General

North Dakota prepares for record flooding, watch out Manitoba

Tim Smith/Brandon Sun/CP

The Red River is going to flood this spring. While that isn’t really news, the National Weather Center predicts that the flood is going to be a particularly bad one in the areas around Fargo, N.D. and Moorhead, Minn.

There is even a 10 per cent chance that the river could reach the same level as it did in 2009, which was a record-setting flood. There is a 75 per cent chance that the flooding could be among the 10 worst in history.

The flooding risk is due largely to heavy snowfall and accumulation in the Red River Valley through January and February.

Though, there are some positives to consider amid the dire warnings, reports Minnesota Public Radio. The city of Moorhead still has about 400,000 sandbags left over from a flood in 2011 and hundreds of homes have moved further away from the river’s banks since the flood in 2009.

In Fargo, the city has already stockpiled 750,000 sandbags and it plans to add 500,000 more before the spring thaw begins.

Of course, this dire warning has citizens in Manitoba getting sandbags at the ready, too. In the Rural Municipality of St. Clements, north of Winnipeg, residents are filling sandbags and are looking at ice on the Red River, which can cause jams and flooding during the spring.

“You bet your bottom dollar we’re going to see flooding in Manitoba this year,” Mayor Steve Strang told CBC News.

The Manitoba government will release its official spring flood forecast on Monday.

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