City engineer Bob Zimmerman: “Moorhed can be confident that the efforts we’ve put into flood mitigation will serve us well this spring.”
Nancy Edmonds Hanson
It’s that time again. As March 2023 prepares to go out, not like a lamb, but a still-hungry lion, Moorhead minds are turning toward the still-frozen peaks of towering snowdrifts to wonder: Will the Red River deliver a major flood in the weeks to come?
“If I knew the answer to that question, I’d be a rich man,” city engineer Bob Zimmerman jokes. “The potential is certainly there. But it depends on a couple of main factors – the speed of the spring thaw and the potential for rain in April. Depending on how that goes, the potential is there for a relatively significant flood … or it could fizzle. At this point, we can’t make a reliable prediction.”
The most recent prediction, issued March 24, suggests a 50% chance of the river reaching a crest of 34 feet and a 10% chance of 38 feet. Those are well within the protective barrier of permanent earthen levees and flood walls – almost 19 miles of them, dogging the river’s twists and bends – constructed since the record-setting flood of 2009. The system is designed to protect the city against a crest of 42 feet, with another yard or so of freeboard to prevent wind-driven spills.
No matter. For the past month, Moorhead’s experienced team of senior flood fighters has been laying plans for handling whatever blows the weather might bring. “We’ve been through this so many times before that we know what we’ve got to do. We just run down the list,” Zimmerman says.
He had already assumed his current role in 1997, when the Red River Valley faced what was then the most dramatic flood in its history. Fargo-Moorhead survived, thanks to its legendary cadre of volunteers who literally saved the cities.
With that under their belts, Zimmerman and his counterparts thought they were ready in 2009, when Mother Nature rolled up her sleeves to break that record. Some 2.5 million sandbags later, Moorhead had survived, though – he confides now – there were moments when it was touch-and-go. “I remember the moment the forecast was raised to 42 or 43 feet. We had nothing,” he says. “We would have basically turned out the lights and left. The land is so flat that a relatively small difference would have had a huge impact.”
That dire forecast, though, turned out to be overly ambitious. When the crest came just after midnight on March 28, it measured 40.85 feet, still setting the all-time record.
The near-disaster prompted the largest mitigation project in the region’s history. A total of $148.6 million has been invested in subsequent years, starting that summer; some smaller elements still remain on the to-do list today. Moorhead and the Buffalo-Red River Watershed District, which addressed the issues in Oakport Township, bought out a total of 336 homes along the river. Construction began on what’s now 18.8 miles of permanent clay levees and flood walls. Two dozen stormwater pumping stations were upgraded or installed. Eighty-three stormwater gates now can block the waters of the engorged river from backing up into Moorhead’s sanitary sewers.
A handful of projects still remain, awaiting a source of the $24 million needed to complete the whole list – a good share of which may be included the state’s upcoming bonding bill. Among them are the second phase of some protective structures on the city’s north edge from Wall Street to 43rd Avenue North, a levee planned for a small section of Riverview Circle at 40th Avenue South that’s still in limbo, a few lift station projects, and a flood wall along the lowest section of First Avenue North on the edge of downtown.
Still, the overall picture is far, far brighter and more optimistic than it was in days gone by. The experienced flood team has pulled out its checklist. Among them are emergency manager Chad Stangeland, Public Works director Steve Iverson, planner Kristy Leshovsky, assistant city engineer Tom Trowbridge and, of course, Zimmerman himself. They also coordinate their efforts with their Clay County counterparts.
The city engineer points out that with completion of the F-M Diversion Project in 2027, the risk will be substantially less. That $2 billion project, now being built by the U.S. Corps of Engineers along the North Dakota side of the river, will minimize Moorhead’s risk even further, protecting the city to what’s projected then become the 100-year crest level of 37 feet and the 500-year level of 40 feet.
As it stands now, even if the Red does its worst this spring, the demand for sandbags will be minimal – primarily used to build temporary dikes in front of the 30 or so homes whose owners declined buy-out offers to remain in harm’s way. Nineteen miles of levees and flood walls will keep the city dry, keeping disruption to a modest minimum.
“We can be confident that all the efforts we’ve put in will serve us well,” Zimmerman asserts. “Any flooding this spring will demonstrate the value of what has been invested.”
And by the way … has he fielded taxpayer complaints about that gargantuan public appropriation? “Nobody has ever told me, ‘You shouldn’t have done that,’” he says, and smiles. “Sometimes you really do get alignment.”
