Cracks in levee force evacuations in Fargo, ND
3/26/2009
By NATE JENKINS and DAVE KOLPACK, Associated Press Writers – 27 mins ago
FARGO, N.D. – Officials ordered the evacuation of one neighborhood and a nursing home late Thursday after authorities found cracks in an earthen levee built to protect the area from the threat of the rising Red River.
Residents were not in immediate danger, and floodwaters was not flowing over the levee, Mayor Dennis Walaker said Thursday night. The evacuation was being enforced as a precaution.
Officers were going door to door to the roughly 40 homes in the River Vili neighborhood and were evacuating Riverview Estates nursing home. The number of residents at the nursing home wasn't immediately clear.
Authorities across the river in Moorhead, Minn., also stepped up evacuations Thursday. They recommended that residents in the southwest corner of the city and in a northern area called Oakport Township leave.
Fargo residents have been scrambling in subfreezing temperatures to pile sandbags along the Red River. They spent much of Thursday preparing for a record crest of 41 feet — only to have forecasters add up to 2 feet to their estimate.
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