2,500 homes swamped as Souris River overwhelms levees

The Souris River's full weight hit Minot on Friday, swamping an estimated 2,500 homes as it soared nearly four feet in less than a day and overwhelmed the city's levees. City officials said they expected as many as 4,500 homes to be severely damaged by the time the river peaked Saturday. More than a quarter of the city's 40,000 residents evacuated earlier last week, packing any belongings they hoped to save into cars, trucks and trailers. "The river's coming up rapidly," Mayor Curt Zimbelman said. "It's dangerous and we need to stay away." Fed by heavy rains upstream and dam releases that have accelerated in recent days, the Souris surged past a 130-year-old record on Friday and kept going. The river was more than five feet above major flood stage on Friday afternoon and expected to crest as early as yesterday evening some eight feet beyond major flood stage. The predicted crest was lowered a foot based on new modelling by the National Weather Service, but it was little consolation in Minot. "This has been a very trying time for our community," Zimbelman said. "It's emotionally draining for all of us." As they had the past two days, emergency officials focused on protecting water and sewer systems to avoid the need for more evacuations. They were confident about the water system, but a little less so about the sewer treatment plant. It had been sandbagged as high as possible. Zimbelman said water coming up through a storm sewer briefly began to erode one downtown levee before it was controlled. Also of concern was the Broadway Bridge, a key north-south route. Levees protecting the northern approach were being raised, but Army Corps of Engineers Lt Col Kendall Bergmann said it was touch and go. The levee work also protected the campus of nearby Minot State University. Senator John Hoeven said a helicopter flight over the Souris valley showed damage to smaller cities nearby. He estimated more than 5,000 homes in the valley would eventually have water damage, including those in Minot and Burlington, where officials gave up sandbagging on Thursday. In Burlington, deputy auditor Cindy Bader estimated on Friday that more than half of the town's 1,000 residents had left to escape the rising Souris River.Burlington's city hall, school and police and fire departments appeared safe, but some homes in the evacuation zone had water up to their first floors and higher. From / Gulf News