By Kay Scrimger
April 6, 2009

Over the past two weeks, Fargo (ND), led by Mayor Dennis Walaker, faced, fought, and survived a potentially catastrophic flood of the Red River.

The Red River, which flows north, began to rise, fast outstripping estimates and threatening the city, as well as its neighbor Moorhead (MN), led by Mayor Mark Voxland.

The National Weather Service on March 25 said the river could crest as high as 43 feet by March 29, two feet higher than earlier predicted.

By Friday, the river did swelled to 40.67 feet, more than 22 feet above flood stage and beyond the previous historic high'water mark of 40.1 feet in 1897. The earthen levees had to be raised.

During the crisis, this city of 95,000 drew 80,000 volunteers to fill three million sandbags and bank them to a height of 43 feet across 12 miles. Of the effort, Walaker said, “If we are going to go down, we are going to go down swinging.”

Nearly 1,900 National Guard troops from around the state and neighboring South Dakota poured in to help. American Red Cross workers came from as far away as Modesto (CA).

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the coast guard and other federal agencies also contributed.

Walaker was out often in his GMC truck, scanning the dirt mounds for leaks as the icy river threatened to rip through, and then back in his office, orchestrating the effort with his team. While driving to south Fargo on March 27, he received a call from President Barack Obama, offering support and praising his efforts. The President’s Saturday morning weekly radio address focused on the floods.

The National Weather Service reported on March 28 that the river may have reached its high point around midnight of 40.82 feet, and that it had dropped to 40.69 feet by 8 am on March 29. It was the first good news in a long week.

Walaker still worried, “Just because it crests, doesn’t mean the threat over,” he said, as he surveyed the dikes. “We need to stay on high alert for another eight days.”

CBS Sunday Morning’s report on the flood said, “Fargo has shown what a ‘sense of community really means.’”

Walaker has said that he keeps a box of newspaper clippings, articles, books, and other mementos from the 1997 flood. “It may still get done with a chapter or two about this event,” he said.