Fargo calls for sandbaggers threat of flooding increases

A storm system moving into North Dakota on Sunday increased the flood threat in the Red River Valley, and Fargo officials said they were still trying to fill nearly 1 million sandbags needed for the flood fight.

The National Weather Service said the Red River was over its banks Sunday in Fargo, at a level of about 21 feet, or about 3 feet above flood stage. More water is on the way, forecasters said.

The river, swollen from melting snow and a new round of rain, is expected to rise to a crest between 39 feet and 41 feet in Fargo by Friday. The projection was raised slightly because of the rain expected in the area, said meteorologist Dave Kellenbenz, of the weather service in Grand Forks.

"It looks like an inch, and inch and a half, and then we're going to get a break tomorrow morning, and then more tomorrow night and Tuesday," Kellenbenz said Sunday.

The weather service also warned of flooding in western and central North Dakota, northwestern Minnesota and eastern South Dakota, where the rain was expected to change to snow Monday or Tuesday.The area from Bismarck and Minot west was under a blizzard watch.

"We've got it all, if you like weather," Kellenbenz said.

Fargo's administrator, Pat Zavoral, said in a statement Sunday that the city had 310,000 sandbags filled, out of about 1.5 million needed. The city has set up Sandbag Central, where machines fill sandbags round the clock.

City officials said they were especially short volunteers in the evening and overnight hours. They said at least 150 volunteers are needed for the sandbag-filling machines to run continuously.

In Grand Forks, forecasters predicted the Red would rise above its 28-foot flood stage to about 50.4 feet by next Sunday and could possible reach 52.5 feet over the next week. Grand Forks officials have said they are confident the dike system built after the 1997 flood disaster will protect the city.

The Army Corps of Engineers said its contractors have been building emergency levees in the cities of Fargo, Grafton, Harwood, Valley City and Wahpeton in North Dakota, and in the cities of Breckenridge, Moorhead and Georgetown in Minnesota.

The corps said it was raising roads and completing lift protection stations to protect four cities in North Dakota's Richland County, and that it issued more than 600,000 sandbags to counties and cities in North Dakota and Minnesota.