RIVER SURGES, FLOODING 300 N. DAKOTA HOMES.Byline: Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. Floodwaters surged over a dike Dike, in Greek religion and mythology Dike: see Horae. dike, in technology dike, in technology: see levee. dike Bank, usually of earth, constructed to control or confine water. Friday, swamping 300 homes, an elementary school elementary school: see school. and a nursing home just hours after 2,000 people were roused from bed by warning sirens. ``It's like a waterfall coming over the dike,'' police Lt. Byron Sieber said. Grand Forks Grand Forks, city (1990 pop. 49,425), seat of Grand Forks co., E N.Dak., at the confluence of the Red and the Red Lake rivers; inc. 1881. In a spring wheat, livestock, and farm area, the city has grain elevators, state-operated flour mills, and plants that process Mayor Pat Owens Pat Owens was the mayor of Grand Forks, North Dakota during the flood that devastated the city in April of 1997. She actively lobbied then-president Bill Clinton for funds to rebuild the city and construct a permanent flood protection system for the city and neighboring East Grand said the city of 50,000 people would fight against the rising Red River. ``We won't give up,'' she said. ``In the end, we hope to win.'' About 2,000 people, including 116 residents of a nursing home, were awakened by sirens before dawn and evacuated from four riverside areas before water surged over the dike protecting a park. It didn't take long before 300 homes were underwater, along with the nursing home and the school. ``Some of these houses out there - it's just the roof sticking out now,'' Owens said. About 3,000 people have been evacuated since Thursday and residents were told to be ready for flooded basements and streets. Classes were canceled at the University of North Dakota and students helped top off already towering sandbag Sandbag A stalling tactic used by management to deter a company that is showing interest in taking them over. Notes: The company stalls in hopes that a more favorable company will take them over. dikes. Weary flood fighters could barely keep up with water spilling over or through holes and cracks in other dikes. Hundreds of National Guardsmen and soldiers from Grand Forks Air Force Base Grand Forks Air Force Base (Grand Forks AFB or GFAFB) (IATA: RDR, ICAO: KRDR) is a base of the United States Air Force located in Grand Forks County, North Dakota 15 miles (24 km) west of the city of Grand Forks, North Dakota on U.S. Highway 2. were helping with sandbags sandbags small sacks containing sand used to support an anesthetized animal in dorsal recumbency and prevent it from rolling sideways during anesthesia or surgery. . Most residents of the Almonte Living Center were taken to an elementary school. Their wheelchairs filled the library as they watched flood coverage on a TV set up in front of a chalkboard with first-grade vocabulary words. ``This is the first time I've ever had this happen,'' said 96-year-old resident Trudy Nepper, who has lived in Grand Forks since 1925. Vern Sander, 34, said he left his home Thursday with his wife and 16-month-old boy. ``I emptied my house and took what I needed,'' he said, seemingly resigned to losing his house. ``If it's going to happen, it's going to happen.'' Just across the Red River, in East Grand Forks, Minn., about 400 National Guardsmen were on their way to help 200 already on hand. Flash flooding on the south end of the city forced some people to evacuate, but officials did not immediately know how many left. Some dikes were failing. ``The flood is just testing us, I guess, as much as it possibly could,'' said Lynn Stauss, mayor of East Grand Forks. ``We put a sandbag down, you go away a few minutes, and it seems like the river has risen that much.'' |
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