More Snow

Things were pretty quiet around town today. The snow coming is down is depressing, the weather man says we could get 1 - 3 inches. This afternoon they put in dirt to close the old border road by Haugen's.

Community Meeting

The Community Center was filled to capacity tonight. Mayor Hillukka and the Flood Committee informed those attending of what has been done so far for flood preparation and answered questions from the audience.

This afternoon the high school students and teachers filled sandbags again. This old gal is stiff and sore tonight. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

Building a Wall

Thirty plus men gathered this afternoon to assemble the flood wall closing off the bridge to south Pembina.

The soup and sandwiches at the High Water Cafe were excellent as were the baked goods.

The rest of the day was pretty quiet. Tomorrow the high school students will be filling some more sandbags and there will be a community meeting tomorrow night at 7:oo p.m. at the Community Center.

St Vincent

The Army Corps of Engineers added more dirt to the top of the dike surrounding St Vincent. That is snow to the right of the picture, not water yet.

This shows where they built up the side of the the road.

Dirt is piled up to close off the road and complete the dike.

A busy Saturday

We drove to Hallock last night and saw that they were building up the sides of the highway on the north side of St Vincent with a dirt dike as they prepare for the high water too.

Members of the community turned out in force today to fill sandbags. If rumors are correct we have about 20,000 bags filled and ready to go.

The High Water Cafe opened today. Many, many people brought in sandwiches and goodies to feed the volunteers. People stopped by the command center to volunteer time and equipment. The command center will be open tomorrow from 9:00 until 4:00. They do not plan to fill any more sandbags tomorrow.

This afternoon the holes were steamed open and cleaned out to prepare for putting in the closure to South Pembina.

It looks like Fargo reached it's crest today. It's still to early to predict what will happen here so we prepare and we wait.................

Filling Sandbags

Today we filled sandbags with nearly 100 students from Pembina, Neche and Walhalla. For those of you, like me, who remember filling sandbags with a shovel, outside, in the rain, in 1979, today was quite different. We were able to fill bags inside at three different locations around town. We used the Porta-Bagger machine in the city shop and the new ladder and cone stations made by the shop class at two other buildings. The kids worked hard and were able to fill nearly 10,000 bags. These bags are being stored inside until needed to keep them from freezing.

The sun is shining today and we're trying to get as much done as possible before the next snow that is forecast for Monday. Twamley construction started to close off the dike across the road at the south end of South Pembina.

The flood command center opens tomorrow at the Community Center. Anyone wanting to help can stop by to see what needs to be done.

HC

Getting Ready

It was a busy day in school today. The shop class is mass producing "ladder and cone" units to be used to fill sandbags and the FACS class was making cookies for some extra energy tomorrow. The Pembina Rec Board is moving some equipment out of storage in South Pembina and the sandbag filling locations are being prepared and loads of sand hauled in. If only the weather would straighten out........

There IS snow

It snowed all day today.

There was another flood committee meeting today. Here are some highlights...
* The National Guard brought in a back-up generator that can be used for the lift station if the power goes out.
* High school students (including some students from Walhalla) will be filling sand bags on Friday and possibly Monday if needed.
* The command center at the Community Center will open at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday. People can stop there to volunteer.
* Community members are asked to help fill sand bags on Saturday. Meet at the Community Center at 10:00 a.m.
* They plan to put in the bridge closure to South Pembina on Sunday afternoon.
All this, of course, is subject to change.

There will be a community meeting on Monday evening at 7:00 at the Community Center.

Watching for Snow

We're watching the weather here and waiting for the snow that is forecast for tonight. The flood gate by the Catholic Church was closed today and back-up generators and pumps were placed at the lift station and at the pump house near Walker's. Pumps are running continuously to try to remove standing water around town. Looking north from the Red River bridge we can see the ice start to break up and flow north.

There was a power outage for a short time around noon today making people nervous about sump pumps. We were reminded to conserve water in the case of power loss to relieve stress on the lift station.

Some members of the Golf Course moved equipment out of the storage shed.

There will be another flood planning meeting tomorrow (Wed) at 4:00 at the City Office.

The Work Continues

Pumps are running all over town.

With the help of a handful of high school students, a semi load of empty sandbags was unloaded and stored for future use.

Later this afternoon 6 good men and 1 good woman sandbagged the two culverts in South Pembina.

The First Sandbags

This afternoon a dozen volunteers filled sandbags for culverts and worked on the flood gate in South Pembina.

Flood Meeting - March 19

Several people attended a flood preparation meeting this afternoon. After several floods there is a pretty complete list of what has to be done and things seem to be well under control.