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Published March 15, 2010, 09:24 AM

Fargo leaders are ready for the Red River's early rise

Fargo, ND (WDAY TV) - The flood is hitting a few weeks ahead of scheduled. But Fargo's Mayor and other City Officials say they've had this plan ready for months, and now it's go time.

By: Todd Kurtz, WDAY

  • Prepared for flooding
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    Fargo's Mayor and other City Officials say they've had this plan ready for months, and now it's go time.

Officials are calling the 38 foot crest, a doable flood in Fargo, but like last year the new crest date is striking some urgency.

"Once again we have a short period of time to get this thing moving."

Fargo's plan is to distribute sandbags to neighborhoods today through Wednesday. Volunteers will continue working at sandbag central and then tomorrow building dikes. Then starting Wednesday and going through Friday the huge push for help is needed.

"So we need your help, we've never gone through this effort and been successful without the use of volunteers."

Mental health specialists say the flooding adds loads of stress on us. They say the best things you can do are: getting plenty of rest, stay in some sort of your regular routine, and keep in close contact with friends and family.

"People wonder is this normal for me what I’m feeling? The more you visit with each other the more you understand, yeah everybody else is actually kind of tired and everybody else is kind of irritable."

Maybe not a record breaker, but we're left with another tight time-frame testing our community. Volunteers should keep showing up at North Coliseum. The city will look to use the Fargodome for a volunteer spot later this week.

A new sense of urgency is boosting the sandbagging effort! By noon today, 142 people, plus about 100-students, filled sandbags for Fargo.

Another group, including Cass County inmates, filled bags for Cass County. Volunteer coordinators say before today, weekdays only drew about 30 to 40 people.

When people thought we had more time, they were kind of like; we'll wait until you really need me. Now we're saying we really need you. We need all the help we can get.”

Tomorrow volunteers will be needed to sandbag and build sand bag dikes. Cass County is calling for volunteers to help sandbag.

If you can help, go to the U-P Center. Busses will shuttle people to sites that need urgent sandbagging. Busses will begin running at 8 in the morning. The last bus will leave at 7 at night.

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