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Home : Features : 2009 : Spring Floods

## North Dakota Guardsmen in a statewide flood fight - again

BISMARCK, N.D., (4/14/09) - The number of National  Guardsmen fighting rising water levels in North Dakota has more than doubled  from last week.

More than 1,000 additional members of the North Dakota  National Guard were activated Monday, adding to a force of about 900 who were  already on active duty. This is about 500 fewer service members than were on  duty during the Red River's first crest in Fargo earlier this month.

The Soldiers and Airmen are helping to fight flooding  throughout the state by placing sandbags, operating pumps, patrolling dikes and  forming quick reaction forces in order to respond to any levee that doesn't  hold.

Residents have been grateful for the help. Sgt. 1st Class  Freddie Griffin leads a team of about a dozen Soldiers of the 134th  Quartermaster Detachment in Pembina, where they have been patrolling the dike  system for about a week.

The people here have been great to us, Griffin said.  They are showing us their appreciation daily.

In Burlington, Soldiers are operating a sandbag site and  responding to area flood missions. A quick response force (QRF) already  responded to homes affected by Des Lacs River flooding and the team used 18,000  sandbags to build a dike around three separate homes. A team is also in place  to serve the Minot area.

Guardsmen are patrolling dikes in many other parts of the  state, as well, including Drayton, Jamestown, southeast Grand Forks, Lisbon and  Wahpeton. They also are operating pumps at numerous locations, and have  additional pumps on standby in areas that may be at risk again, such as Oxbow. 

They have been improving roads in Grant County, and  staging in Fargo and West Fargo to support the surrounding area. In the past  week, Guardsmen from these locations have responded to overland flooding west  of West Fargo, at Willow Creek, and to provide support at the Absaraka dam.  They have branched out to support Casselton, Grand Rapids, Hickson, Kindred and  other locations in southeastern North Dakota.

Additional efforts are being focused in Lisbon and Valley  City, where Guardsmen are monitoring dikes for leaks, operating pumps and  generators, and providing traffic control points. The Guard brought additional  heavy equipment to both cities, where it will be used if an evacuation becomes  necessary.

In Valley City, the Guard continues to step up efforts,  with about 500 Guardsmen currently on site.

QRFs have responded to leaks and breaches, and a UH-60  Black Hawk helicopter was on the scene this past weekend to place about 20  one-ton sandbags to reinforce the dike near the 8th Avenue bridge.

The Guard established a secondary operations center in  Valley City today to help coordinate flood fighting efforts there.

Spc. Dustin Kirschenmann of the 817th Engineer Company  (Sappers) has been activated for flood duty since March 23. The 817th worked  first in Fargo and then moved to Valley City over the weekend to patrol dikes.  They are anticipating duty in Jamestown, as well. Kirschenmann helps man the  phones in the unit's tactical operations center, receiving dike condition  reports.

On Monday, his 45th call was about a major leak at a pump  site. Kirschenmann received the report and called the dike contractor, telling  them they needed to send dirt trucks out and rebuild the leaky spot.

We're running so ragged we don't even think about it,  he said. We're just doing what we need to do.

Kirschenmann said the job can be exciting, that's for  sure.

I would rather be bored, he said. If we were bored,  that would mean everything was going well.

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