the Red River valley flood of 2009

Heading to town. The overcast sky makes it difficult to distinguish the snow from the water. But this...
isn't a lake. It's a field. In the foreground, the other side of the shoulder of the road, is a ditch that is about 2.5 meters deep and 5 meters across the top. What's that off in the distance?

Farm buildings surrounded by snow melt and field run-off.


Snow and water on the prairie. And a clearer view of the ditch.
Boy you sure don't want to nose plant your car in that. It is deep enough that it would submerge an entire passenger vehicle.

Roads were decent so made it to town with no problem. This is the bridge that we normally drive under to get to my son's karate class by way of the park by the river.


I don't have a great shot of the Island Park levee that is a permanently installed dike protecting downtown Fargo. They rather discourage tourists from stopping for quality shots right now, and fair enough too.

This is taken from my car at a red light. The water is better than 40 feet higher than it normally is.


Left the book store at 5:45pm. Took 2 hours 45 minutes to get through Fargo and across the Red River.

The moon on the breast of the new fallen snow
gave the luster of midday to the flood plain below.


Current Flood Forecast as of 2:11pm 27th March, 2009
Take note of the careful wording which translates as "we have no idea how the flood will progress or how long it last". It will be at least a week.

THE FLOOD WARNING CONTINUES FOR THE RED RIVER AT FARGO.
* UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.

* AT 1115 AM FRIDAY MARCH 27 THE STAGE WAS 40.63 FEET. THIS EXCEEDS THE MAXIMUM LEVEL OBSERVED IN 1997...WHICH WAS 39.57 FEET. THIS LEVEL ALSO EXCEEDS THE RECORD HEIGHT OBSERVED IN 1897...WHICH
WAS 40.10 FEET.

* RECORD FLOODING IS OCCURRING.

* FLOOD STAGE IS 18.0 FEET. MODERATE...25.0 FEET. MAJOR...30.0 FEET.

* FORECAST...CONDITIONS ON THE RED RIVER AT FARGO HAVE GROWN INCREASINGLY DANGEROUS OVER THE PAST 24 HOURS. THE RIVER IS CURRENTLY ABOVE RECORD LEVELS...IS STILL RISING BUT AT A SLOWER RATE. WITH THE RIVER EXCEEDING THE PREVIOUS RECORD LEVEL...THE RELATIVE UNCERTAINTY IN FORECAST MODELS HAS INCREASED SIGNIFICANTLY. RECORD FLOWS UPSTREAM OF FARGO HAVE PRODUCED UNPRECEDENTED CONDITIONS ON THE RED RIVER. GIVEN THESE FACTORS...THE RIVER IS EXPECTED TO BEHAVE IN WAYS NEVER PREVIOUSLY OBSERVED. THE CREST FORECAST AT FARGO IS NOW EXPECTED TO BE BETWEEN 41 AND 42 FEET BY SATURDAY...BUT COULD POTENTIALLY BE AS HIGH AS 43 FEET... AND CONTINUE FOR 3 TO 7 DAYS.

* IMPACT STATEMENT(S) - AT 41.3 FEET, FARGO...TOP ELEVATION OF THE ISLAND PARK PERMANENT LEVEE.

* FLOODING IN THE RED RIVER BASIN IS NORMALLY LONG TERM. THIS FORECAST WILL REMAIN ABOVE FLOOD STAGE THROUGH THE FORECAST PERIOD.

&&

DAILY 7 AM CDT/6 AM CST FORECAST STAGE IN FEET:

DATE SAT SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI
(MONTH/DAY) 03/28 03/29 03/30 03/31 04/01 04/02 04/03
RED RIVER
FARGO 41.7 42.0 42.0 42.0 41.9 41.8 41.5


Here's a link to the Flood Watch webcam shot of the dike.

Happy Friday the 13th!

Beware the whackjobs! They're out there. And they're breeding.

The Stooopid. It BURNZ!!!!!!!

Yay Reuben!!!!!!1!

The nice man with the bobcat and front loader phoned last night to say he'd be by to do my driveway between 7am and 8am. I wanted to have my car dug free so I could back it up and he could remove the snow from in front of my car.

So, alarm gets set for 6:30am. *groan* (I like to get up about 9am so you can feel my pain here.) HEY! I didn't say sympathize. I know a lot of you get up well before me on a daily basis. It's one of the perks of homeschooling so nyeh! ;)

Anyway, got dressed, got suited up and step outside to scope out the situation. And then I have to come back inside to get the camera.

Check out how deeply impacted my car is!!!!
Y*I*K*E*S!!!!!!!! And how dark it is!!!

This is the front of my car between it and my garage. Why isn't my car in the garage? Good question. The garage is 75% full of boxes of books and 20% full of misc. crap. Remind me to tell you about the books another day.


My daughter, with a little help from me, gets the car dug out after about an hour's effort.

Then nice man with the bobcat shows up and begins clearing the drive way. Takes him about 5 minutes to free the car from behind so I can back it out.


Yep, the Ace Ventura hairdo is still attached.
HELLO!!!!!! :D
Yep that's me standing behind the Ace Venturado. Will have to knock that bad boy off before we go to town today.

Thanks Reuben!!!! It would have taken us all day to do what you did in about 15 minutes and we appreciate it VERY much!!!! YOU ROCK!!!! :D

PAAWS to help a worthy cause

There are only two days left for the shelters mentioned in this post to earn points to have a shot at a million dollar make over.

If you haven't registerd with Zootoo.com.
Would you please oh please take a moment and register with Zootoo.com?

Minnkota PAAWS provides low-cost spaying and neutering services to the Fargo-Moorhead area. I know there are a lot of dog and cat lovers reading my blog.

PAAWS was able to do the spaying for both my cats for half of what the vet wanted for one. I really don't know how I would have been able to have been able to afford it otherwise.

All you need to do is to sign up (FOR FREE) through them at Zootoo.com and confirm your email address. That is all it takes to give them points towards the contest. Any additional (FOR FREE) participation at Zootoo.com gives them additional points. They are already ranked 16 out of approximately 10,000 shelters.

Please take a moment, click this link, use the zipcode 58103 and select Minn-Kota PAAWS under the AFFILIATE WITH A SHELTER section.

THANKS FOR YOUR HELP!!!!!!!!!!!! :) :D

Oh! And remember to validate your email address!

Thanks to those who have already signed up with zootoo. You guys ROCK!!!!!

morning after

The artic-esque drift out my bedroom window. The blowing snow filled in the cool contours and the softness belies the snow drifts hardness. (You can walk of them.)


The neighbors across the street in the process of digging themselves out.


The old man's house, look at the size of the drift on the roof! (The little tree in the center is once again pointing at the eaves. What looks like a giant drift is actually the man's house with a drift covering part of the roof and most of the side.


The courtyard drifted even more deeply. The snow is almost rock solid. The kids were climbing all over it and only sinking in on the odd occassion.


The blobs in front of my car are plops of snow that blew off of the roof.


The cone shaped mound out the front window, smoothed and a bit taller.


Check out the snow hanging off the eaves!!!!



Beautiful day here, bright blue skies, sun a blazin', but brrrrrrr is it cold out there. Electricity stayed on, thankfully!!!! :D Now I need to find a man with a snowblower to help free my car. (Hopefully he won't charge much!) The hard snow compacted into a fairly deep drift behind my car and will be very difficult if not impossible to shovel out by hand.

Blizzard update

4 hours later.... This is mostly a compare and contrast with the previous post. :)


The "artic-esque" drift in my back yard.


The neighbors across the street.


The view of the old man's house.


My car. *snerk* With it's Ace Ventura style hair-do.


The drift out the front window.


And it just keeps blowing, and is supposed to until 1am tonight.

Big Blizzard 10 March 2009

Karate was cancelled last night due to the weather advisory and poor road conditions.

Woke up this morning to the most hideous buzzing from the eaves. Viscious metal vibration that would possibly be tolerable except that it is bloody erratic and just when you think "ahhhhh, it's done", it starts again. It's rather like sleeping with a heavy snorer. Except the sex isn't as good.

Looked out the bedroom window and what did I see?
Artic-esque drifts in my back yard.

Lifted my eyes to look across the street at the neighbors to see how they're faring.
They're obviously not leaving the house today. That drift on their front door is half way up the door. But their cars and the door they normally use is off to the back and to the right. Where the drift is nearly to the roof!!!!

How about the empty house of the 95 year old man who lives 80% of the year in Montana?
Holy shit! Good thing he's in Montana, because he wouldn't be getting out for a long-o-time-o! To get from his front door to the driveway he would have to crawl through a drift piled right up to the eaves of his house. That little pine tree in the middle points directly at the eaves. That smudgy rectangle to the right is a window.

Wonder how my car is doing?
BWAHAHAHAHA!!! It looks like the prow of a ship!!!! And in order to get the door open for the picture I had to push it through about a foot of snow.

Checked out the courtyard area, where the electric company has to slog through to read the meter. Looks like we'll be getting another estimate this month!
That drift on the left goes right up to the top of the gazebo. 8-O


And the front yard?
HOLY SMEG!!! Look at the size of that drift out my front window!!!!!!!

Snow makes the coolest shapes and patterns when it's blown around. Look at the way the snow curled around the eaves.


Severe Weather Alert:
NORTH WINDS OF 25 TO 35 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 45 MPH ARE CREATING BLIZZARD CONDITIONS. TRAVEL HAS BECOME EXTREMELY HAZARDOUS...IF NOT IMPOSSIBLE...IN MOST LOCATIONS. AREAS ROADWAYS...INCLUDING THE INTERSTATES...HAVE BEEN CLOSED...WITH THE PLOWS PULLED. THE
HEAVY SNOW BANDS WILL SLOWLY DIMINISH THIS EVENING...WITH LIGHT SNOW CONTINUING THROUGH MUCH OF THE NIGHT. THE WIND IN CONJUNCTION WITH VERY COLD TEMPERATURES IS EXPECTED TO PRODUCE WIND CHILLS IN THE 30 TO 45 BELOW ZERO RANGE TONIGHT.

A BLIZZARD WARNING MEANS SEVERE WINTER WEATHER CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED OR OCCURRING. FALLING AND BLOWING SNOW WITH STRONG WINDS AND POOR VISIBILITIES ARE LIKELY. THIS WILL LEAD TO WHITE OUT CONDITIONS...MAKING TRAVEL EXTREMELY DANGEROUS. DO NOT TRAVEL.
TRAVEL DURING A STORM SUCH AS THIS CAN BE LIFE THREATENING IF YOU ARE STRANDED


I'm out of bread and down to the last 3 glasses of milk. But I should have enough bourbon to see us through. :D

What's it like in your neck of the woods?