Estimated 80,000 people in North Dakota, Minnesota and Manitoba, including 47,500 of the 50,000 residents of Grand Forks. Some people have been returning home for limited periods since Thursday in Grand Forks, and East Grand Forks, Minn., opened to some limited visits Sunday. Thousands of displaced children enrolling in schools elsewhere in North Dakota and Minnesota. Five flood-related deaths in the two states and Canada. Record winter snowfall, more than 100 inches in many areas, followed by a quick thaw and then an April 5 blizzard.
Area is so flat that locals say any heavy precipitation is like pouring water on a table top.
Water spreads out, creating a shallow lake up to 25 miles wide, and even wider where the flood joins existing pools of standing water. Despite the flatness of the land, water rushed by at 10 feet per second as it passed Grand Forks.