We need your prayers...

dakotamouse · Post by **dakotamouse** » Tue May 31, 2011 4:45 am

The people of Monatana, North Dakota and South Dakota along the Missouri river are in need of help but will be grateful for just your prayers.

We have had 3 harsh winters with lots of snow and two very wet summers. Right now the Missouri river system is overtaxed and the snow melt from the Rocky Mountains hasn't even started.

When the Garrison Dam was constructed it was supposed to alevate any chance of further flooding in North Dakota but we have, apparently, run into the perfect storm.

In Montana they have recently had enough rain for an entire year in a couple of months. The people of the Crow Nation reservation are hurting. This water is making its way to the Missouri.

Right now the Garrison dam is nearing maximum capacity. Record water flows are being released and these rates will have to be increased. The captiol of North Dakota, Bismarck, is in jeopardy of losing its south side.

People who were told they would never, ever need flood insurance now sit on the brink of losing everything they have worked and saved for.

The Corps of Engineers are working frantically to build levees to try to save homes........but some will be lost.

All this water will move on down the line to South Dakota and then they will be in jeopardy.............from there it will continue on and eventually dump into the Mississippi. These people have just come off a flood and are being allowed to return home. This is insane!

Why none of this dissastor is making the national news is mind boggling!

In Bismarck we had no notice of the extraordinary snow pack in the mountains. We really had no knowledge of the rains in Montana. Had we known we would have begun preparation sooner. The Corps knew. If information were better spread the people of South Dakota and eventually Mississippi could better prepare.

My husband and I have spent Memorial weekend evacuating his mother from a basement condo. We have moved much of our furniture to his sister's home 40 miles away. We are in the process of moving many of our things to our top level and have tried to make them as mold proof as possible. They say the record river releases will continue through July.

This is a slow dissator. No one should die of drowning, but the stress is horrendous and the elderly are suffering.

We have 4 million sandbags prepared with 4 million more to go.

Sorry this post is so long but I needed to vent a bit.

Please pray for us.

Post by **ericalm** » Tue May 31, 2011 5:26 am

Definitely will be.

This has been a tragic year for natural disaster. Simply staggering.

michelle_7728 · Post by **michelle_7728** » Tue May 31, 2011 7:20 am

Wow. Thank you for posting. As you so correctly commented, there are a lot of things that SHOULD be making the news but are not. Speculation as to the reason could start some nasty political debate, so I will refrain. Suffice it to say, we will all be praying for you and hope to hear more (hopefully good news) from you soon.

CWO4GUNNER · Post by **CWO4GUNNER** » Tue May 31, 2011 8:31 am

I will pray that God refrains and especially for your family. As stated in the previous post there are reasons this is happening and I will be posting about it on my website tomorrow.

TVB · Post by **TVB** » Tue May 31, 2011 10:50 am

dakotamouse wrote:Why none of this dissastor is making the national news is mind boggling!

The flooding downstream on the Mississippi has been getting attention, so the news programs aren't ready to do the "same" story yet. But it's starting.

SteveK · Post by **SteveK** » Tue May 31, 2011 12:16 pm

Consider it Done! Was already in progress for folks down in MO and AL too. I heard of this swelling last week. Levees needing to be blown and such. We've been donating and some of the other forums I frequent have taken up donations en masse.

This is a good place to research the efficiency of any particular charity. You may be surprised that the most well-known are the least efficient.

http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.c ... ew&cpid=78

Be Well!

Kaos · Post by **Kaos** » Tue May 31, 2011 1:15 pm

Wow, sorry to hear about that Dakotamouse! Our prayers are headed your way!

EBee · Post by **EBee** » Tue May 31, 2011 2:09 pm

Actually, I just heard about this early this am on NPR...my aunt and cousin's family live in Cut Bank, but used to live in Dupuyer.

GrittyTacoman · Post by **GrittyTacoman** » Tue May 31, 2011 9:15 pm

Will send up a prayer too. Please keep us updated.

Post by **polianarchy** » Tue May 31, 2011 9:19 pm

Thinking some good sturdy water-bearing Aquarius thoughts for all y'all. <3

pugbuddy · Post by **pugbuddy** » Tue May 31, 2011 10:57 pm

God bless you and yours, Dakotamouse! Will be praying for the areas you've mentioned and more.

viney266 · Post by **viney266** » Wed Jun 01, 2011 1:08 am

Will DO!

And keep your head up...Don't quit

peabody99 · Post by **peabody99** » Wed Jun 01, 2011 1:17 am

doing as you wish now, keep us posted.

BootScootin'FireFighter · Wed Jun 01, 2011 2:43 am

we'll be thinking of and praying for you, your family, your community, and everyone else down river. Hopefully some relief is in the works and this disaster is quelled soon enough.

dakotamouse · Post by **dakotamouse** » Wed Jun 01, 2011 4:20 am

Thanks everyone! We are still fighting the battle. I just came back from sandbag filling. It's work that needs to be done and helps take your mind from the worry.

If any of you live along the lower Missouri or below the Missouri, Mississippi confluence please keep and eye on the river levels. What with the flooding that has already occured down south I don't want anyone caught unaware like we were. The Corps really needed to get the word out to us sooner.

Skootz Kabootz · Post by **Skootz Kabootz** » Wed Jun 01, 2011 4:30 am

Sending many warm, dry positive thoughts your way Dakotamouse and hoping the best for everyone there. Stay safe.

CWO4GUNNER · Post by **CWO4GUNNER** » Wed Jun 01, 2011 4:51 am

If anything happens be sure to post here again with local donation information. Local grassroots organization donations always seems to get to the locals sooner.

dakotamouse · Post by **dakotamouse** » Wed Jun 08, 2011 4:47 am

We have had some good news. The river has not risen as much yet as expected. Apparently the high volume of water is scouring the river bed and making it deeper. This is helping hold down the flood rate. We are at 120,000 cfs but will go to 150,000 by Saturday. Many houses by the river are surrounded by water now.

The Red Cross and the Salvation Army have been wonderful. If you ever consider donating to a charity these organizations are the real deal.

I also have to praise the National Guard. These guys and gals are the best of America's youth and have been working her in 12 hour shifts. They have been building levees, ring diking houses, filling sand bags and directing traffic.

So far our home is safe but my nerves are kinda stretched.

irishtim · Post by **irishtim** » Thu Jun 09, 2011 9:07 pm

Continued prayers from our family!

dakotamouse · Post by **dakotamouse** » Thu Jun 23, 2011 4:43 am

So far Myron and I are OK. But the river is over it's banks ( but inside the levees) a mile to the south and about a 3/4 to the west of us. We have two sides to worry about

On today's news they showed the first, hopefully last, house to completely be lost to the river.

http://www.kfyrtv.com/Video_News.asp?news=50255

This is at an area to the north of us called Hogue's Island.

The National Guard has done an amazing job here in Bismarck, constructing the levees. They were able to use existing roads as the base for the levees because they are already elevated. But they can't dike the whole river on this short notice. Myron and I are blessed to be within the protected zone. Last weekend we walked down to the south levee and looked at the destruction.

As we started to walk back a family of seven drove up to the levee dressed in swimsuits, boat shoes and life jackets. They have been evacuated for 2 weeks and were going to check on things. It isn't good.

The whole state is in chaos. Fargo is still under a flood advisory because of the Red River. Devil's Lake is eating up farm land. At noon today 1/4 of the town of Minot was evacuated because the Souris River is flooding. In 1969 they had a record flood that caused mass destruction. After which they built up a levee around the river. The crest of this flood should arrive on Monday and it will be 8 feet higher than '69.

http://www.kfyrtv.com/Video_News.asp?news=50263

The Souris river starts in Canada then loops down into North Dakota and then back up into Canada. Today a group of Canadians came down to help out the people in Minot with sandbagging. Bismarck is stable at the moment and since we made up a surplus of "just in case" sandbags we sent some up to Minot.

The state had been weathering the national recession quite well. Oil production in the state has been bringing in very good tax revenues and the state had been running a budget surplus. Guess we know now what we'll be spending that money on.

The water from the Missouri, we have been told, won't go down in Bismarck till August. God knows how long it will last for the people in the states down south.

A local gal has made a YouTube video about the situation that pretty well sums it all up............only now you can add the Souris river to it.

<iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/UjFnX0mC6H8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Howardr · Post by **Howardr** » Thu Jun 23, 2011 2:23 pm

Still praying for y'all, Dakota. We lived near the Missouri River for about 10 yrs and witnessed a couple of serious floods.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, we in AZ have had a drought going for a couple of yrs now. The entire states is dry as a tinder box. The Wallow Fire has consumed over 600 square miles of forest. Most of our National Forests are closed because of the fear that someone will accidentally start another one.

Can you pipe us over some of that extra water you've got?

Howard

dakotamouse · Post by **dakotamouse** » Thu Jun 23, 2011 4:53 pm

Howardr wrote:Still praying for y'all, Dakota. We lived near the Missouri River for about 10 yrs and witnessed a couple of serious floods.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, we in AZ have had a drought going for a couple of yrs now. The entire states is dry as a tinder box. The Wallow Fire has consumed over 600 square miles of forest. Most of our National Forests are closed because of the fear that someone will accidentally start another one.

Can you pipe us over some of that extra water you've got?

Howard

We've been watching the news about the fires in AZ and the drought in Texas and Florida.....all the while thinking DAMN if only we could ship some of this water we'd all be doing fine!

Skarch · Post by **Skarch** » Thu Jun 23, 2011 6:06 pm

Dakotamouse, I will be praying and sending you some of our crispy-dry weather from here. We haven't had rain since November, and all the farms are dried out and many are being plowed under.

Maybe we could trade weather for a month?

dakotamouse · Post by **dakotamouse** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 4:46 pm

Well it is day 50 of the flood in Bismarck and so far so good..........but the water isn't going down yet. Despite going from 150 to 140,000 cfs the river remains at 19 ft........flood stage is 16. They say that some of the sand and dirt that was scoured out of the river up stream is now depositing downstream of Bismarck and is keeping the water high. They don't anticipate a significant lowering of the river till after Labor Day in September. There are approximatly 1000 people evacuated from their homes.

The water in Minot is taking it's time about going down too. Some home owners have been allowed to go home. With all of the rain they had, on top of the flood waters, The fair grounds is still under water and the North Dakota State Fair had to be cancelled for the first time in its history. I had tickets to see Toby Keith and later to see Kid Rock.

The Bummer Summer of 2011 continues.

Mary

Post by **ericalm** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 5:41 pm

This is amazing. Glad you're hanging in there.

Sad that with our 24-hour news cycle, this story got so little national coverage and has been cast aside.

jasondavis48108 · Post by **jasondavis48108** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 7:02 pm

wow, I'm so sorry to hear about this. I agree with eric, can't believe this isn't getting more coverage.

Syd · Post by **Syd** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 7:45 pm

till after Labor Day

Holy crap

dakotamouse · Post by **dakotamouse** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 11:47 pm

Syd wrote:
till after Labor Day
Holy crap

I'll second that Holy Crap!!! This is a sloooooow motion disastor. Many farmers here didn't get to plant a crop. Don't be surprised to see prices go up on wheat, sunflower and potato related products.

BootScootin'FireFighter · Thu Jul 14, 2011 5:27 am

jasondavis48108 wrote:wow, I'm so sorry to hear about this. I agree with eric, can't believe this isn't getting more coverage.

The networks are too busy with the Casey Anthony debacle. Time to move on and stop ignoring the forgotten corners of our Nation.

heatherkay · Post by **heatherkay** » Thu Jul 14, 2011 1:52 pm

I think corn will be hit pretty hard, too. The MO river is really high through Iowa, Nebraska, and Missouri, and there is a lot of flooded corn. Which means meat prices will be up, too.

PeteH · Post by **PeteH** » Thu Jul 14, 2011 2:05 pm

... and gas prices. Frickin' ethanol....

dakotamouse · Post by **dakotamouse** » Thu Jul 14, 2011 5:15 pm

Forgot about corn. Not only is it too wet but it has been a very cold growing season. Corn that did get planted may not have a long enough growing season.

EBee · Post by **EBee** » Thu Jul 14, 2011 7:32 pm

Got scooter-floaties?

Blackshirt · Post by **Blackshirt** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 1:49 pm

It's a mess this far down as well. Omaha is about to close their airport due to flooding and if the water goes over the levees it will flood the poorest parts of Northeast Omaha.

That speck of dry land in the middle of all that water is Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant. Luckily it's been shut down since April for refueling, so there's little to no danger of a Fukushima happening here. But you can see the normal routing of the river and how far it's spread. I flew over it yesterday and it's a mess.

dakotamouse · Post by **dakotamouse** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 4:33 pm

Insane, isn't it?! The whole Missouri river basin is on a rampage.

In Minot the problem was the Souris, or Mouse, river. Some people are being let back in their homes. A real heartbreaker is to see people who were happy to see their ring dikes kept the river out of their homes only to find that their basements are flooded with sewage water from the drains.

Blackshirt · Post by **Blackshirt** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 8:23 pm

dakotamouse wrote:Insane, isn't it?! The whole Missouri river basin is on a rampage.

In Minot the problem was the Souris, or Mouse, river. Some people are being let back in their homes. A real heartbreaker is to see people who were happy to see their ring dikes kept the river out of their homes only to find that their basements are flooded with sewage water from the drains.

I was living in downtown Fargo (4 blocks from the bridge into Moorhead) during the 2006 flood. It was a mess too.

Modern Buddy

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