DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Calling All Dawgtalkers ... Please send Prayers.....

Hey all!

Just a short note as I've taken little break from all of the sand bagging and trying to save as many homes as possible. We're looking at a real potential for tragedy up here. Just requesting prayers for the North land.

Thanks all. Time to get something to eat and get back out there. Any prayers are appreciated! Best to all there.

You got it, Fargo...looks like a mess up there. Hang in there.

You got it Fargo. Good luck.

You got 'em! Keep your chin up and let us know how things go.

Good luck fargo. been reading about the flooding.
I think Manitoba is also getting hit some... the Red River, I believe???
anyway, hope all goes well for ya.

Prays are on the way bro

Geez Fargo,, My very best to you and the rest up there in the Northland... Beautiful country up there. I spent a year in school in Minn/St Paul and on breaks, some friends that had cars and I traveled the state.. We were up on your neck of the woods... Beautiful countryside up there..

My best and my prayers to all.

Good luck Fargo....

Prayers sent Fargo...good luck

Fargo...good luck, be careful and you will be in our thoughts and prayers.

I am hoping that this prayer, Thanks To Joel and Victoria Osteen, will give you and the people of North Dakota the strength to make it through these tough times up there....

Created to Overcome

Today's Scripture

"You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world" (I John 4:4 NKJ).

Today's Word from Joel and Victoria

Are you facing a situation today that seems impossible? Even if you don´t see how things will work out, remember, you are created to overcome. As a child of the Most High God, the Greater One lives on the inside of you. There are seeds of faith planted in your heart, and the way you activate those seeds is by the words of your mouth. Begin to declare, "I am bigger than this problem. I am created to overcome. I am destined to live in victory because the Greater One lives inside of me."

Friend, when you start speaking like that, all of heaven hears you and gets behind what you are saying. That´s why it´s so important to stir up the fire that God has placed on the inside of you. Don´t just sit back and be passive. That obstacle may look impossible, but God wouldn´t have allowed it in your life if He didn´t already know that you could overcome it! Quit looking at your difficulties as obstacles that are going to hold you back and start looking at them as opportunities that are going to push you forward into the live of victory He has in store for you!

A Prayer for Today

Father in heaven, thank You for Your promise of victory. Fill my heart with Your peace and joy today and help me to stay focused on You. In Jesus´ Name. Amen.

FARGO, N.D. – The Red River rose to a daunting 112-year high early Friday and breached one of the dikes fortifying the city, but the mayor pledged to "go down swinging" as he called for more evacuations and additional National Guard troops to prevent a devastating flood.

The river swelled to 40.32 feet — more than 22 feet above flood stage and inches more than the previous high water mark of 40.1 feet set in 1897. It was expected to crest as high as 43 feet on Saturday. Fargo's main dike protects the city at the 43-foot level.

Fargo Mayor Dennis Walaker says the city has no plans to build the dike any higher. He says officials believe the Red River will crest at between 41.5 and 42 feet.

"We're not going to proceed to take it to 44. Is that a gamble? We don't think so," Walaker said.

Walaker says they are adding 800 members of the guard from North Dakota and South Dakota to patrol dikes for breaches, on top of the 900 troops already in place.

Officials asked people to stay off of roads to keep streets clear for sandbag trucks and avoid traffic jams that have been plaguing the area.

Authorities in Fargo and across the river in Moorhead, Minn., expanded evacuations Friday across several blocks of their cities. The total number of people ordered from homes wasn't clear.

Sen. Byron Dorgan also said that Northwest Airlines was sending two jetliners to move patients from hospitals to safer areas.

Just after 2 a.m. Friday, residents in one neighborhood were roused from sleep and ordered to evacuate after authorities found a leak in a dike. The leak left the integrity of the dike in question, police Capt. Tod Dahle said.

"It's not like there's a wall of water going through," he said. "It's just a significant leak."

Fargo spokeswoman Karena Lunday said it was the only overnight breech and crews would start patching it Friday morning.

"We want to go down swinging if we go down," Walaker said.

The American Red Cross planned to send another 150 people to the North Dakota flood zone to operate emergency shelters. They will join the 85 such volunteers already working in Grand Forks, Bismarck, Fargo and Moorhead, Minn.

Spokeswoman Courtney Johnson said Friday it's not necessarily a sign that the Red Cross is expecting a disaster. "No one living has ever seen something like this," she said. "We preach preparedness. We can't not be prepared."

Residents in this city of 92,000 had been scrambling in subfreezing temperatures to pile sandbags along the river and spent much of Thursday preparing for a crest of 41 feet, only to have forecasters late in the day add up to 2 feet to their estimate.

The National Weather Service said in its follow-up statement that the Red was expected to crest between 41 and 42 feet by Saturday, but could reach 43 feet. It said water levels could remain high for three days to a week.

The first estimate sparked urgency among thousands of volunteers in Fargo. The second shook their spirits.

"I've lived here 40 years and over a 30-minute span I've reached a point where I'm preparing to evacuate and expect never to sleep in my house again," said Tim Corwin, 55, whose south Fargo home was sheltered by sandbags to 43 feet.

But the sandbag-making operation at the Fargodome churned as furiously as ever, sending fresh bags out to an estimated 6,000 volunteers who endured temperatures below 20 degrees in the race to sandbag.

"I was skeptical as far as volunteers coming out today, but they're like mailmen," said Leon Schlafmann, Fargo's emergency management director. "They come out rain, sleet or shine."

Several unusual factors sent the Red River surging to historic heights this year. The winter was unusually cold and snowy, which left a large snowpack sitting on top of frozen ground that couldn't absorb it. Then a warm snap and heavy rain quickly melted the snow and sent it into toward the river.

And it all happened to a river that flows north. When most rivers in the United States melt, they send the extra water south toward warmer, open water. When the Red breaks up, it sends hunks of ice north into colder water that is often still frozen.

Officials ordered the evacuation of another Fargo neighborhood and a nursing home late Thursday after authorities found cracks in an earthen levee. Residents were not in immediate danger, and water wasn't flowing over the levee, Walaker said.

Still, officers went door to door to the roughly 40 homes in the River Vili neighborhood and were evacuating Riverview Estates nursing home. Authorities also asked the 1,000 residents who live between the main dikes and the backup dikes in various parts of the city to leave within 24 hours. That evacuation could become mandatory.

Authorities across the river in Moorhead, also stepped up evacuations Thursday. The city of about 35,000 recommended that residents leave the southwest corner of the city and a low-lying township to the north where some homes had already flooded.

Fargo's largest hospital and at least four nursing homes also moved residents.

"A few of them said they didn't want to go. I said I'm going where the crowd goes," said 98-year-old Margaret "Dolly" Beaucage, who clasped rosary beads as she waited to leave Elim Care Center.

"I'm a swimmer," she said, smiling, "but not that good a swimmer."

In rural areas south of Fargo, crews were rescuing stranded residents. Pat Connor of the Cass County sheriff's department said 70 people had been rescued by Thursday evening, and he expected that number to grow.

The federal government announced a disaster declaration Thursday for seven Minnesota counties. The entire state of North Dakota had received a disaster designation earlier in the week.

On the Canadian side of the northern-flowing Red River, ice-clogged culverts, ice jams and the rising river threatened Manitoba residents. Several homes were evacuated north of Winnipeg and several dozen houses were flooded.

"We're in for probably the worst two weeks that this community has ever seen in its entire existence," St. Clements Mayor Steve Strang said. The Red River crest threatening North Dakota isn't expected to arrive in Manitoba for another week.



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090327/ap_on_re_us/midwest_flooding

Prayers going out to you and yours, and all the families dealing with this situation.

i wish you the best of luck Fargo. I lived through the Iowa floods last year, and know what you are going through.

I have not said much because I am slightly pessimistic about the sandbagging effort. My opinion is that the river will go where it wants to. We too had massive sandbagging efforts. It did not matter. The river came and the river devastated the area.

The River crested at 20 feet above flood level, and took everything it wanted. Do not count on the sandbags to keep the water out. Get your stuff out.

i wish I could be more optimistic, but the millions of gallons of water that you will see have a tremendous amount of power and energy. I wish you the best and I hope that you have a better experience than we had in Iowa. Good luck and stay safe.

What a horrible situation. Thinking of you and everyone affected there.

Hang tough. Good thoughts and prayers coming your way!

Thanks for the best wishes everyone. We're hoping the worst is over, but it isn't over yet. Our river crested on Saturday at nearly 41' and now we're at 39.21'. So that's some what of a relief. But now today, we've got a major storm coming through today. It's supposed to dump between 8" to 14" of snow. But that's not the concern, it's the 40 MPH winds that it could potentially have on our sand bag dikes. So still hoping for the best.

Thanks for all the well wishes fellow dawgs! We're hanging in there and busting our tails.

Thanks for the update Fargo, good luck and God be with you.

Fargo, how far from the river do you live? Hopefully you are safe!

Hang in there Fargo!

Thanks again everyone. Just another update.

Things are on hold for now. The river is down about 2 and half feet from it's original crest. However, this winter storm we are in is dumping between 10" and 15" of snow. So this will start up all over again once the melt begins, unless we get a slow melt. Let's hope for that.

I've got to tell you the people up here are amazing. I've sandbagged next to people from Wisconsin to Montana. The press is reporting that so far our community has only lost 5 houses in town. (The rural areas are a different story.) Buy your beef and bread now as the wheat crops will be late and the number of cattle that has drown is not good.

I'm actually at work today since it's only a winter storm warning today. What a mess. Looks like a war has broken out up here. We've got the military all over the place, commerce has been shut down for about a week and half (unless designated as a necessary business) and since I work at the hospital I had to show my credentials to the national guard just to get to work. Crazy stuff.

Thanks for all of the well wishes everyone.

In other words it looks like I farted up there

GM you'd better change your diet. If your farts are that wet, you've got serious gastric problems.

It's OK I own stock in Charmin

Good luck with the SLOW thaw bro. and good luck to all of you up there. I will continue with the prayers.