting into St. Paul, learning the skyway system, and adjusting to the heartier-than-Chicago winters; Ruth was teaching me the importance of eating well during cold times. Fattened me up, she did.*

That following spring, came hell and high water. We got Minnesota, not Wisconsin, television channels over there, and watched in horror the coverage of the Grand Forks, N.D. flooding and fires. The timing too was particularly bad: it was a waxing moon, with greater power to lift tides, effectively drawing the water up, in addition to the millions of gallons of meltwater pouring from the tributaries into the river systems.

The Red River flood waters crested at 54 feet (with 28 feet being the flood stage), and a fire broke out in the downtown business district:

The Red River, usually 100 feet wide, became a shallow lake 15 miles across, in places. Overall, the Red River Flood of 1997 was classified as a 100 year flood. Some cities along the river saw peak discharges with over 500 year recurrence levels.

The devastation did not stop there. A fire erupted downtown. It was caused by an electrical problem triggered by the floodwater, and destroyed much of the historic down-town area. Firefighters attempted to fend off the fire but conventional methods were out of the question. The streets surrounding the fire were flooded and there was no water pressure in the fire hydrants. Eventually, they were able to extinguish the fire by dropping fire retardant from an airplane, along with 120,000 gallons of water dropped from a helicopter in 60 massive dumps.

The estimated damages for the entire Red River flood totaled about $4 billion including all U.S. portions of the Red River. The Grand Forks/East Grand Forks area claimed $3.6 billion of that total.

No lives were lost immediately because of the floods, but perhaps the evacuations and distress helped contribute to early deaths, especially amongst the numerous elderly residents. It was the worst natural disaster I'd seen, pre-Katrina.


This time of year, I've learned, while you're glad for warmer days and rain instead of snow, everybody hopes for a gradual meltdown, so as not to distress the river systems. Because even when one town reinforces and builds up, all that water has to go somewhere and now the river towns downstream take on a greater risk.

We've had almost a week, maybe two now, above freezing, so it's pretty much 24-hours of melt, plus the additional rainwater pouring into the system. We haven't has as much snow as southern Wisconsin and the East Coast this year, but again, the rivers are running.

I'm heading outside to the park, to enjoy the day, maybe even get a campfire going to cook some venison weiners outside. But once the weekend is done, after we've set our clocks ahead and are thinking ahead to St. Patricks' midweek?

Don't think I'm nuts when I tell you I'm hoping for another quick cold spell. Just to slow things down and give Mother Nature a chance to catch up. Just remember the Red River Valley...

Pictures at the links.

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*At 5'6", consistently 140 pounds now, compared to 125 when I moved up here 15 years ago. That's my healthy weight; don't let them convince you that everywhere, less is necessarily more.