FLOOD FIGHTERS

FLOOD FIGHTERS: Fighting water with words

There were moments during the Red River flood of 2009, moments when flood fighters watched the river rise to a near-record crest around 50 feet and waited to see how the new Grand Forks-East Grand Forks flood protection system would handle the test.

By Chuck Haga , March 30, 2011

FLOOD FIGHTERS: 40 years of flooding

Dennis Markusen has spent most of the past four decades dealing with flooding issues, including 33 years as Walsh County highway superintendent. In his county job, he oversaw 500 miles of county roads and 530 county and township bridges, dealing with washed out roads and bridges and overland flooding. Open the article link to see video of Dennis Markusen.

By Kevin Bonham , March 26, 2011

FLOOD FIGHTERS: Watching the weather

Meteorologist spends half the year studying, monitoring area flooding
According to an old joke, there are two seasons in the upper Midwest: winter and construction. In the Red River Valley, there is only one: storm season.

March 24, 2011

FLOOD FIGHTERS: As water rises, so does stress

Counselor helps fight flooding on the home front
Roger Johnson has a view of the Red River from his office in the Grand Forks County Office Building — and an even better view of the stress, anxiety, depression and outright trauma a bad flood experience can bring.

By Chuck Haga , March 21, 2011

FLOOD FIGHTERS: A flood-fighting machine

Flooding here is more horizontal than vertical. While rivers elsewhere rise, the one here mostly spreads wider in this flat country. In 2009, the Red River here was 12 miles wide. Roads over 200 square miles were underwater and impassable.

By Ryan Bakken , March 19, 2011

FLOOD FIGHTERS: 'You get back more than you give'

June Duray has fought floods from Hendrum to Oslo, Minn., armed only with “a smile and an ear to listen.” The 54-year-old has volunteered with the Salvation Army’s canteen bus, making sandwiches, chili and hot chocolate to feed flood fighters along the Red River Valley for 15 years.

March 17, 2011

FLOOD FIGHTERS: Crookston fire chief stands out in flood-fIghting effort

Richard Rock was born and raised here, so he grew up with the city’s chronic spring flooding of the Red Lake River.

By Ryan Bakken , March 15, 2011

FLOOD FIGHTERS: Red River teacher gives students a flood primer

About this series
Another flood fight is upon us. For some, protected by permanent dikes or diversion, it may be a fight waged primarily by professionals and elected officials and serenely ignored by most others. But in some places, as in Grand Forks-East Grand Forks in 1997, it could be the equivalent of total war, where everyone has a role to play. We begin today an occasional series of portraits designed to introduce over the next few weeks a sample of “flood fighters” in our midst, reflecting the broad and varied engagement a major flood flight requires of the people. They may fight the flood with sandbags. They may be armed with charts and maps — or spoons and spatulas. They may do their thing far from the river. But they are all flood fighters.

By Chuck Haga , March 12, 2011