Flooding and Blizzarding and Explosives, Oh My...

Uffda, we've got some weather going on here in the middle of nowhere this week. We've got massive flooding, thunderstorms and a massive blizzard that just let up. The other day it was actually thundering while it snowed.

I think I need to go back to Memphis. I don't know, it's a toss up, drowning in massive flood waters, freezing to death in 50 below zero windchills here in the middle of nowhere or getting gunned down and pillaged in the streets of Memphis. I don't know, it's a toss-up.

The craziest part of this whole thing is that for the last couple of years there has been absolutely no moisture here. Last year, the summer right after we moved back here to NoDak, we went and camped out at the lake we used to go to with my grandparents when I was little, and there was a road leading to a beach where the beach used to be. In the ten years I was away, the lake had become a pond. And now, there's water everywhere.

Apparently in South Dakota they are evacuating as well because of floods. We lived in SD for a little more than a year while I wrote for the Pierre Capital Journal, and I remember covering a meeting with the United States Sec. of Agriculture and the governor because they were trying to get SD declared a disaster area because of drought. What in the world?

And just last year we lived in Minot, which will most likely see some days of massive flooding when all this record snowfall melts around here. Until September, when we purchased our house here in Kenmare, 55 miles from Minot, we lived in one of the lowest valleys in Minot with the river almost in our backyard. And with the massive winds in ND, I am definitely a valley dweller. You'd come out of the neighborhood in the real world though, and man the wind would about blow you over on the sidewalk.

Anyway, I remember when we were considering buying the house we were living in and my grandpa would always tell us, "Nope, don't wanna buy that house. You'll be flooded out." I kept saying, there's like an inch of water in that river right now, do you know how much moisture it would require for it to reach flood stage???

Apparently living in NoDak for almost 90 years has taught him a few things about how you can go from drought to flood in a matter of a year.

Well, we took his advice and purchased a house on the highest hill in Kenmare. So no worries for us, but I'm sure whoever lives in our old house has cleared out their entire basement by now.

The problem with flooding in NoDak is that while your home is being flooded, you'll probably end up freezing in a blizzard on the street. No where else does it flood and blizzard at the same time.



And no where else do you need to use explosives to clear ice jams in the river to get the water flowing again.



Amber over at Squash Cakes can better tell ya about the flooding I'm sure, because she actually lives in Bismarck, so pray that she's alright. And she just lost her little Goby, her hedgehog, so I feel for her.

Well, I guess I'll end this very uplifting post with a little clip of a lady from FOX News reporting on the blizzard and the flooding in Fargo while standing on snow covered sandbags.



Seriously, I thought this morning that I should drive the six hours to Fargo and help out the sandbagging effort, but uffda, the roads all the way there are either water covered or ice and snow covered! Uffda. We'll see what tomorrow brings. Keep everyone in your prayers.



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