City, county and federal authorities gather to prepare for expected spring flooding in the Red River Valley

FARGO, N.D. (KVRR) —  Sen. John Hoeven received an update on the latest forecast from the National Weather Service and discussed disaster and first responder preparations being made in the region.

This includes sandbagging operations which are set to begin later this week.

The meeting took place this morning and participants included Fargo Mayor Tim Mahoney, West Fargo Mayor Bernie Dardis, Cass County Commission Chairman Chad Peterson and representatives from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Sen. John Hoeven explains, “So there are going to be people that have challenges and the whole purpose of this meeting today is to make sure they know whether it’s the county, whether its city of Fargo, city of West Fargo the whole area, they are coordinating.”

Hoeven expressed that “Communities across the Red River Valley understand the risk of annual flooding, and today’s meeting is about ensuring officials at all levels of government are coordinating their flood response to most effectively protect local residents.”

They’re predicting this flood will be similar to 2011 which needed 2,000,000 sandbags were needed.

Hoeven says, “The other real key takeaway from today is that by spring of 2027 that permanent flood protection should be in place for the whole region so you don’t have to go through this flood fight ever.”

Flood walls and levees have been built since 2009 to help ease the harshness of flooding but with the winter we’ve had a severe flood is still predicted.

Overland flooding will be the worst in rural areas.

Hoeven says, “You’ve heard from the weather report that not only do we have significant snow on the ground this is going to be a significant precipitation event could be 12 to 18 inches of wet snow.”

There is a goal of at least 60,000 sandbags for Cass County, 20,000 for Fargo, 5,000 for West Fargo and an extra 10-15 thousand for padding in case more sandbags are needed.

They say this can change depending on the severity of flooding.

The community is encouraged to step up and pitch in on helping in any way possible.

For more information on volunteering and helping out call the sandbag hotline at 701.476.4000.