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faron79

Hmmmm...$2B for Fargo-floodway?!??!

Faron79
10 years ago

Surprisingly, the Senate today voted 83-14 FOR the authorization of a nearly $2 BILLION floodway around Fargo!!!
That surprised me...ESPECIALLY by the vote margin.

Winnipeg, MB has had a massive floodway around them for MANY years. Some of Winnipeg wouldn't be there without that giant ditch!!
Grand Forks, ND received some hefty Federal monies after their disastrous 1997 levee breaks. They built some massive/permanent dikeways, & had to rebuild some parts of town. Now, GF is fairly-well protected for high river levels.

Fargo took some hits in that flood, but survived...mainly due to INSANE amounts of sandbagging and earth-moving equipment!! Surprisingly, our 2009 flood broke the ALL-TIME crest record, when the "Red-River of the North" hit 40.82'. The 1997 crest was "only" 38.5', but many changes have happened since then....vulnerable home removal, diking within the City, etc.

If you're interested, check the link/video below...

Faron

Here is a link that might be useful: Fargo flood funding hopes...?!

Comments (6)

  • trailrunner
    10 years ago

    Will be interesting to see what comes of it. The army corps of engineers has ruined the LA coastline along with the oil people , of course. There are whole towns missing or almost gone now in the Delta. You can't stop the Mississippi ! The Dutch tried to help LA years and years ago and they refused to listen to them about dykes. We lived in Holland for a year. Nowhere do the dykes break or do they have unwanted encroachment of water. We would do well in the US to listen to those that know what they are doing.

    c

  • maire_cate
    10 years ago

    Here in New Jersey the Gov announced a buy back program for several areas that suffer from chronic flooding. There's $300 million in Federal funds earmarked to purchase 1300 homes. The houses will be razed and the areas maintained as flood plains.

  • trailrunner
    10 years ago

    marie I was reading about that. There is a lot of controversy since they were supposedly going to pay money a couple years ago to folks in another area with flooding issues and buy back their houses and a lot of the people say they haven't seen a dime.

    This same thing needs to happen in Louisiana. There a re many places along the coast that should never have been built on and they should be reclaimed now. Unfortunately giving up a way of life is not something that $$ alone will fix. But trying to hold back water is also not something that works terribly well depending on what is causing the encroachment.

    My opinion is that there should never have been any construction at all on any piece of land bordering the coast on the whole continental US. Every single bit of coastal land should have been held like a state park as in the Outer Banks. I don't think anyone should ever have been allowed to have the "prime' access to coastal property excluding the rest of the world. JMHO....

  • neetsiepie
    10 years ago

    Because I work with rivers & streams, I am intimately familiar with their workings. I am a firm believer that NO ONE should be allowed to build in a flood plain, and there is empirical evidence to show that the flood plains need to be expanded as global warming is causing river levels to rise.

    In 2011 there was a bad flood in one of my areas I regulate, and the people were complaining that someone (government) needed to fix the problem. Others said that since it hadn't flooded in 100 years, they never thought they needed to worry. Sigh. All it takes is looking at aerial photos, and now with Lidar mapping, you can easily see where floodplains should be.

    And don't get me started on coastal communities! But it all comes down to planning and tax base. Communities built up a hundred plus years ago around water ways, because that was the simplest way for commerce. And it was just natural to build near the existing infrastructure-so fast forward to the last century and this is why we have such horrible urban flooding.

  • trailrunner
    10 years ago

    Hey pesky..I was hoping you would chime in ! I know that it is your expertise and way of living. I rode the east coast from Key West to Bar Harbor ME in 2011 on my bike. So I have seen a lot of coast :) It sure leaves one reeling when you see what we have done in the name of "development". There was only one area in all of FL that was perfect...and the Outer Banks that had been left alone in NC. Pretty much everything else was butt ugly. As long as I can see anything but water and sky and beach I am not happy :) Maybe a life guard stand..but that is it ! We have ruined it all...c

  • daisychain01
    10 years ago

    I can't imagine our city without the floodway. Built on the forks of two major rivers, flooding is always an issue, but now not nearly as disastrous. However, since nothing occurs in a vacuum, those downstream (or is it upstream?) complain that opening (or not opening) the floodway gates at the wrong time affects them adversely and there is always talk of how so and so has been sacrificed to save the city.

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