The National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning for northeastern Grand Forks County from Friday evening to 10 a.m. today.
The Turtle River near Manvel, N.D., had risen about 3 feet Friday because of an ice jam downstream, the weather service said, and it may rise another 2 feet overnight.
Many of the township and county roads east of Manvel to the Red River were closed, according to the county road map on the city of Grand Forks' Web site at www.grandforksgov.com (click on "2010 Flood Fight").
But that's usual for this annual time of high water, said Sgt. Dan Hillebrand of the Grand Forks County Sheriff's Department.
"There's nothing out of the ordinary, we just want to tell people to be careful when they are traveling on the county roads," he said.
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There weren't any calls for evacuations Friday, Hillebrand said.
In other areas of northeastern North Dakota on Friday, slowing runoff and colder temperatures eased the flood threat in Grafton and Minto, even as more bridges along the Red River close.
The Park River in Grafton, N.D., appears to have crested, Walsh County Emergency Manager Brent Nelson said.
"It didn't even make flood stage," he said. "It peaked (Thursday) night and took a dive. The runoff slowed down during the freeze."
In Minto, U.S. Highway 81 remained closed through Friday evening, although the Forest River was receding.
"We're hoping to get the water off the roadway in Minto, so we can get that road open," Nelson said.
That's critical, he added, because overland flooding is limiting access throughout the eastern part of the county. Walsh County Road 15, which runs from Minto through Warsaw, N.D., to Interstate 29, also is closed.
County officials are helping farmers living east of I-29, close to the Red River by delivering sand and sandbags to residents.
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Meanwhile, travel between North Dakota and Minnesota is being threatened by rising Red River, as more bridges were closed or threatened by roads swamped with floodwaters.
Bridges over the Red River that closed Friday include those at Oslo, Minn.; Shelly, Minn.; Hendrum Minn.; Thompson, N.D.; and east of Grafton.
Between rural Hillsboro, N.D., and Drayton, N.D., the only Red River bridges still open, as of late Friday, were located at:
- N.D. Highway 200 south of Hillsboro, east of I-29 Exit 100 to Halstad, Minn.
- Traill County Road 21 east of Buxton, N.D., to Climax, Minn.
- U.S. Highway 2, or Gateway Drive, in Grand Forks.
N.D. Highway 54, east of I-29 had water on the roadway. The bridge to Oslo, Minn., was closed to through traffic Friday.
NDDOT encourages motorists to check road conditions before traveling due to rapidly changing conditions.
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Fluctuating water levels make it difficult to predict when and where water will go over a roadway or recede from the roadway. For updated road information, call 511 from any type of phone or go to the Travel Information Map on our website at www.dot.nd.gov .
Reach Bonham at (701) 780-1110; (800) 477-6572, ext. 110; or send e-mail to kbonham@gfherald.com . Herald assigning editor Matt Cory contributed to this report.
