Last Entry - For Awhile

This will be my last entry for awhile....until something major happens in Pembina again.

The bridge closures are out the the mud swept off the road.

From the Pembina River Bridge looking south.

Looking north from the bridge the water is back in it's banks.

Looking from the bridge back towards the Customs building you can see the debris left on the river bank.

The grass is growing at an amazing rate.
The weather is FINALLY warming up.
It sounds like the golf course will be ready to open soon.
Enjoy your summer!

Back to Normal

The river is below 40 ft. now and almost back in it's bank. Things are getting back to normal. Ken and I were out at the golf course a couple nights ago helping to rake up corn stalks from under the evergreen trees. Still a lot of mud out there but the greens look beautiful! Several men and a couple women have been working almost every night for the last two weeks......if only the sun would shine and dry things out.

Today the bridge over the Pembina River was inspected and given approval to reopen. Tomorrow, if some volunteers are found, they will remove the last sections of the wall closure. Ralph Twamley and crew have been working all week removing the temporary dirt closures.

Today was our last day of school. Now we're waiting for warm weather and summer to begin.

Clean-up

The clean-up is a big job. Today high school students emptied the sand bags they filled a couple weeks ago.






The area around the club house is dry once again.









Joe, George and Randy work to remove the mud covered tarp that covered the #3 green for the winter. Wayne, Norman, Kevin and Danny were working at other spots around the course. More work will be done tomorrow night.







There is still some water on the #7 and #9 fairways.








The ball field is dry but there is still water inside the dike around the perimeter. There are still sand bags in So Pembina that will have to be removed. There's lots of work to do if you're in the mood to volunteer!

Pictures

Road is open to Haugen's and Ohmann's is not an island anymore.

One section is open to So Pembina but not to traffic.

The wall sections have been marked and numbered for easier assembly the next time they're needed.

The dirt closure on the east side of the bridge is open.

Branches and debris crowd the south side of the bridge waiting for passage into Canada.

Bad Blogger

Today was a bad day for this blogger. I went out and took 57 pictures this afternoon and when I came home to put some of them on the Blog I accidentally deleted all of them. SO FRUSTRATING!!!

Anyway, I took pictures of the open road to Ed Haugen's. I took pictures of the men taking down a section of the wall opening the Pembina River bridge. The bridge isn't open to traffic yet, it has to be inspected by the county first. I took pictures of them opening a path through the clay closure on the east side of the bridge. I took pictures of the baseball field with no water on it. I took pictures of the log jams and garbage pushing up against the bridge from the south. I took pictues of the river.

The river is at 49.0 ft tonight.

Tomorrow I'll go out and try to take some more pictues.

Opening the south end

The south entrance to So Pembina was opened on Friday evening. The two home owners have moved back in. The bridge over the Pembina River is still closed.






Workers pumped water out of So Pembina Friday night and all day Saturday.

The Red River is at 49.85 ft today.





You can see one of the pumps working near the baseball field.




Volunteers worked on the golf course again this afternoon.



The Red River flowing north between So Pembina and St Vincent.

Mud

A group of men went to the Golf Course late this afternoon. They used hoses and squeegys to clean the mud off the green on hole #7. They took a boat up the fairway.




The American Legion Auxiliary Women cleaned out the kitchen in the Community Center yesterday. They were there all day, every day while the Command Center was open organizing the donations and feeding everyone who came through the door. MANY MANY THANKS to them!!

The river is at 50.1 ft.



Thanks to Randy B for today's pictures.

Goodbye Rangers

The river is at 50.52 ft and falling.......slowly. It's trying to rain here but not enough to measure.

The two Polaris Rangers that were loaned to the city by AgriSports of Lancaster, MN were returned today. They were greatly appreciated by the dike walkers, gopher patrol and everyone on the Flood Committee. THANK YOU!

The National Guard members that were here to help walk dikes left yesterday afternoon. We're thankful for their help.

The Roosters

I sat in the Command Center the first night they walked the dikes. As one pair of walkers crossed into So Pembina they called back on the radio "Mother Hen, Mother Hen, the roosters have left the nest." Well, the roosters are all home safe and won't have to leave the nest again until the next time the Red River roars.

Dave and Terri Blomquist walked the dike at 4:00 today and when they came back the Command Center closed. The river is at 50.77 ft. The water is down far enough on the earthen dike that regular patrols are not needed. It's still up on the cement flood wall so the closure to So Pembina in still in place. We're beginning to see the cement on the middle of the Pembina River bridge so we hope it won't be too long before the wall can come down and be put back into storage. There is still water over Hwy #55 to Neche.

I'll continue to post updates and pictures until the last of the flood work is done. I've enjoyed doing this blog and knowing that it connects people across the country to Pembina. Maybe we can use something like this for the next Pembina reunion.

PS No gophers caught today :(

Baseball & Golf

Caught two more gophers today! River is at 51.32 ft.

It's trying to rain but only a sprinkle so far.

Looks like awhile before they'll be playing ball in So Pembina.




We can see the greens on #6 and #2 here. There are four other greens also out of the water.

Today Firemen continued pumping water out of So Pembina.





A group went over and removed the tarps from the greens that are free of water and cleaned the mud from them.

George C walks over to get a closer look.


Thanks to Jon Kalka for today's pictures.

Pumping

I sat in the Command Center this morning from 4 - 8 a.m. Pretty quiet place to be. The river was at 51.59 ft. when I left and the gopher traps came up empty again.

Firemen are going into So Pembina in 3 hour shifts to pump water today, but first they had breakfast at the Fire Hall and got organized. They used the city tractor to lift a floating pump to the top of the dike then lowered it to the water on the other side. They carry 5 gal. gasoline cans across in a boat.



Lowering the pump.






Bringing the gas cans.









Walking across the Pembina River bridge.

Friday

Gene and Gladys take a break after serving dinner at the "High Water Cafe".

The river is at 51.65 ft. No rain today. The water is off Highway 18 from Neche south but it's still over the road from Neche north to the border. Two more gophers left the dike today.

Tomorrow morning men from the Fire Department will be going into So Pembina to pump out water. They're are several empty spots on the sign up sheets to sit in the Command Center and to walk the dikes. If you live in Pembina, please stop by and check out the lists.

Below 52

No pictures tonight. It's been another quiet day. The big new is,

THE RIVER IS AT 51.98 FT!

This means we can cut back to one team of dike patrol walkers. They'll walk between the Red River bridge and Gastrak.

The gophers are still outwitting the hunters. This could be a long battle.

We've seen about a dozen drops of rain so far today. It's in the forecast for tonight but we're hoping the weatherman is wrong.

So Pembina

Today the river is at 52.14 ft.

We're still in need of people to sit at the Command Center and to walk the dikes.

These trunks were carrying sandbags to Neche last week-end.





This was taken from the deck of the club house looking south over #9






From the deck looking north over #1. Volunteers have started to pump out the water from inside the dike.






There is a lot of water in the north bound lane of I29 between Pembina and the border.

Sandbag Central

A quiet day = A good day!

Today was quiet. The river is at 52.22 ft. The "gopher patrol" caught one gopher this morning. The high school students filled 65 pallets of sand bags this afternoon in the school parking lot. These kids are experts! The sun was shining and no rain. We could use a lot more days like this.

Visitors

Around 7:00 tonight a helicopter landed in Pembina bringing Governor Hoven, the commander of the North Dakota National Guard, a representative of the Army Corps of Engineers and a FEMA representative to town. They met with community members gathered at the Command Center to share words of encouragement, information about help and to answer questions from the audience.



An attentive audience.








Governor Hoven, Jill Pedersen (Pembina Co. Emergency Management) and Pat Misson talk after the presentation.





The pest control company was in town again today and set some traps for the pesty gophers. Anyone walking the dikes is reminded to stay away from the sandbags marked with white flags.

Several loads of sandbags have been sent to Neche to help with their flood efforts. The water began coming over Hwy 18 on the west side of Neche tonight. Students will be filling more bags tomorrow afternoon.

Here and There

Saturday afternoon some members of the flood committee marked cracks on the dike. Today a specialist from the Corps of Engineers examined the areas and determined they are just top-soil issues and pose no threat to the integrity of the dike. The dike patrols are doing a good job of reporting new gopher holes and other changes they notice.

News from the surrounding areas....Highway 75 between Chale's and Hallock has been reopened. We took a drive through St Vincent a couple days ago. Things looked dry and peaceful there. The water at Walhalla rose over a foot last night. They have had volunteers out sandbagging in some of the lower areas today. Work continues in Neche to raise their dikes before the water comes over Hwy 18 on the west side of town.

Not exactly flood news but Marge Baker stopped in at the Command Center yesterday to say hello and let us know she was back home after being gone for the winter. Marge will be 100 years old next month.

Quiet Saturday

A quiet Saturday afternoon at the Command Center.

We woke up to see a little snow coming down this morning. It didn't last, but it's cold here today (about 35 degrees). The river is at 52.52 ft. This afternoon some volunteers went out to help a rural residence with their dike.

Crest??

Someone sent me this picture of the Canadian border road. To the left is Canada to the right North Dakota.








Pembina sent a bunch of their filled sand bags to Neche today to help them out. The high school students filled 70 more pallets of bags in a couple hours this afternoon.







Some local folks visiting and grabbing a bite to eat at the Command Center.




Tonight the TV news reported the Red River in Pembina has crested at 52.75 ft. I hope they're right. The reading was 52.6 late this afternoon. It is suppose to stay high for at least another week.

The water is very close to crossing Hwy 18 at Neche. Today all the students K-12 from Pembina and Bathgate went to school in Pembina and the K-12 students from Neche stayed in Neche. Teachers stayed in their home towns and taught the students there. It was a little chaotic for the first hour or so but we'll get along fine until the water goes down again.

Thursday

We lucked out with no rain today. We'll keep our fingers crossed for tonight. The river was at 52.69 ft at 4:00 p.m.

This row of sandbags placed by Kittson Co along the road between St Vincent and Chale's keeps the debris from washing onto the road.





Taken from Chale's corner looking toward St Vincent. The new bridge here has really done it's job keeping this road open.



They took down the ladder today. No one is allowed to go into So Pembina until the river level drops.

The dike patrol is still marking fresh gopher holes and a team goes around and covers them with a sandbag. The Pest Control company is coming back to check things out on Monday.

Some of the farms in the area are having trouble with wind erosion on their dikes.

Neche has been working hard today trying to hold back the water from crossing Hwy 18 at the entrances to town.

The National Guard is still here to help walk the dikes. Volunteerism has been GREAT. Lots of people willing to sit at the Command Center, walk dikes, work in the kitchen, and bring meals and goodies. I live in Pembina because I choose to, and it's the people that make this a great place to live.

Remembering Art

Pat, Ken and an old friend went out to read the river.

The weather was nice today. The river was at 52.68 at noon.





Pembina looking from the west.

Today the high school students went back to Neche to fill more sand bags. Highway 18 into Neche is still open but the water is rising fast.

Kittson Co put a row of sand bags along the low spot in the road from St Vincent to Hwy 75. The road is still open. Hwy 55 is closed from Neche to Walhalla.


This is the wall the men built yesterday in So Pembina.


The people in Pembina love to read your comments. Keep 'em coming!

Manpower

The river is at 52.58 ft. tonight. The sun was shining today and a lot of work was accomplished. The high school students went to Neche this afternoon to fill sandbags. The water has risen rapidly there. Highway 18 into Neche is still open. Ken and I went to Hallock this afternoon and Highway 75 is closed between Chales's station and Humboldt. We were able to detour on the paved Kittson Co #6 to get to Humboldt without driving in water.

A group of about 50 men went to So Pembina late this afternoon to raise the dike by adding sandbags to the top along the northeast end. The CBP transported some of the volunteers in on their Blackhawk helicoptor while other men were brought across by boat. Six members of the Walhalla Fire Dept. came over and volunteered their help. My thanks to Al Meagher for taking these pictures.























HC