FARGO, N.D., AND CHICAGO — As snow continued to fall Thursday across North Dakota's frozen plains, weary volunteers and frantic residents in Fargo scrambled to bolster the 12-mile-long man-made barrier that was holding back the Red River.
Officials in the city of 90,000 also were busy preparing a plan to evacuate major sections of Fargo -- which they acknowledged would be difficult given the number of roadways being blocked by the rising water. Mandatory evacuations were ordered as a precaution in one neighborhood Thursday night after cracks were found in an earthen levee, the Associated Press reported.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Sunday, March 29, 2009 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 4 National Desk 1 inches; 37 words Type of Material: Correction
North Dakota flooding: In Friday's Section A, a graphic with an article on the Red River's rise said the record crest for Fargo, N.D., was 39.6 feet in 1997. The city's record was 40.1 feet in 1897.
"This is uncharted area," Fargo Mayor Dennis Walaker told reporters earlier, noting that the river had risen 9 feet in three days. "We've never been in anything like this before."
The rush came as federal officials warned Thursday that the water might crest as high as 43 feet on Saturday -- more than a foot above earlier predictions.
With nearly all of North Dakota already affected by flooding or under flood warnings, President Obama declared 34 counties and two Native American reservations federal disaster areas.
Across the state, wintry conditions hampered efforts to protect homes and rescue stranded residents. Outside Bismarck, people were evacuated as emergency crews used explosives to break up ice jams on the Missouri River.
In Fargo, daily life stopped as thousands of residents joined the effort to fight the Red River, which flows north along the Minnesota border. People filled bags with sand and clay at the Fargodome, while hundreds of others began reinforcing the city's man-made dike in hopes of protecting residential areas and key city facilities -- including its water and waste-water centers.
The mood was tense, Fargo police Capt. Tod Dahle said. Authorities arrested several people, including one television reporter, for climbing up on the dike to view the rising river. Interstate lanes had been closed, as were about half a dozen bridges between North Dakota and Minnesota.
Along the open roadways, snowplows worked around the clock to clear the way for trucks hauling sandbags.
In the southern parts of Cass County, rescue crews in boats and helicopters pulled dozens of residents off rooftops, and islands formed as the water squeezed through sandbags and began flooding homes, sheriff's officials said.
