WATCHMEN League

[calbatross]

Wednesday, the National Guard sent a crew, including the husband of one of my employees, to detonate explosives in a huge ice jam at the confluence of the Heart and Missouri Rivers south of Bismarck. Our unusually cold and snowy (4th snowiest on record!) winter and a recent warm spell resulted in a massive ice blockade that acted as a dam. Using explosives and salt, the jam had deteriorated enough to allow a channel of water to flow and the river's level dropped 3 to 4 feet by Thursday night. There is still an ice jam north of the city that has yet to release a torrent...hopefully the current flow away from the city will allow our river channel to handle the added capacity of any new water from up north.

However, that said, many, many smaller riverside communities have been inundated and North Dakota's largest community, Fargo, just upgraded their flood estimates to 43 feet. Well, the dikes were built to manage a 40 foot Red River...and sandbaggers had been working vigilantly to raise that dike to 42 feet...so the new forecast is disheartening. Fargo and Grand Forks in North Dakota and Moorhead in Minnesota are likely in grave trouble and our prayers for those towns and surrounding communities are pretty much constant. The Red River is not nearly as wide or mighty as the Missouri. Also, the land is very flat around Fargo... In Bismarck, only the low lying areas around the river were really threatened. In Fargo, pretty much the entire community of 100,000 is under threat.

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers as we continue to work to preserve our cities from this historic flood.

[moneymaze]

I have an old friend who grew up in Fargo and whose family still lives there -- just sent an e-mail to check in. Thanks for jostling my memory.

Hoping everybody there can stay dry and safe.

[SGTD]

Keep us updated Cal, I know the feeling as I had the flood 3 years ago here (Binghamton, NY). Had the foundation cracking and the house was surrounded by water into the first floor. The wife and kids left before the water surrounded us and she went to her parents house which all of them needed to taken out by rescue boat. Hopefully you all will catch a break. SGT D

[calbatross]

It sounds like our sandbag production center is now going to become a place for displaced citizens of eastern North Dakota to temporarily call home. Some folks at work told me that Fargo kids are being placed in schools in other parts of the area, including Bismarck, for a while until flooding subsides...

[moneymaze]

I got in touch with my friend -- her parents are retired and still living in Fargo. As of earlier this afternoon, they were staying put (her mom is baking for the volunteers), but that may have changed since then.

Looks real bad up there, and we should keep all these folks in our hearts and prayers.

[MEAT]

[quote:1f4c184f79]Jason called me. He's not going to be able to get in until tonight. Since I have nothing good to say, I will refrain from commenting.

[/quote:1f4c184f79]
"TONIGHT" ?

[calbatross]

Sequestered?

[Al Hogg]

[quote:14b5012054="TomSiebert"]

I've spoken w/ Jason and he's got ... a weekend trip that will leave him largely incommunicado throughout Sat-Sunday.[/quote:14b5012054]

Do we want to start a new league, flip the East and West back, then try to get everybody else in so it's ready when Jason returns?

I suppose, though, there's no hurry now, given that we'll have to wait a week for the league to get going anyway.

[TomSiebert]

Yeah, let's go ahead and do that....flip it back to the way it was....I almost suggested doing that early yesterday, and probably should have, though it still wouldn't have mattered since Jason has gone completely incommunicado.....I don't know what's up(town) with him and I'm certainly not happy about the way he's handled this, but since I have to work with the guy I'm not going to comment beyond that.

What really sucks for me is that I'm gone from next Friday afternoon until probably the following Tuesday or Wednesday w/out much internet access, so it would have been much better for me to start this Monday. On the other hand, it's kinda cool to start the same week as the real baseball season.

But yeah, flip East and West back and start a new league with a new password. ARGH.

tws

[SGTD]

Nice call, I was going to suggest that now before reading the post from Al and you. At least this way everyone will be in except for Jason. SGT D