Bismarck flood fight: Dike system planned to protect area

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AP photo Jim Nelson loads sandbags on a trailer where a volunteer work party was building a ring dike around a home in south Bismarck Wednesday. Residents of south Bismarck are building sandbag dikes to protect their homes against the rising Missouri River.

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BISMARCK — City officials unveiled plans Thursday for a temporary dike system to protect most of south Bismarck against the flooding Missouri River, which could rise another 4 feet in less than a month.

Some rural riverfront neighborhoods were being advised Thursday to evacuate, and the Red Cross opened a shelter at a north Bismarck middle school. The Dakota Zoo, located in a riverside park, was being evacuated.

The Army Corps of Engineers, which has been releasing about 75,000 cubic feet per second of water from the Missouri’s Garrison Dam upstream, increased its scheduled releases Thursday.

The water flows are expected to increase to 105,000 cubic feet per second by late June to respond to heavy rains in eastern Montana, said Todd Lindquist, a corps project manager in Riverdale, N.D.

The Lake Sakakawea reservoir behind the dam is almost full, and future increases in water releases “are not out of the realm of possibility,” Lindquist said.

When water releases reach 105,000 cubic feet per second, enough water will be passing through the dam in one minute to supply the city of Bismarck’s summer water needs for four days.

“It’s going to be tough, and it’s going to get worse before it gets better,” said Burleigh County Commissioner Jerry Woodcox. “But we’re going to beat this thing.”

The temporary dike system should be sufficient to protect south Bismarck if the corps increases the dam’s water releases to 120,000 cubic feet per second, said Todd Sando, chief engineer for the state Water Commission.

Maj. Gen. David Sprynczynatyk, commander of the North Dakota National Guard, said another 300 soldiers may be summoned to join the 650 who were on duty Thursday in Bismarck and Mandan providing help with sandbagging, dike construction and security.

Another 30 soldiers were patrolling about 21 miles of dikes that stretched from Minot to Burlington, where Souris River flooding has been worrisome.

The Missouri flooding near Bismarck and neighboring Mandan, which is at higher elevations and will be less affected by the rising water, is the most severe by far since the dam was closed in 1953, Sprynczynatyk said.

However, city and state officials said the flooding problems were manageable.

Bismarck Mayor John Warford said the city’s water and sewage treatment plants were in no danger of flooding, and that the Bismarck Civic Center and Kirkwood Mall, a large regional shopping center, would be protected by the dike system that is being built.

“Rest assured, I believe the people in the south part of Bismarck should be able to not be in any kind of a panic mode at all,” said Jeff Heintz, Bismarck’s public works director.

Warford added: “Kirkwood Mall will be OK. The Civic Center will be OK. We’ve got time to prepare for this.”

City officials renewed their appeals Thursday for more volunteers to help fill and place sandbags, and used city buses to transport volunteers to two primary sites.

Bismarck was getting help with equipment, sandbags and personnel from Grand Forks, Fargo and neighboring Moorhead, Minn., cities that have battled major Red River floods during the past three springs. A catastrophic Red River flood in 1997 devastated downtown Grand Forks and forced the evacuation of much of the city.

Gov. Jack Dalrymple and North Dakota’s U.S. senators, Republican John Hoeven and Democrat Kent Conrad, were scheduled to tour the Bismarck and Mandan area Friday with Brig. Gen. John McMahon, the commander of the Army Corps’ northwest region, and Col. Robert Ruch, commander of its Omaha district, which manages the Missouri River.

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