RED RIVER FLOODING ... AGAIN !

Blame the Ice Age glacial lake that left the river in a flat, wide valley.

By RICHARD MERYHEW, Star Tribune

Last update: March 24, 2009 - 11:51 PM
Stick a river that flows north into one of the flattest stretches of land on the face of the Earth and what do you get?

Trouble.

That is why folks in the Red River Valley seem to spend spring after spring stacking sandbags, watching the skies and worrying about frost depth, rate of melt and ice jams.

In a region that slopes inches per mile, all it takes is a rapid thaw or an ice dam to send the meandering Red River over its banks and put miles of the valley under water.

"It's like taking a glass of water and pouring it on the top of a table," said Kevin Dean, public information officer for the city of Grand Forks, N.D.

"The water just goes everywhere. Everything's flat. That's really hard for a lot of people to understand. But it's just so flat that when it floods, it has everywhere to go and there's nothing to stop it."

It's been that way for nearly 10,000 years, since glacial ice last pushed south across parts of North and South Dakota and Minnesota, creating a "very gentle bowl shape" where the states meet, said Adam Lewis, an assistant professor of geoscience at North Dakota State University in Fargo.

Despite three days of precipitation in the Winnipeg area and much of the Red River Valley, Manitoba is not raising the level of its flood prediction.

Manitoba Water Stewardship spokesman Steve Topping told CBC News Wednesday that a level on par with that of the 1979 flood is still being forecast.

'Runoff is occurring quickly there and will contribute to Manitoba's flooding, but we're only seeing 1979 flood levels because our snow pack is lower.'
"Steve ToppingSouth of the border, in Fargo, N.D., however, officials are predicting river levels will be as high as 12.3 metres " above the devastating 1997 crest of 12 metres " and a record level in the area.

That crest is forecast to occur Sunday. The crest is anticipated to arrive in Winnipeg between April 12 and 17.

Topping said there are a number of reasons why the predicted levels for Winnipeg are lower. For one thing, the Red River in North Dakota has less capacity and the Fargo region had much more snow this winter, he said.

"Runoff is occurring quickly there and will contribute to Manitoba's flooding, but we're only seeing 1979 flood levels because our snow pack is lower, Topping said. "And the river channel has much greater capacity [to hold the water] here in Manitoba."

"The forts now stand like a castle of romance in the midst of an ocean of deep contending currents, the water extending for at least a mile behind them, and they are thereby only approachable by boats and canoes."

Francis Heron, describing the Red River flood of 1826