Flood Watch 2019: Fargo Mayor Declares State of Emergency for Expected Spring Flooding

He's also enlisting help from community members to fill one million sandbags

FARGO, N.D. — It’s the metro’s call to arms to prepare for spring flooding.

“We need to see the spirit of Fargo across our volunteer efforts. Working together, we are all committed to protecting the Fargo metro,” said Mayor Tim Mahoney.

Mahoney wants to fill about 100,000 sandbags a day but in order to do that, he’ll need help.

He’s already enlisted the help of Fargo and West Fargo schools and NDSU.

They’ll do a test run next Monday before starting to fill sandbags on Tuesday.

Mahoney is also asking for volunteers to help out so the sandbags can cover about 20 miles of dikes and levees.

“With a little over a stage of 39 feet, if we do not do any emergency efforts, we’d expect right around that 2,000 or 2,500 properties affected,” said city engineer Nathan Boerboom.

The National Weather Service says there’s a 10 percent chance we could get to the same flood levels as 2009.

Fargo Sandbag Central will open on March 26 and continue filling bags each week Monday through Friday until the goal has been met.

“While we’ve made tremendous strides in our permanent flood protection efforts, this is a very serious flood forecast and we will meet it with a serious response. It is critically important for everybody to know that we will need the public’s assistance and cannot be complacent,” Mahoney said.

Some of those strides include a few of the projects the FM Diversion Authority has completed.

“Out of town, it’s been the Oxbow levee constructions. So that we’ve been able to restore the protection they had before,” Boerboom said.

The city plans to close bridges on 12th Avenue North, 1st Avenue North and 52nd Avenue. Other bridge closures will made depending on how high the water rises. After the 2009 flood, Fargo Public Works officials say they’re a lot more prepared for whatever comes their way this spring because of improved infrastructure.

“A lot of the stations that didn’t have generator capacity before are now running on generators. So if there’s a power outage, it’ll still function as it should,” said Ben Dow with Fargo Public Works.

The Fargo Police Department, F–M Ambulance, the North Dakota Air National Guard, FirstLink, the American Red Cross and the city of West Fargo and Cass County will also assist during the flood.

Mahoney says the city will need two hundred volunteers an hour to complete a goal of one million sandbags as soon as possible.

The National Weather Service will give the city an update on the flood fight every Monday and Thursday.