City leaders count on volunteers to fill sandbags around the clock

It's hard to believe that almost a year ago, Sandbag central was full of volunteers, filling sandbags around the clock. Once again, city leaders are counting on those volunteers to help get the job done one more time.

Starting March first, Sandbag central will be running six days a week, Monday thru Saturday, for 12 hours, 8 am, to 8 p.m. The city is asking for 150 to 200 volunteers to be on hand all day. That number will help keep the three "spider" machines up and running.

Sand shoots out of 12 openings, and can fill 6 thousand sandbags an hour, but another flood fight so soon makes leaders worried that volunteers might decide they don't want to go through this another time.

“We're also confident that where we live and work and like to call home; that volunteers have always responded in my 20 years with the city of Fargo. We think they will again.”

Grubb says FirstLink is coming up with an incentive for volunteers who do come out to help.

He says it will involve something like FirstLink donating to the organization that can round up the most volunteers. With the increased use of social networks, what better way to let people know of the expected flood.

There's a new Twitter site called Fargo Flooding. So far, it has 189 followers. Only a few tweets have been posted, most links to important information about the flood.

Some will let you know about the chance of a flood, volunteer efforts, and how to build sandbag dikes. You can find the site at www.twitter.com/fargoflooding.