Hundreds Flee Rising River, Dike Leaks

BRECKENRIDGE, Minn. —  National Guardsmen in heavy-duty trucks evacuated hundreds of people Tuesday from this town at the headwaters of the Red River, whose fast, furious rise keeps surprising forecasters.

And downstream at Fargo, N.D., an earthen dike holding back the rising river downtown began to leak, forcing evacuations of businesses and parking lots near City Hall.

Even with the river at its highest level since 1897, Dennis Walaker, operations manager for Fargo’s Public Works Department, said he was optimistic the dike could be saved.

He said the leak was another indication of the stress the city’s flood protection walls faced.

Breckenridge Mayor Kal Michels said, “Water is coming from all directions as the snow and ice melts.”

It has been more than a week since the first crisis hit Breckenridge, population 3,700: Heavy flooding as winter snow started melting, then a spring blizzard.

Now, much more snow is melting and running over the land into the river and its tributaries.

Upriver at Lake Traverse on the Minnesota-South Dakota line, a huge reservoir is brimming over, forcing the Army Corps of Engineers to release more and more water.

Forecasters thought the Red River’s record crest of 19.18 feet at Breckenridge last week was as high as it was going to get. But the river was at 19.10 and rising at midday Tuesday. Michels said the river could hit 20 feet, twice the flood stage, by today, with “no guarantee that’s the end.”

On the south side of town, 4 feet of water covered cars up to their windows and lapped into the slot of a Postal Service mailbox. Garbage floated on the water, which had an oily, rainbow sheen and a fuel odor.

National Guardsmen went around town in trucks, picking up people who waited on their porches. Many wore galoshes and had duffel bags slung over their shoulders.

Doug Krueger and Paula Norby left their home carrying only their cocker spaniel puppy and two suitcases.

Dennis Versdahl and his son had their bags packed and were waiting on their stoop when one of the trucks backed up to their home through hip-deep water to let them climb in.

“I’ve been here 40 years,” he said, shaking his head. “Never seen anything like this.”

Donna Campbell left her home with a couple of bags and her Boston terrier, Cuddles, who was wearing a red sweater against the chill of temperatures in the mid-30s.

She and her two grown sons had fought for 36 hours to save the house before they gave up. The sons put her on a National Guard truck and promised to catch the next one that came through.

The door of an auto parts store was open, allowing a steady stream of air filters and oil filters to float out the front door. Nearby, other reminders of daily life floated past: a picnic bench, pieces of a gazebo, a bundle of unused sandbags.

The flood waters will ripple downstream to Fargo and Grand Forks, N.D., and beyond. At Fargo, the Red River hit 37.88 feet Tuesday, a record for the century, Walaker said.

The river is about 20 feet above flood stage at Fargo, but below the tops of the dikes.

Hundreds of college and high school students left their classrooms Tuesday to join a volunteer force fighting the steadily rising river, and officials issued an urgent plea for food donations to feed homeowners and volunteers working levees and filling sandbags.

“It’s very serious and they [flood experts] are quite concerned,” Fargo Mayor Bruce Furness told a news conference.

He said trouble spots were developing all over town and around-the-clock sandbag repairs were needed.