CB> Testing, testing---anyone out there?
 
Hi Carl,
 
  Barely here!  Haven't had much opportunity in the last couple of 
weeks to sit and read mail, much less write any.  On the heels of a 
winter that brought record snowfall to Fargo ND (116 inches) we're now 
fighting record flood waters...a few days ago we broke the record set 
in 1897 of 39.1 feet of water, I think today we're at 39.54 or 
something like that.  
 
  Consequently, the entire community has been committed to holding back 
the Red River--a daunting task to say the least.  We've been 
sandbagging forever it seems and building dikes to contain the water.  
Fortunately for us (our family) we're not in the river's path -- but 
we've been working hard to help those who are.  All of our schools have 
been letting kids out to help the sand bagging operations and the 3 
universities in the Fargo-Moorhead area have been rotating days off to 
allow the college students time to help.  
 
  It's amazing, I've never seen so much inland water...and we had 
reports this morning that there are 50 sections (equivalent to 50 sq 
miles) of water headed our way via overland flooding.  They're working 
hard to dike in South Fargo, close to 600 homes will be diked into the 
coming water--all this to help save the rest of the city.  Those folks 
are furiously trying to raise individual sandbag dikes around their 
homes in hopes of saving their property.  Volunteers are making 100-200 
thousand sandbags a night and we never seem to have enough, it's simply 
amazing.  It's not difficult to put in a 12-15 hour day working to 
build dikes, lay sandbags, fill sandbags, repair leaks or whatever... 
it is hard to walk away from it.
 
  It is hard to pinpoint the "worst" of it, in early April when it all 
started we were bailing out our basement when we had to stop that and 
go shovel out from under a Blizzard, bizzarre.  Of course all the flood 
fighting efforts were slowed due to the blizzard and the additional 6-8 
inches of snow on everything (that was after 36 hours of rain and 
sleet).  This is one disaster that the media seems to be covering 
fairly accurately, I can't remember the number of cows, pigs and other 
livestock that were literally frozen in place following the blizzard, 
now they have to remove them as they thaw and pose a health risk.
 
  Our kids missed so much school this past winter with all the 
blizzards we had (8 official blizzards and 5 or 6 "winter storms") and 
now they're missing more in order to help out in the community.  A 
private school in our neighborhood was lost to the flood 2 nights ago, 
Oak Grove Lutheran school was overcome by a wall of water 5 foot high 
as one of the dikes gave out, pictures in today's paper show first 
floor classrooms with water rippling through them just below the 
windows...the kids there have had 1/2 days or no school for the last 
few weeks as they've tried to fortify the dikes around the school.  
There are so many stories along the same lines, people fighting to the 
end only to be washed out, as you can imagine the stress is incredibly 
high and people are getting tired.
 
  I guess if there is a positive note in all of this, you really have 
to marvel at the sense of community spirit, the way people have poured 
out to help fight the flood.  The kids who've been working to fill 
sandbags and build dikes have been absolutely wonderful, everyone is 
out helping -- it truly makes you feel good to see such support.  Some 
area residents were concerned that the kids were missing too much 
school and shouldn't be allowed to help during the school day, but 
these students (high school and college) are learning some of the most 
valuable lessons of their lives, they are learning the importance of 
community, helping your neighbor (unselfishly), teamwork, 
communication, coordination -- There are hundreds of students here that 
will have a unique picture of what "service" really means.
 
  Well, I suppose I better get on with reading my mail and then it's 
off to do some more diking on the south side of town, the additional 
water they predict is due to hit us within 24 to 48 hours now and when 
it gets here it won't be pretty.
 
  Soggy and sore,
 
    Dale
--- TriDog v11.0
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