Sandbag making continued and sandbag diking resumed in Grand Forks on this day 10 years ago, a Tuesday. The intersection of Riverside Drive and Fenton Avenue was one of the dike-making sites.
With the river level hovering between 39 and 40 feet, the East Grand Forks Emergency Operation Center opened.Area towns continued to fight water and power outages. In Minto, N.D., a dozen or more houses had lost the flood battle without working generators to pump water out. But the freezing weather helped to stop runoff temporarily; many counties were reporting river levels dropping.
Electrical power was back in almost all of the Grand Cities, and 5,000 workers at Grand Forks Air Force Base were preparing to return to normal duty after power and water shutdowns. Still, about 16,000 electrical customers in the Red River Valley still had no power on this night. For some, the wait could be another week to 10 days.
Grand Forks International Airport remained without power; flights into the following morning were canceled. The interstates were open, but many other roads were closed because of snowdrifts or flooding. A LaMoure, N.D., man, 46, was
found in his farm shop dead from carbon monoxide poisoning created by a running generator.
ADVERTISEMENT
In Stephen, Minn., volunteers went door-to-door with portable generators, providing some heat for a few hours, then moving on to the next home. In Hillsboro, N.D., the high school had heat and water - and hundreds of people using it as a shelter and mess hall.
