Valley City Preparing for Flooding
|  Video
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| Breanna Borries |
| 4/6/2009 |
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| The National Weather Service is forecasting that Valley City would have 23 feet of water, but hadn`t taken into account the increased reservoir capacity. The Baldhill Dam controls how much water is released from Lake Ashtubula to the Sheyenne River. Right now the Sheyenne is sitting at 16-feet. The city is taking no chances and is building clay and sandbag levees to 24 feet. "We`re the closest to the dam so we get the most benefit from the dam, we can tell what`s coming," says Valley City mayor Mary Lee Nielson. She says the Sheyenne River is at a steady flow, although the weather and ice jams will factor into how the river moves through town. "We`re dropping about 3/4 a foot of elevation at Lake Ashtubula, making room in anticipation for the northern flow to come down when it warms up," she says. Army Corps Engineer Rich Schueneman says the tricky part is releasing the appropriate amount of water so valley city doesn`t damage other communities down stream. "Right now water is flowing out of the bald hill dam at 4,200 cubic feet per second," he says. "That`s over twice the usual water flow." So that has people like Bob Bruhschwein, who lives along the river, are keeping a very close eye on things. "I guess up in the Harvey area rumor is it`s tons of snow up there and should we get 60 degree days we`ll be in the hurt bag," says Bruhschwein. So for now all the city can do is prepare. So far, only one home has been forced to evacuate. At least a dozen roads are underwater in Barnes County. |
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