While I was affected in my personal life, my professional life was altered a lot by the flooding in my home state of Iowa. Before I finished college, I worked nights as a security guard, mostly on a community campus near my home city, but we held other accounts as well, and during the flood, there were massive power outtages which caused companies to hire guards to keep the looters away. I was one of those guards.

The nights of the first rains, I was called in to work at a building about 100 yards from the river bank, and I had to get dropped off and cross three catwalks to get to the building, because it was completely surrounded by water. While it was supposed to be an all night job, I was only there from six until about eleven, because they finally realized I probably shouldn’t be there considering the water was over ten feet high on all sides.

A supervisor came and got me (I refused to park my car that close to the river. Another supervisor’s car got stuck there the next day for about two weeks), though we had to wade through flood waters up to our knees to get out, and drive through a small field between parking lots. Needless to say, I have a much grander respect for flooding and natural disasters now. I worked many nights in very run down, beat up places with no power. Ever work in an art gallery with no power from eight at night till eight in the morning? It gets pretty damn creepy. But it was an interesting experience.

Of course, once I moved from Iowa down to Texas, I had to deal with Hurricane Ike. Maybe I’m just the bad luck?

Anyway, flooding is no fun, and I hope that all your (and everyone’s for that matter) family is okay and things are much better than anticipated. But it’s a good idea to over prepare as opposed to under preparing, especially when it comes to this.

Good luck, and all the best.

I went to college in Fargo and lived there for three years after I graduated. I still have a ton of friends up there (as well as a brother going to NDSU), and everyone is chipping in as much as they can with sandbagging. There are tons of sore backs, arms, and bodies this week due to all the hard work everyone’s doing. To make things worse, Mother Nature has added insult to injury all week with rain, cold, snow, and of course Fargo’s signature wind.

Unfortunately I picked a bad week to start with a new team at work, so I can’t get up there during the week unless I want to enjoy the ever-expanding unemployment pool. I’m going to try and head up there this weekend if help is still needed after the anticipated cresting tonight or tomorrow.

Keep fighting North Dakota residents! Our thoughts and prayers are with you to get through this high and dry!

As a former resident of Fargo (as of August 2008, now living in Austin, TX) I can say for certain that this is just about the worst thing that could happen to the area.

I lived through the flood in Grand Forks in ‘97, and basically lost everything I owned that time. Most of my friends from Grand Forks are currently living in Fargo…which makes it twice as bad for them..as if once weren’t enough.

My hope is that the lessons learned from the ’97 flood are going to be applied in this case. Putting your belongings in watertight containers “just to be sure” is the best thing you can do. The rest is just waiting to see what happens, and preparing for the worst.

i’m praying for you guys up in fargo good luck

Thanks for the post and we’ll be praying and hoping for the best as well…former 17 year resident of Fargo and I know the damage these floods can bring and what is compounding it is the continued snowfall. What I do know is that North Dakotan’s are some of the hardest working, upstanding folks in the U.S. and they will band together and work both now and after it’s done…wish I could be there.

Hypothetically, if Fargo were to go underwater, and from past experience, I cannot imagine the situation that would happen in relation to the city landfill.

Fact is, the City of Fargo landfill is located between Fargo and West Fargo, in a growing area. If all the freezers, bicycles, sofas, etc that were damaged in the flood were to end up in the landfill, it would be a total nightmare. The City of Fargo is already shipping their garbage out of town because the landfill is basically full.

Only thing we can do is wait and see, but if the same thing were to happen in Fargo as did happen in Grand Forks in 1997 – Fargo would be even more…screwed.

(as a side note: the City of Grand Forks has been trying to lock down a location for a new landfill for several years now, with no location in sight. Mostly due to the 1997 flood – capacity filled in two years instead of 20…)

Stay Safe Folks.

I work in Fargo and live 40 mile SE on I94 – so my home is not affected but I have many friends, associates, and employees whom are… as well as an interruption in our jobs which I am still trying to figure out if the Feds will offer small businesses like mine Payroll Assistance. The employees that were able have been out doing their job; I did what I could with my crappy back and wish I could have done more. I did not however force my staff to take a personal day; they will get paid their regular salary as we wait this out.

It doesn’t look good for the region and the impact has been and will be felt to many far reaching areas outside of Fargo/Moorhead and surrounding communties.

If you truly want to help please donate anything, $5, $10, whatever to the local Red Cross: http://www.fargoredcross.org/

We continue to pray for a positive outcome!