Bismarck Flooding

[tony]

That's actually one of the few places that it sounds like won't get hit hard. Pierre and Yankton are in for a long, long summer

Yeah, it's not supposed to be bad at Chamberlain, but one thing I've noticed with the Missouri flood is that things change fast. That said, no matter what happens to her house, she'll be fine. Can't say that for everybody.

[IzzyFlexion]

That's actually one of the few places that it sounds like won't get hit hard. Pierre and Yankton are in for a long, long summer

TASTELESS HUMOR WARNING:

That was my porn name in the 70's.

Sorry. I really do hope things turn out better than expected in the Bis-Man area and beyond. ND is having so many water problems that it's hard to believe.

[phpguru]

I just talked to one of my neighbors who just got back from Bismarck over the weekend. He stated it's pretty bad down there and the national guard's main purpose right now is to prevent the brawls between people fighting for the few resources available in the city (plastic tarp, sand, sand bags, sump pumps, etc...)

Apparently, it's more me me me, than let's save the city, with our neighbors to the west... It was also abundantly clear to him that the city management/government had no idea of what was going on or how to manage the threat.

I hate to say it, but I think we might be seeing a large influx of people moving from Bismarck to Fargo this year...

[tony]

Apparently, it's more me me me, than let's save the city, with our neighbors to the west... It was also abundantly clear to him that the city management/government had no idea of what was going on or how to manage the threat.

Probably more "family, family, family" more than "me, me, me." In Mandan, at least, it seemed like everybody was related to everybody else. Bismarck is probably a bit the same.

There will be plenty of time to figure out what went wrong, but I really think that most of the things that went wrong happened more than a year ago (unless the Corps did something unusually stupid, like hold water back so they could extend the Missouri barge season or something*.) This is new territory for Bismarck since Garrison has been so successful at preventing floods. Heck, I think that without Garrison Dam, this flood would have been a monster (of course, without Garrison, nobody in their right mind would build on the river bank.)

* By the way, it's way past time for barge traffic to become the very last thing considered when it comes to river management.

[NorthernBison]

This is a very unusual event. The rains in Montana have been of epic proportions. We're talking about 9-12 inches over an extremely wide area. Virtually ALL of that comes into Garrison either through the Missouri or the Yellowstone.

Those rains are the wild card here. The Corp knew that they had an above normal snowpack that would melt and run reservoir levels up to their max operating range (but not until July). They couldn't really make a move to release more water early with the flooding farther downstream. Now they are forced to do exactly that and it is because of the rains in Montana.

I'm afraid Bismarck is in for a LONG flood fight. The snowpack still needs to melt and it just reached seasonal max about a week ago. I read one report that said the mountains were getting snow while it was raining at lower elevations.

I don't think they have a real good idea yet how much water needs to get released from Garrison. It is basically FULL right now. I would not be surprised if the announced releases get increased again over what has already been announced. Filling Lake Audubon might buy Bismarck another day to get ready but that's about it.

[80ALUM]

I just talked to one of my neighbors who just got back from Bismarck over the weekend. He stated it's pretty bad down there and the national guard's main purpose right now is to prevent the brawls between people fighting for the few resources available in the city (plastic tarp, sand, sand bags, sump pumps, etc...)

Apparently, it's more me me me, than let's save the city, with our neighbors to the west... It was also abundantly clear to him that the city management/government had no idea of what was going on or how to manage the threat.

I hate to say it, but I think we might be seeing a large influx of people moving from Bismarck to Fargo this year...

I have not seen much of the "me me" situation you are referring to. My home is not in danger of any flooding but I have been helping everyday in one way or another from helping evacuate to sandbagging. I am finding a real sense of community and concern for neighbors among people here. The guard has been very helpful in the way of sandbagging, diking and traffic control. Have not heard of any "brawls" or anything of that nature.

[80ALUM]

Bismarck has 3 manned sandbagging locations and 4 self fill locations. And actually the self-fill locations are really more liked the manned stations. Residents not in flood trouble are doing all the filling so those who are building dikes can just drive up and load and get out rather quickly. Volunteers have been great and many businesses are setting up food stands to serve the volunteers. If it weren't for such a dire emergency it would almost be a festival type atmosphere.

[Grizzled]

I just talked to one of my neighbors who just got back from Bismarck over the weekend. He stated it's pretty bad down there and the national guard's main purpose right now is to prevent the brawls between people fighting for the few resources available in the city (plastic tarp, sand, sand bags, sump pumps, etc...)

Apparently, it's more me me me, than let's save the city, with our neighbors to the west... It was also abundantly clear to him that the city management/government had no idea of what was going on or how to manage the threat.

I hate to say it, but I think we might be seeing a large influx of people moving from Bismarck to Fargo this year...

I agree with 80alum. I was out there and the sense of community is the same you find here in Fargo. Of course the people who are going to be affected are wanting to protect themselves first but the few neighborhoods I was working in neighbors where just moving from one house to the next. Same as here.

As far as city leaders knowing how to manage it, it was a clusterfu%$ right away. It came on fast and they have never dealt with something like this before. With something that could potentially flood the whole south side of Bismarck and Mandan it takes a day or two to get all your shit in a group. Combine that with the different soil conditions and its a mess. Its not like here where every Feb. and March contractors start getting equipment ready for the contracts that will be made available. Fargo and Moorhead now have more resources than they need as many are looking for the work. Those resources weren't as readily available in Bis/Man but they have a plan now and they are working to execute it. I really don't seeing flocks of people coming this way regardless of what happens.

[phpguru]

Glad to hear its not all gloom and doom as my neighbor was spouting...

[1998braves64]

From talking to relatives over the weekend the corp of eng had hoped to get Lake Sakakawea under 1840 this spring which didn't happen, I'm guessing with the flooding on the Mississippi this spring was part of the issue, and the fact they weren't counting on 9-12" of widespread rain in MT. My uncle who lives near Lake Sakakawea said one night recently he could see 6" or so of a fence post on some land near the lake sticking out, the next morning it was underwater... so that's about 6" on a pretty large body of water would indicate a large amount of inflow that was not really expected. Not only Sakakawea, but Fort Peck and Oahe are at maximum capacity. And to think that only about 4 years ago, they were complaining around the lake that it was too low that they had to extend a few towns intake pipes for water! North Dakota must be the corp of engineers favorite places to end up this year! Especially with Minot having flooding issues now too.