KL> I read your message and my heart just goes out to all of you.  We wa
KL> with horror at everything that has happened in your area on televisi
KL> I send you and your entire community my best...you're in my prayers.
 
Well thank you Karen, things in the Fargo-Moorhead area are stabilizing 
and river is actually going down, albeit slowly.  The folks up in Grand 
Forks however are a lot worse off.  President Clinton was in GF today 
to see the devastation first hand and speak with local authorities and 
the evacuees at GF Air Force Base.  Over 90 percent of the city has 
been evacuated from their homes now, many will not have homes to return 
to.  I spent the good part of yesterday and today tracking down my 
students who attend the University of North Dakota -- all are accounted 
for and doing well, a few of the married students who lived in town 
will undoubtedly loose quite a bit.  Can't remember if I mentioned it 
in my earlier message, but the University ended the semester early, 
giving the students the option of taking the grade they had at the time 
or requesting an incomplete and the opportunity to make up the rest of 
the work.  It'll be 3 weeks at the earliest before anyone can return to 
their homes.  It's hard to guess how long the clean up and recovery 
process will last...my guess is we'll have snow again before they've 
fully recovered. :(  
 
I answered an emergency call for help in our neighborhood yesterday 
am...about 3:30 a.m. a sandbag dike began to give way at a home 6 or so 
blocks from our house.  The water was undermining the foundation and 
their patio was begining to buckle...about 100 volunteers were there 
with 30 mins and we tossed sandbags for a solid hour in an attempt to 
save it.  at about 5:30 the fire department began to fill the basement 
with fresh water and we had to pull the pumps out of the diked area 
(the patio level was a good 13 feet below the level of the river) the 
FD ordered us out of the way as soon as we pulled the pumps and the 
water filled in between the dike and the house.  A secondary sandbag 
dike was built around the sides and front of the house to contain the 
water as it level off...it was sad to work so hard and to lose to the 
river, the homeowner will lose much of the stuff on the first floor and 
anything left in the basement, at least the FD was able to fill the 
basement with clean water before the riverwater came in or the sewage 
backed up.  It only took about 10 minutes for the area to be completely 
level with the rest of the river, the pressure equalized at least there 
wouldn't be anymore damage to the foundation.  
 
Hopefully things are turning around, as I say the river's going down 
for us and we haven't had to sandbag or build new dikes for 2 days now, 
most efforts are focused on maintaining what's already there.  The 
weather has been good and we've not had any rain (a real blessing).
 
Thanks for your kind note, we can use all the good thoughts we can get.
 
Dale
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