# Flooding and cows



## jhm47 (Mar 28, 2009)

We're in the middle of calving our own herd and also helping a neighbor who has been in the hospital.  In our spare time, we've been going to Fargo or some of the small towns south of there to help sandbag.  The river appears to have crested today, but that is not for sure.  The very cold weather may have saved them from a 43 foot crest, since much of the water in the fields is now frozen, and unable to flow into the river.  

I worked a 4 hour shift the other day moving sandbags into dikes, and believe me, 4 hours is enough for one day.  Those bags can get very heavy, especially since we are always in a hurry to get them placed on the dikes.  Yesterday, I spent about 4 hours filling sandbags with a shovel, and that's a lot easier.  

Some of the biggest challenges have been in getting the sand into the baggers, and also getting the filled sandbags out to the workers on the dikes.  The traffic has been horrendous, and even emergency vehicles have had a lot of trouble getting from place to place.  Everyone is out buying supplies, plugs for floor drains, sump pumps, portable generators, food, fresh bottled water, etc.  Add to this many people who have been evacuated, along with volunteers who are trying to get from place to place, the traffic problems are terrible.  

The morale of the people has been great.  They are very determined to beat this thing, and the support of everyone all over the nation has been great.  There are people from hundreds of miles away helping to sandbag.  The people of Fargo are understandably very grateful, and if you are a volunteer, you have a hard time buying anything, since the locals are giving away food, and anything else that we might need.  

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers till this flood is over.

PS.  The national weather service has just issued a blizzard watch for Monday and Tuesday.  Just what we need!


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## WildRoseBeef (Mar 28, 2009)

I've been keeping track of this flooding around Manitoba and South Dakota and other areas, looks like it's quite the ordeal for you folks down there.

Hope everything goes okay and people keep warm and dry.  I don't think that river is going to recede anytime soon, the way that things are melting as they are.


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## wynedot55 (Mar 28, 2009)

yall are in my thoughts an prayers.


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## chook pen jen (Mar 28, 2009)

My thoughts and best wishes are with you on the flooding and the calving.


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## Farmer Kitty (Mar 28, 2009)




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## Kute Kitten (Mar 29, 2009)

Give you a lot of hope!


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## m.holloway (Mar 29, 2009)

Hope things get better for you soon. Please be careful. Prayers and best wishes to you!!!!!!!!!!


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## jhm47 (Mar 29, 2009)

Thanks everyone!  Things are looking some better now.  Seems that we may (MAY) have crested.  A lot depends on how much snow we get in the next two days.  One good thing---it's not predicted to get very warm, so that means less runoff from the flooded fields.  

There are over 50 miles of dikes, 28 - 30 of it is sandbags, just in Fargo.  It's a monumental job just monitoring all of it.  Any breach could be disastrous of course, but so far so good.  Just a couple small breaches so far.  One house caught fire the other night, and since the water was so high, the fire trucks were unable to get to it.  It burned down right to the water line.  

In a week, we will begin to dismantle the sandbag dikes.  3 million sandbags took a lot of work to put into place, and now we must take them down.  At least we will not be pressed for time to remove them like we were in installing them.  Anyone feel the need to stockpile some sandbags?  They're free for the taking!


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## Farmer Kitty (Mar 29, 2009)

I'm glad things are finally looking up out there! Even if you get a lot of snow maybe the high water can flow down river some before it melts and adds to it! 

_jhm, what I'm wondering is why don't they stockpile the sandbags? It seems every year they need to sandbag so, I'm curious as to why they don't. Is it a matter of where to store them? _


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## jhm47 (Mar 29, 2009)

Sandbags would have to be stored in a heated place to be effective.  When frozen, they are much like trying to make a waterproof dam with frozen packages of hamburger.  It would take a huge place to store all the bags that have been made in the past month, to say nothing of heating a place that big.  

The logistics of making a sandbag wall are not as easy as one would think.  A wall 4 feet high requires a base of at least 10 feet wide, and then the bags are stacked on top of that, getting progressively narrower.  The top of the dike should be about 2 - 3 feet wide to be effective.  Of course, the dikes need to be about a foot higher than the expected crest, since wave action from winds or boat traffic will cause water to come over the top.  It takes a tremendous amount of bags to make a dike, and since many of the places that need to be diked are inaccessable to trucks or loaders, a long line of volunteers is needed to place them.   It is backbreaking work.


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## Farmer Kitty (Mar 29, 2009)

I see. I never gave a thought to them freezing. 

I knew some places weren't accessible except for lines of volunteers. I had thought if the bags were reused it would free people from making them to create the lines but, now I know why they have to make them each time.

Thank you.


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## Thewife (Mar 29, 2009)

I'm so glad to hear the water may be going down!

Around here, flooding is way too common and the devastation it leaves behind is just plain heartbreaking.

I think some areas around here do collect the sand bag to be recycled for the next flood.


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