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Published March 03, 2010, 08:48 AM

Fargo and Moorhead request more volunteers to help reach goal

Fargo, ND (WDAY TV) - If you've been waiting for an urgent call for sandbaggers, it is here. Fargo and Moorhead want potential volunteers to know they need sandbags, even if the Red River crests at just 30 feet.

  • Filling sandbags
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    Fargo and Moorhead want potential volunteers to know they need sandbags, even if the Red River crests at just 30 feet.

The call to service brought Nick Fladland here instead of school today...

“I don't know whether it's going to flood or what stage flood, but no matter what happens we need to be prepared so we don't have to rush at the end.”

Each scoop brings the city one step closer to its goal of one million sandbags, which will protect the city up to a 40 ft red river crest. The National Weather Service says there's a 35 percent chance that will happen. Odds aren't bad, but it's apparently not enough to bring more Nick Fladlands rushing through sandbag central's door.

But what about a 70 percent chance? That's how likely it is we'll see a crest of 37 feet and for that the city still needs 52-thousand sandbags. There's also a 55 percent chance we'll need 140-thousand, and a 45 percent chance we'll need half a million sandbags.

“We're confident that we need to make a million sandbags at some point in this 2010 flood fight, we'd prefer if we could get those pre-made because that's one less worry to deal with as the river starts to rise.”

Meaning the next few weeks isn’t about preparing just in case. It's about having enough sandbags for whichever case we have. For volunteer information call FirstLink at 476- 4-thousand.

Moorhead is making about 11-thousand sandbags a day, but they still need more volunteers to reach their goal. Today about 30 people were working in groups, filled bags by hand. The city's goal is 300-thousand in the next two and a half weeks. As of 5:00 today, they had 30-thousand bags filled. Officials say they hope this year's "lack of urgency" won't prevent people from coming out.

"There have definitely been a lot of sandbags that have already been filled and there's always lots more room for volunteers so if you have some extra time, we just ask that you come on down and throw some sand."

Officials hope to have the Spider Sandbag machine, like the ones Fargo have, by next weekend. With that machine, they'll be able to fill bags much quicker.

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