Valley City Leaders Declare Flood Emergency

They passed a resolution requesting emergency flood assistance.

VALLEY CITY, N.D .- Last week’s snowfall raised the Sheyenne River beyond flood stage.

Now, the Baldhill Dam is being raised to prevent the lake from overflowing.

“Right today it’s at 31, 3,100 feet per second, cubic feet per second, and they’re talking about tomorrow going to 3,500 cubic feet per second which takes us to the 15th foot range in Valley City, and 15 feet doesn’t mean anything to anyone, but it does mean something to us and how we have to protect our city,” Valley City City Administrator David Schelkoph said.

Valley City was ready for flooding in the spring, but this fall it caught them by surprise.

“Very unusual, as you will know, I was talking to some Army Corp Engineer Personal and they said they’ve never seen anything like this in the fall, so the city was not expecting this,” Schelkoph explained

They are working to prevent the flood from interfering with daily life.

“We have to close off our storm sewers and things like that along the roads and you’ll see if you drive through town many pumps set up to pump water out of the streets into the river, cause we had to close off the entrances into the river because the water is too high and so at 16 feet it requires us to do a little dance to get ready for it,” Schelkoph said.

There are no bridges scheduled to be closed and all of the streets are still open in Valley City.