Cheney Middle School Stands Behind Cass County in 2019 Flood Fight With Sandbag Assistance

the county has a goal of 150,000

CASS COUNTY, N.D. — Cass County lowers its sandbagging goal to 150-thousand, but it doesn’t mean they no longer need help.

This year’s flood fight is even one Cass County’s youth can get behind.

“It’s good to help out the community because if it’s going to be a bad flood, it’s important to help out,” said Makenna Braun, eighth grader at Cheney Middle School.

And if the county is going to get through it, engineers say they’re going to need all the help they can get.

“We can’t do it without the students and the youth in our community to come out and support this. It’s a great opportunity for them to be part of something bigger and I think that’s an important lesson,” said Jason Benson, Cass County engineer.

It’s a lesson 50 eighth graders from Cheney Middle School are learning as they man the spider machine and filled sandbags at the Cass County Highway Department.

“We’re all one big community and a big town with a big heart so we’ve got to do it,” said James Nyei, eighth grader at Cheney.

“With the amount of people you have, it makes it easier so you each have your job and you just work together and get it done and it’s very productive and they have a good system,” said Taya Samek, eighth grader at Cheney.

All of the sandbags will go to rural areas west of Highway 18 who are seeing overland flooding. Cass County community members can either stop at the highway department to get an empty sandbag for ten cents apiece or call county engineers to get filled sandbags. Benson says he expects warmer conditions at the end of the week to cause flooding in ditches and culverts, which could then wash out roads that haven’t in the past. But no matter the amount of flooding, Cheney’s dean of students is proud of her kids for making a difference.

“Even if we don’t have exceptionally high, catastrophic waters, these guys are still a part of something at the kind of grassroots level. We have kids here that you don’t normally see as leaders at school that are showing the best side of themselves here today,” said Candida Braun, dean of students at Cheney.

Eighth graders will be back tomorrow to fill sandbags. Cass County will have an map of the areas expected to see overland flooding on its website.