PHOTOS: RED RIVER OF NORTH DAKOTA FLOODING
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www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/03/red_river_flooding.html
The Red River is approaching record flood levels, likely to break century-old records this weekend. Flowing north toward Manitoba along the Minnesota-North Dakota border, the river is jammed up by ice and is being fed by rain, snow and meltwater. The National Weather Service has issued projections of a crest of 43 feet near Fargo, North Dakota, 24 feet above flood stage. Volunteers and national guardsmen are out in force, building levees, rescuing and evacuating those that need to get to higher ground. Cold temperatures are hampering efforts, freezing damp sandbags and making the job that much more strenuous for volunteers. 800 more National Guard troops and 150 Red Cross personnel are arriving in the area this weekend.
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Elsie, one of two Stensgard family dogs, sands on the earthen and sandbag dike surrounding the Stensgard home, not pictured, which overlooks a flooded outbuilding as the Red River continues to rise, Wednesday, March 25, 2009 in Fargo, N.D. Due to the flooding, the Stensgard home can only be reached by boat. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Air National Guard helicopters land demolition crews on the Missouri River, near Bismarck, N.D. Wednesday March 25, 2009. Demolition crews blasted chunks of ice near a huge ice jam in the Missouri River on Wednesday in a bid to open a channel, like pulling out a giant plug to drain a flood threatening the city. (AP Photo/The Bismarck Tribune, Tom Stromme) #
This aerial photo provided by the U.S. Coast Guard and made from a Coast Guard rescue helicopter shows a small boat, center, used by the Coast Guard to transport six people and two dogs to a platform after the Red River flooded the Fargo area Wednesday March 25, 2009. The Coast Guard later hoisted the flood victims via helicopter to safety. (AP Photo/U.S. Coast Guard, Lt. Brendan Evans) #
Stu McKay, owner of Cats on the Red outfitters, surveys the ice jam from his business's deck about just north of Lockport Manitoba,Canada, Thursday, March 26, 2009. Homeowners in some Manitoba communities are expecting the worst and hoping for the best as ice-clogged culverts, ice jams and the rising Red River continue to threaten dozens of homes, just like its threatening towns and homes in North Dakota and Minnesota. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Winnipeg Free Press-Wayne Glowacki) #
Volunteers riding on a flatbed truck arrive to help residents sandbag their homes as water from the Red River continues to rise March 25, 2009 in Oxbow, North Dakota. Most of the schools and many businesses in the area have been closed so the students and workers could help in the volunteer effort to prepare the area for flooding. (Scott Olson/Getty Images) #
Maleah Johnson (left), Cassie Wastweet (center) and Richard Lewis, all seniors at Barnesville High School in Barnesville, Minnesota, help build a levee to save homes from the rising Red River March 25, 2009 in Oxbow, North Dakota. Most of the schools and many businesses in the area have been closed so the students and workers could help in the volunteer effort to prepare the area for flooding. (Scott Olson/Getty Images) #
Governor John Hoeven, center, and members of the North Dakota Air National Guard face a ground blizzard as a helicopter takes off from the staging area south of Bismarck, N.D where explosive experts were attempting to open a frozen section of the Missouri River on Wednesday, March 25, 2009. (AP Photo/The Bismarck Tribune, Tom Stromme) #
Zach Boor, age 12, whose face is splattered with mud, passes a sandbag down the line as he joined college students to help build a dike along the north side of Rose Coulee Monday, March 23, 2009 in Fargo, N.D. Boor was excused from classes at Discovery Middle School so he could join thousands of other volunteers to build dikes to protect the city from the flooding Red River. (AP Photo/The Forum, Dave Wallis) #