Crookston Prepares for Potential Flooding as Red Lake River Expected to Surpass 1997 Record Levels

CROOKSTON, MN (trfnews.i234.me) A flood fight is underway in Crookston, Minnesota as the Red Lake River there is now forecast to rise above it’s historic crest in 1997.
Neil Berg here in crookston where the red lake river has spurred a flood fight uh we’ll look down uh riverside drive here sandbagging going on as the river took a surge upward um got quite a crew here putting sandbags in along a low spot on riverside drive in crookston another a low level dike right across the street from the fire department is also being topped so you got a bit of a flood fight what’s what’s going on you had some low-level dikes me topping yeah so basically you know over the last 24 hours we received more rain than we anticipated which raised the river levels um we’re just over 21 feet right now at 20 feet we open the oc we have a couple lower level uh dike systems that are some vulnerability there we currently have uh you know volunteers and people out creating clay dikes in certain areas and sand bagging a couple of low-level dike areas i saw him uh topping off the dike with a dozer and trucks down here where they sandbagging so we’re sandbagging right now on riverside on riverside avenue there’s a low spot over there and we will hopefully or will be uh sooner than later uh down underneath the east robert bridge by the library we’ll be doing some sandbagging over there also all right so what’s the forecast you’re in good shape it looks like you know right now we’re holding level uh we’re obviously monitoring it we’ll be open 24 hours for as long as needed um it’s looking like possibly monday the river crest reports are anywhere from 28 29 feet at this point at 5 15 p.m on this saturday the red lake river here is at 21.35 feet and rising as he said forecasted to rise to 29 feet by monday or tuesday that would break the record of 1997 of 28.4 feet the year that much of grand forks was destroyed although now existing dike systems should protect the city of crookston if we hit that crest of 29 feet again i want to stress the newer dyke systems protecting the city of crookston and east grand forks and grand forks are now built to handle these types of water levels i’m Neil Berg reporting for trfnews.i234.me