2009 flood

Well, it's been an interesting week so far; however, I'm sure it's going to get much more interesting by the end of it all. Fargo/Moorhead is getting evacuation calls constantly now. Our friends have all left the FM area except for the men that had to stay behind and help out either with sandbagging or flying people out.

Here is where it starts for us 60 miles down The Red. This is where the Sand Hill River backs up in between the farm and the nearest neighbors. It is usually a ravine between the two yards. The river is actually across the road...or supposed to be across the road. About 3/4 of a mile down river is where it meets up with the Red River of the North. She's looking pretty ugly right about now.



This is the actual Sand Hill River.


This was after we got snow the evening of the 24th and through the 25th. When you live in the country (outside of a township) you can go to the County Sheriff's Department and get sandbags (empty) and then you have to call for sand to be delivered to your house. On the left in this picture is the Sand Hill and on the right is the ravine where it backs up.


Same as above. We ended up getting over a foot of snow in a 24-hour period of time and the snow on this road was deep. It was scary driving in these tracks, trying to stay on the road and take a picture. Finn was not in the car (in case you were wondering)!

This was when I was coming back to the farm. You can see the tops of the fence posts coming out of the water. They usually have cattle in this ravine in the summer with a pretty little stream running through it.

The sandbagging operation at the farm. You have to shovel the snow away from where you are going to lay the plastic and bags. You lay plastic down (about 5 feet wide) and start laying the sandbags. Each sandbag weighs about 50 to 60 pounds.

But first, you have to fill them and that takes a few people. This is the crew that we had the first day of sandbagging. Here are neighbors from across the river; our good friends Jeramy, Justin, John and Ryan (of Jeramy and Danae, Justin and Allison, John and Katy and Ryan and Kaelin-all from our church); Kristen's boyfriend, Monty and good family friends Mark and 3 of his sons Andrew, Isaac and Levi. We have been so blessed by all of the friends that have come to help out-not just us but all throughout the Red River Valley.

Someone shovels and someone holds the bag. Another will load the truck and others will lay them down around the house. By the way, they are wearing their winter coats because it was about 15 degrees and the wind was blowing hard...not the perfect sandbagging weather.

They used about 1500 to 2000 sandbags at the farm.

They were about a quarter of the way through the sand at this point.

The sandbagging line.

Finn watching them from the window. He doesn't seem to notice that anything huge is going on. He's just been at Grandma and Grandpa's house a lot lately (which he enjoys), so it's been all good for him!

After finishing at the farm Thursday morning, everyone went over to the neighbors (across the ravine--you can see the farm in the background of this picture). There were about 10 students that came from a local high school that just showed up to help. We also got a couple of families from the church that Matthew teaches at every other Sunday night.

We ran out of sand and bags so we waited for the prefilled bags from town and Isaac slept.

And this is what happened next. It's a scary site. We now have to go 3 miles out of the way to get to the farm from town.

This is how the highway looked going out of town this morning. Finn and I went to EGF to get some groceries and try to stock up a little.

I don't know if you have any clue what you're looking at in this picture, but there is water out beyond the snow that isn't supposed to be up that high.

Finn got a little restless on the way to town, so he got to open one of his traveling gifts from Grandma and Bama. Today it was Buzz Lightyear and Scooby Doo. He loved them!

I didn't have to go into GF, but I decided to cross over the only bridge open now between here and Fargo, just to try and get pictures.

The sign says Red River of the North. You can tell that it is really high and definitely out of its banks.

Going over the bridge. These pictures are sideways because I didn't actually focus the camera...I was driving after all!

This is the bridge going over The Red a mile from our house. They closed it this morning.

From left to right: Monty, Matthew, John (a neighbor that lives across the Sand Hill), Ryan and John.

Here's a little bit of the filling going on. It was a pretty laid-back time. I think the guys actually kind of enjoyed it. I think it's something that everyone should do if you get a chance. Not only will you feel good serving others, but you will appreciate what other people are going through to help you.

This was at the neighbors house across the ravine. They are quite a bit lower than the farm and so they needed a bigger dike. Who knew they would end up with a 30 feet deep by 50 feet wide crater in their front yard to build up the front and sides. Someone mentioned a swimming pool this summer....

While the front and sides were clay from the front yard, they couldn't get the backhoe and smaller machinery in the back of the house without falling into the river. So that had to be sandbagged. They had to have anywhere from 3000 to 5000 bags layed. I was only there for about 500. I'm thankful that I have a 1-1/2 year old to carry sometimes, because I think that's the only reason I was able to lift these and not fall under the weight. The reason these guys are throwing them down is because this was after we had run out of bags and sand. These are the prefilled ones from town and on the way out they froze. You can't lay a frozen sandbag down because, of course, it won't contour to the one below or above it. It had to be broken up and thrown down to loosen the sand up. Kristen and I watched during this part.

Here is the crater in the front yard. It was unbelievable. Unfortunately, a couple of trees were lost in the making of this dike. While standing on this dike, a friend of ours GPS'd the location compared to the farm and it was still 2 feet lower than the farm. That's why they have a much higher dike.

This probably won't mean anything to anyone unless you've been here, but this is the garage side of their house and the water coming up on this side. The water will wrap around 3 sides of the house and then the front will go last. Let's hope the sandbags hold.

Kristen and I left a little before the guys did. We turned left out of the neighbor's driveway like we were going to the farm. She kept driving and I was starting to think she was going to try to drive through it. I don't usually like to talk on our videos, but I felt the need to speak up this time and tell her that we were NOT going through that! When I zoom the camera in, it's on the farm yard. The water has quite a bit to go before it gets up to the farm, but it is also coming from 3 different sides (front, right and left).

This is the dike in EGF this morning. They put the slats in yesterday to close it off. They have several of these surrounding the city. The feeling in this place was just really quite and calm. You would have no clue that water was right on the other side of all of these slats. This is the part of the dike that Matthew helped build several years ago.

That's how it's been going here this week. Stay tuned. I'm sure the pictures will get even more exciting, but hopefully not too exciting!