Flooding in the River River Valley

**EDIT: The complete set of pics from yesterday can be see by clicking here**

Semi interesting trip yesterday up to Fargo to help my pals Eric and Carrie Whitehill move all of their belongings up from the lower level of their house just in case the Red River Valley tries to reclaim what has always been hers...everything. After being there for the great flood of 1997, I noticed a few differences the most noticeable being the lack of water and snowpack south and east of the Breckenridge, MN / Wahpeton, ND area. The ground is saturated, but there really isn't that much snowpack remaing west of Fergus Falls along the Ottertail River basin. Given there is a substantial snowpack upstream yet all the way to Detroit Lakes (yes, the Ottertail flows south then west only to go back north again) yet, but the drawn down on the Orwell reservoir should help contain it. Blah, blah blah...enough of the "what if's". On yesterdays trip, the only town which really looked to be facing trouble was Abercrombie, ND.




There are 1000's of acres of standing water west and south of town which is going to try to make it to the Red River. The culverts and ditches are frozen solid yet (also keep in mind the Red flows NORTH...the thawing occurs to the south so the water is moving into area still locked in ice) and there is still a snowpack in the field on this area. Bottom line is a very wet system is going to inpact the area over the next 3 or 4 days and there is nowhere for the water to go. This area is so flat, 12" of water will expand out 1 mile. It's like pouring water on a perfectly flat surface.


I will have a full webpage and mini video documentary of the day done sometime in the near future.