North Dakota Watches Levees as Waters Rise

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Elien Becque 696 Views Jun 26, 2011

Despite thunderstorms on Saturday evening in Minot, North Dakota emergency levees kept the Souris river from doing further damage to the already besieged town. In Minot, population 40,000, the river did flow over levees on Friday, flooding 4,000 homes and hundreds of businesses when water levels broke a 130-year old record by a whopping four feet. 12,000 people are already displaced, and though the water levels will remain high for several days, the worst may be over. 

Reuters quoted meteorologist Steve Goss, who has been tracking the storm, as predicting some thunderstorms Sunday but that "severe storms aren't likely, though, and it looks like the foods won't be aggravated by rainfall." 

One reason there have been no reported deaths or injuries in the area's worst flooding on record may be the advance warning; residents began evacuating weeks ago and The New York Times reported that Minot's Roosevelt Park Zoo, with residents ranging from a bald eagle to a pair of camels, was also 100 percent evacuated Saturday. 100 animals in total now safely occupy an old warehouse in Minot and the giraffe, one of the zoo's more ungainly refugees, was re-located to a trailer in Wisconsin.

 

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