[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Pages 8541-8542]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        FLOODING IN NORTH DAKOTA

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, Senator Conrad and I and Congressman 
Pomeroy, our two colleagues from Minnesota, Senator Klobuchar and 
Congressman Peterson, met with President Obama just a few moments ago 
in the Vice President's Room behind the Chamber to talk about the flood 
threat in our region. This is today's NOAA flood warning map of our 
country, and you will see that North Dakota is entirely green. The 
green represents the flood warning areas in our country. We have an 
entire State under a flood watch.
  The headline in our State today is ``Blizzard Blasts The State.'' We 
have a raging blizzard that has gone on now for the last day and a 
half. It has closed the interstate highways. We have had up to 18 
inches of snow in some areas, and then we have unbelievable flooding 
threats up and down the Red River and the Red River Valley of North 
Dakota. Now we have an urgent flood threat that exists in Bismarck, ND, 
as I speak.
  I think it would probably be helpful just to show a few of the 
scenes. This is piling sandbags. They have had nearly 3 million 
sandbags filled in a very short period of time with college and high 
school students and National Guard and others in the Red River Valley 
filling sandbags. As I said, 3 million sandbags in a very short period 
of time.
  This is the North Dakota National Guard filling sandbags inside the 
Bismarck Civic Center. Just in the last 24 hours we have seen a threat 
to the capital city--a very significant threat--and that threat is 
described in this photograph. This photograph shows what is called an 
ice jam. There are two ice jams at this point on the Missouri River and 
the Knife River that flows into the Missouri River. This shows an ice 
jam. As I speak, they are trying with explosives to deal with this ice 
jam. There are two ice jams, and if this happens in the wrong way, and 
one ice jam gives at the wrong time, we will see the entire south side 
of the capital city of Bismarck, ND, with a substantial amount of 
water.
  Evacuations are underway as I speak in portions of that city. The 
mayor and the Governor and others, the Corps of Engineers, virtually 
everyone is involved, and this is a very significant

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flood threat that just really in the last 24 to 48 hours has developed 
as a result of significant ice jams.
  This is a city that has not had substantial flood threats since the 
dam was built on the Missouri River about 60 miles north of Bismarck, 
ND. But these ice jams have completely changed the calculation and pose 
a serious threat to the city of Bismarck today. There is a great deal 
of work going on in the city. I say to all of them how much we admire 
the work they are doing. They are heroes. There are so many in the 
military and volunteers who are filling sandbags and doing the work 
that is necessary to fight that flood.
  The Red River Valley flood--this is volunteers in the Fargodome 
filling sandbags. As I said, several million have now been filled. It 
appears that this flood could very well top the estimates of the 1997 
flood. In 1997, in the Red River Valley, Grand Forks, ND, a community, 
then, of about 45,000 to 50,000 people was completely evacuated. I rode 
down the streets of Grand Forks in a boat in a community that was 
completely evacuated. In the middle of that flood, the center part of 
that downtown city caught on fire, and we had the spectacle of 
firefighters in the middle of a flood trying to fight a fire in a 
downtown area that had been completely evacuated.
  This is the Red River Valley. It is completely flat, as flat as a 
table top. You can't see a hill in any direction. So because of 
unprecedented amounts of moisture--snowfall and rainfall--and because 
all of that occurred on top of ground that last fall, when it froze up 
was completely saturated, we now see, once again, the threat of record 
levels of flooding.
  This is sandbagging outside of Fargo homes in the last day or two.
  This is flooding in Beulah, ND.
  This is 70 to 80 miles north and west of Bismarck, ND.
  This is a feed lot in Mandan, ND. You can't see any feed, and you 
can't see a lot.
  All you can see is water. This is a flooded yard in Fargo, ND. This 
is the outskirts of Watford City, ND, which is 175 miles away from 
Bismarck. This is what the Jamestown Airport runway looks like.
  The point is that we face a very serious threat. The urgent threat at 
the moment is in Bismarck, with the determination to try to solve the 
problem with these ice jams to prevent substantial flooding in the 
capital city. Our thoughts and prayers are certainly with the folks who 
are there today trying to do that.
  In the Red River Valley--I will be there tomorrow and, hopefully, in 
Bismarck tomorrow night--the crest is expected in Fargo, ND, on 
Saturday. Our hope is that the flood fight that is occurring there goes 
well. Fargo has a lot of experience fighting flood waters. The mayor 
and others have done an extraordinary job over the years. They are 
building earthen dikes, filling sandbags, doing all they can, in 
coordination with FEMA, the Corps of Engineers, the National Weather 
Service, the North Dakota National Guard, and others.
  I wanted to simply explain the circumstances of why we met with the 
President today, spoke with the Secretary of Homeland Security 
yesterday, and why it is important. The President, by the way, said, as 
President Clinton did when Grand Fork was evacuated, that the point is, 
in these circumstances you are not alone. This Government of ours--at 
the city, State, and Federal levels--brings to a flood fight a 
substantial amount of capability and expertise and people who know what 
they are doing. Added to that, the volunteers from all over our 
communities have done an extraordinary job.
  I spoke this morning to a person who runs what was formerly called 
the Crippled Children's School in Jamestown, ND, which has been called 
in recent years the Ann Carlson School. Disadvantaged circumstances 
exist for the children in that school, who, when a flood comes, are not 
as mobile as others. They had to evacuate the Ann Carlson School 
yesterday. I think there were 60 to 70 children there who live in that 
school. They had to be evacuated. Again, these are kids with a lot of 
needs. They had 75 young student athletes show up from the high schools 
and colleges, and in 4 hours they evacuated that school. They had to 
take the beds and all of the special equipment those children need. In 
4 hours, all those young athletes did that. The fellow who runs that 
school told me it was extraordinary to see how many showed up to say: 
Let us help you. So there is a lot going on.
  I am going to travel to both the Red River Valley and to Bismarck. I 
wanted my colleagues to understand the circumstances. Again, to put the 
first chart back up, you will see that today's NOAA estimate of our 
country shows that our entire State is under a flood threat. It has 
been an extraordinary winter. Even as we have this threat, there is a 
raging blizzard that is shutting down interstate highways in our State 
and is dropping as much as 18 inches of snow. It has been a tough time.
  North Dakotans are pretty resilient people. We will get through this. 
I wanted to tell my colleagues about this and about why I met with the 
President.

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