Series of neighborhood flood meetings gets started
Fargo, ND (WDAY TV) - The first in a series of neighborhood flood meetings kicked off tonight in Fargo, this one for people in the Timberline neighborhood. Last year, people living in this south Fargo neighborhood were surrounded by heskos, sandbags and contingency dikes, to keep the water out. Now they're hearing about a new plan, that city leaders say would make fighting a flood, much easier.
It was a good turnout for the first neighborhood meeting of the night. A lot of the buzz was about the city's new idea to build earthen levees around the southern part of Timberline.
“We thought we'd better see what they're going to do, to see what their strategy is, but I think they have it figured out.”
Dave Torson and his wife May have lived in Timberline for 6 years. They think the plan of putting up earthen levees in key areas in the neighborhood, to block off a rising Red River, is a good idea. Last spring, the couple's 32nd street home didn't see any water.
“They did a super job, it was a busy place.”
“I thought I was back at Fort Knox, Kentucky with all the tanks going by, night and day.”
City leaders say they can lessen the organized chaos by putting up these earthen levees. In Timberline, they'd be 16 feet high. The purpose of tonights meeting is to get feedback from neighbors about the idea, because if they give the thumbs up,city engineers want to get moving next week. There's also the chance of these barriers becoming permanent.
“We can leave them in place, so and then the situation will be until we come up with some more permanent solutions, these will be here all the time so we won't have to do all the sandbagging that we had to do last year.”
Another message being stressed to all neighborhoods is the importance of being prepared. Leaders want people to know what their role is during a flood fight, that way there's less chaos. More neighborhood meetings are scheduled for Thursday night at the Fargo Civic Center, starting at 5:30.
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