The Rocky Mountain Collegian

Issue date: 3/30/09 Section: News

Verne Parks of the Minnesota National Guard from Bemidji, Minn., wades through the water to bring supplies to home owners fighting the Red River flooding in Oakport, Minn. on Saturday. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

FARGO, N.D. - Fargo residents came together at churches Sunday and prayed they would be spared the Red River's wrath as water burst a levee and swamped a school, providing a powerful omen for the type of disaster that could strike at any time.

Church services that are a staple of life on Sunday mornings in Fargo took on greater significance as people gathered after a week of sandbagging, worrying and helping neighbors and prayed that their levees would hold the water back. They bowed their heads, sang hymns of hope and held hands in prayer. The mayor opened his morning briefing with a blessing.

"At a time like this, we need to call on God's providential assistance," said the Rev. Bob Ona, pastor of Fargo's First Assembly of God church. "All of you have been heroic in your efforts. All of you have been pushed past the wall of weariness, exhaustion and numerous frustrations in order to do the right thing - help people in the name of the Lord."

The Red River continued its slow retreat Sunday after cresting a day earlier, dropping below record level to 39.92 feet - still nearly 22 feet above flood stage. The river may fluctuate up to a foot and remain at dangerous levels for a week, testing the long line of sandbag levees that residents hastily constructed last week.

Fargo faces another test this week as a storm approached with up to a half-foot of snow and powerful wind gusts that could send ferocious waves crashing into and over the already-stressed levees.

The sandbag effort resumed Sunday as helicopters began dropping 11 one-ton sandbags into the river to deflect its violent current and keep it from eroding vulnerable areas of the dike system.

The aerial effort also included unmanned Predator drones used to watch flood patterns and ice floes and provide high-definition information to teams on the ground. North Dakota has more than 2,400 National Guard troops engaged in the flood fight across the state.

The helicopter sandbag effort was focused on an area of the river that put another scare into the city during the night when it burst past a levee and submerged a Lutheran school campus.

Oak Grove Lutheran Principal Morgan Forness said city officials, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the National Guard unsuccessfully tried to contain the gushing water after a floodwall buckled around 1:30 a.m.

The water kept spreading and "we couldn't contain it. ... it's inundating all of the buildings," Forness said.

"The campus is basically devastated. They fought the good fight. They lost, and there's nothing wrong with that," Mayor Dennis Walaker said. "Those things will continue to happen. I guarantee it."

Crews largely contained the flooding to the campus, preventing more widespread damage in nearby areas. School officials also frantically raced to rescue a cockatiel, parakeet and tortoises, birds, iguanas and snakes kept at the school as part of its science program, while pumping out most of the water in the buildings within 12 hours.

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