Grand Forks Flood: 10 Years Later

Ten years ago the nation watched in awe as the Red River invaded homes and property of the people in Grand Forks and East Grand Forks A decade has passed but it s still amazing to see the devastation caused by the Red River Tonight we have a series of reports from ten years ago as the river overwhelmed the cities In the last two days the predicted crest level in Grand Forks has been raised to an historic level of 53 feet That was enough for city officials to force hundreds of people to evacuate early this morning I was in the shower and so it s more or less like whoa what s this message And they said did you know that your area is being evacuated By late morning streets in the Lincoln Park area were waterways and people scrambled to save what they could Because that s vehicle my work vehicle and I need to get that out of here if I can I don t know how much higher the water is going to get but we are going to do our dangdest to try to stop it But by mid-afternoon the water got much higher when a major break occurred in the dike on the north side of the Lincoln Park Golf Course A neighborhood of about 300 homes became a lake with water as deep as four feet in some areas How are you doing governor I m doing ok how are you It seems like a strange situation for you doesn t it Governor Schafer Former North Dakota Governor It s an awful one that seems like it just keeps coming and coming Now we have this fire down here We just can t keep ahead of it We have snow winter ice water and now we have fire on top of it it just keeps coming and coming A boat ride through the streets of downtown Grand Forks is an awesome symbol of what this city has gone through since Friday Yesterday when things looked as if they couldn t get worse fire broke out at the Security Building downtown Flooded streets made travel almost impossible for firefighters while flames spread to 11 different buildings Meanwhile the residential areas are ghost towns Nearly 30 000 people won t be going home for weeks to come Pat Owens Former Grand Forks Mayor My own home is going under It may not be totaled but now I m in the same bucket with the rest of you It s just like whitewater East Grand Forks will need all the help the CLinton Administration can muster because the quick boat tour leave one speechless several times we had to duck to avoid power lines But it s the homes just south of downtown many of which have been knocked off their foundations which really drives home the message Upon arrival at the base President Clinton was met by a line of weary dignitaries hoping for the federal aid they need for the biggest disaster they ve ever seen President Clinton It may be hard to believe now but you can rebuild stronger and better than ever and we re going to help you do that And we want you to keep your eyes on that future John Marshall Grand Forks City Leader It s like a boxing match We got knocked down seven maybe eight times It s tough to get back up This one has all of us on our hands and knees in the water It s got us down But you know what It s the resiliency of these people and the people we have here it s going to be extremely tough We will rebuild and we ll do it better than it was before We will not give up Former Grand Forks Mayor Pat Owens says she s impressed with the progress of the city and she always knew it would come back stronger