Where Is North Dakota’s Federal Delegation On The Fargo Flooding?

• March 31, 2009

Tonight I listened to an interview on AM1100 WZFG between Former North Dakota Governor Ed Schafer and former Grand Forks Mayor Pat Owens. During the 1997 Red River Valley flooding, which devastated Grand Forks (though Fargo mostly managed to dodge), both Schafer and Owens were in office. It was interesting to hear the two leaders talk about how the handled the disaster back then.
What’s interesting, though, is how Grand Forks largely prepared itself for future floods after the 1997 flooding but Fargo…really didn’t. Now Fargo is facing an ugly flooding situation (the fight isn’t over just yet), and you have to wonder…where is North Dakota’s federal delegation on this?
I’ve seen Conrad, Pomeroy and Dorgan giving some speeches and interviews about the flooding, but where’s the action? Every election cycle we’re told how much clout these three have in Washington DC, and certainly when it comes to rewarding their political supporters back here in North Dakota with federal pork they’re very successful, but what about for legitimate government spending? Such as making sure cities like Fargo aren’t devastated every decade or so by flooding?
When Katrina hit New Orleans the politicians fell all over themselves to promise the most relief to that area. But where is the rush to help out Fargo? The citizens of the Fargo area aren’t victims. They don’t need handouts. They’ll dig themselves out of this mess. But what about Conrad and Dorgan getting some federal money in to prepare Fargo for future floods like Grand Forks has been prepared? What about Obama doing something with regard to the flooding aside from trying to blame it on global warming?
Again, I don’t there are many here interested in being housed in FEMA trailers, or put up in hotel rooms at the taxpayers expense for years on end, or even getting debit cards charged with taxpayer money for their shopping convenience. But we’d sure like to see some infrastructure built to make sure our cities don’t wash away again.
So how about Dorgan, Conrad and Pomeroy use this clout they allegedly wield in Washington to get something done? Or do North Dakotans not matter because they refuse to be victims like the folks down in Louisiana?

Tags: Asshats, Domestic Issues, North Dakota News, Politics

http://Array ChuckD

The difference between New Orleanians(?) and Fargoites(?) is stark. In North Dakota, we see people who are self-reliant and have work ethic. People with jobs, people with pride. In Louisiana, we saw people who’ve been suckling at the government teat for their whole lives. People who live off of the work others do, a permanent victim class. John Edwards was right. There are two Americas. And one of them is being forced to prop up the other at the point of a gun.
http://www.valleydeals.com/cgi-bin/board2/YaBB.pl Kevin

All the snow has covered up all the mud from the dikes.
http://www.moszer.net/ Moszer

is how Grand Forks largely prepared itself for future floods after the 1997 flooding but Fargo…really didn’t.

Wow Rob, that is quite the misinformed comment. The local government here knows exactly what they are doing to fight a flood and did tremendous amounts of planning before hand. Why do you think they were able to pull of what they did in the last week? Pure luck? The 5th worst flood in city history was in 2006, did you even notice?

My understanding is Grand Forks got a big fat federal check to build a levee after 97 and Fargo did not. GF also got hit much harder in 97 than Fargo which parially justified the check. This time around the roles are reversed.

We’ve talked about permanent flood control many many times since 97 here in Fargo and decided that the expense wasn’t worth it. The cost to put up temporary flood control when needed was much much much less than the cost of a permanent solution. I think it was something along the lines of 200K to build up the levees for the typical low 30 some foot flood and hundreds of millions for a permanent solution.

Of course this will change with the current flood. We were going to be forced to build permanent protection here in South Fargo anyway since FEMA redid the flood zones. I was happy to take a big specials hit to pay for it. I’m dumb enough to buy a house down here.. I’m dumb enough to have to pay for the flood control. This was going to be done in a year or two if I remember.

I just think you need to research your statement a little more there Rob and not assume Fargo didn’t do much to prepare for this.
jimmypop

is how Grand Forks largely prepared itself for future floods after the 1997 flooding but Fargo…really didn’t.

wow dude… before you go spouting off about how inept we are do some fucking research…. the feds and state didnt toss tens of millions at us and the libricans that we send to bismarck are too weak and worried about pissing off everyone outside ‘Imperial Cass County’ to DEMAND our tax dollars back for once. As for our liberal governor… hes running for senate and he knows he needs to own fargo 60/40 or hes fucked. so he has proposed getting us some cash. (all these guys hate the fuck out of fargo/ cass until you need our votes or money….. anyway….)

the money we spent over the last 11 years kept us safe during this event. fargo bought out some people. as did the county. i know some fema money was used, but us locals funded parts of it and now we tax payers maintain the land we bought. Anyway, as our mayor said, in 1997 we were designed for a hit at 31 feet. we took a record and won. because of the work weve done since 97, we were now ready for 37 feet. THATS why we have lost 5 basements. so far, weve taken a 500 year event and won. look at moorhead if you want to point fingers….. they got fucking pownt and they are higher than we are. main problem; the leaders didnt react until it was too late to save their west side.

WHERE TO GO FROM HERE DESIGN WISE;
the first solution is minimum $160M… that only protects the south side. that project didnt go because the area we have to go thru is owned by rich folks and powerful lawyers. irony, huh? all those homes are under water or surrounded by it. they fucked themselves with threats of lawsuits if we pressed forward. plus, all those little towns to our south cant afford the protection…. they want big city amenities, total autonomy and local control, but dont want to pay ONE FUCKING DIME for it. i hope this will wake them up.

Anyway, a real solution was $800M for the town….. that will go to $1B+ because it will be over-engineered because of this event. A full diversion is estimated at $1.5B….. its a ditch 1/2 a mile wide (where to place it is a whole other matter). when the farmers figure out we want their land and will be using federal dollars to buy it (the feds have very poor poker faces)….. the cost will accelerate to $2.5B. a full diversion is a waste. we cant design our civil engineering for 500 year events. logic, not emotion, needs to rule engineering.

as many have said; are we worried because we did too well? twice. actually, i am. if we ran away and let our city sink like the coward homeland security and governor wanted us to do this time, wed get the $1.5B for the diversion and billions more in ‘aid’ to fix our town no mater what.

hey barry, we are shovel ready in fargo…. when do we start making long term, high paying jobs?
http://www.moszer.net/ Moszer

I think you just touched a nerve. I don’t often say this about politicians, but I couldn’t be more proud of our local leadership in this. How they prepared and handles the whole thing is just amazing. I just don’t see how you can say Fargo really didn’t prepare for future floods. I think the current demonstration would beg to differ.

You say it’s not worth the cost, and yet what are all these efforts now costing? Much of which wouldn’t be necessary if more permanent solutions were put in place.

That is why I said this would change with the current flood. The discussion in 2006 was summed up by saying “why spend 200 million when we can spend 200k every time we get a flood that goes up to even 37 feet, the floods like 97 only come about every 100 years” Obviously this assumption was not correct. Hearing the talk around town now, we’ll build a permanent solution down here regardless of the the Feds do. People in town just won’t put up with this again no matter what Larry, Curly and Moe do in Washington.
http://ndgoon.blogspot.com/ goon

I would think when this is all said and done Fargo will get a floodwall and have a diversion.
raj58045

I think this might be the wrong event to use for political purposes right now. Yes, you may have a valid point about the three stooges offering more support, other than “we’ve reported to our leader, and he’s behind us”. The fact is, the folks in Fargo are doing too good of a job on their own. Mayor Walaker, and the rest of the city staff, and the thousands of volunteers in and around the area have it all under control. That’s the way it is done up here. I haven’t seen one single person sitting on their house with a “PLEASE HELP PRESIDENT OBAMA” sign. When things are cleaned up and get back to normal, I am sure you will see requests for federal dollars for more permanent flood protection. Then we will find out if we need to be critical of our federal delegation.
carrick

I’m a bit unclear as to what you are proposing. Are you talking about building up the levee system? Or something else?
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

Ran this may not be the time for partisan back biting, but discussion over policy is important.
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

Moszer, don’t put words in my mouth. I’m not denigrating the current response. I’m just wondering why nobody wants to do something more permanent.

You say it’s not worth the cost, and yet what are all these efforts now costing? Much of which wouldn’t be necessary if more permanent solutions were put in place.

SayAnythingBlog.com

Where Is North Dakota’s Federal Delegation On The Fargo Flooding?

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