Minot Daily News SATURDAY, APRIL 24, 2021 MinotDailyNews.com • Facebook • Twitter
WHEN THE RIVER RAGED
Flood 2011 Revisited
Historic flood of 2011
Photos by Kim Fundingsland/MDN
By KIM FUNDINGSLAND
Staff Writer kfundingsland@minotdailynews.com n this year of severe drought conditions the Souris River looks lifeless and tame and harmless. But in 2011 it rampaged and tore through the City of Minot and the entire Souris River Basin in a devastating and historic fashion, flooding homes and businesses and leaving mud, debris, and misery in its wake. The early warning signs of potential flooding were everywhere, yet few people could grasp what the end result would be. To most people it just didn’t seem possible that the aging Souris could rise to the rooftops of homes in Minot. But it did. Minot’s unique geographical location situates it below four reservoirs – Rafferty, Grant Devine (formerly Alameda), Boundary, and Lake Darling. Rafferty and Grant Devine were constructed to add additional flood protection above Minot after the flood of 1969 that severely crippled the city. That flood was rated as a “1 in 100 years” event. While the additional reservoirs proved valuable several times over the years as protective buffers against high spring runoff, they also meant a large amount of water was being stored above the city that would soon experience what many believed to be a “1 in 500 years” event.
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WARNING SIGNS
ABOVE: This photo was taken from a Blackhawk helicopter as flooding began in the City of Minot in late June 2011. The water would rise several more feet in the following days. LEFT TOP: Many Minot residents were forced to evacuate their homes due to impending flood waters. June 21, 2011, photo. LEFT MIDDLE: Contractors work furiously to raise and strengthen a dike to protect a section of North Broadway from rising floodwaters. LEFT BOTTOM: The Perkett School area, a low section of the city, was particularly vulnerable to rising flood floodwaters that quickly overwhelmed sandbags and other attempts to protect property in the area. since 1959 were running constantly. Later in the month the National Weather Service declared that “major flooding” was probable once the spring melt got underway. In the Saskatchewan drainage that feeds the upper reaches of the Souris River, very heavy snowfall was reported on top of ground that already contained 200% of normal moisture. By February 1, 2011, Canada warned of the “potential for above normal spring runoff throughout all of southern Saskatchewan.” On Feb. 18, 2010, the NWS issued a very ominous Flood Potential Outlook for the Souris River Basin. The forecast warned of “well abovenormal” chances of flooding along the Souris and cautioned that the amount of snow and water sitting in the basin was a “tremendous amount” and “probably in the top three” in 60 years of data. The International Souris River Board met in Regina, Sask. on Feb. 23 with the threat of flooding one of the major items on their agenda. A flood event was declared and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was alerted. The City of Minot did not have a representative at the meeting. A few days later the Corps stated, “This year seems to be setting up to be different. The ground is wet and saturated and the airborne survey shows a lot of water content.” The NWS reported the snowpack water content to “rank among the highest” in the past 60 years. The NWS continued to warn about the potential for dangerous flooding. An updated Flood Potential Outlook issued March 3, 2010, stated there was “significantly more water in some areas” than was earlier estimated. Later, on March 28, NWS Hydrologist Allen Schlag made a power-point presentation to the Elmer Jesme Conference of Counties held at the North Central Research and Extension Center immediately south of Minot. Although the presentation was a highlight on the conference’s agenda, no one from the City of Minot or Ward County attended. In his presentation, Schlag detailed the massive amount of snow and water in the Souris River Basin and called it, “a recipe for disaster.”
were “close to our drawdown target.” On the same day the City of Minot began preliminary plans for emergency diking for protection against a possible 7,000 cubic feet per second of water in the Souris. Existing dikes in the city were believed to protect against flows of 5,0005,500 cfs. On April 12, releases through Lake Darling Dam were cut from 2,400 cfs to 1,500 cfs at the direction of Corps headquarters in St. Paul, Minn. On the same date a record flow of 6,790 cfs was recorded in Long Creek, a tributary of the Souris that enters Boundary Reservoir near Estevan. Additionally, another Souris tributary, the Des Lacs River, was “outperforming our expectations” according to the NWS. Todd Sando of the State Water Commission offered his view of the saturated situation on April 14. “There will be a tremendous amount of water moving for a long time,” concluded Sando. A day later the United States Geological Survey claimed “Highest Souris Streamflow in 40 years.” Lake Darling, the last point of defense against high water flows in the Souris above Minot, had
reached a level of nearly 1,600 feet where overflow is 1,601.8 feet. The Corps, following an assessment of the existing levee systems through Minot and Burlington, determined 19 items to be “unacceptable” for flood protection. April 19 saw the Souris River rise to 19.17 feet at the Sherwood crossing where flood stage is 18 feet. The Saskatchewan Watershed Authority said that “Rafferty Reservoir is filling, not releasing” and that the top end of the Canadian drainage on the Souris still has “about 100% snow cover.” A day later the USGS declares “New Record Streamflows for Souris Basin.” Within a few days it was readily apparent that warnings about even more water, more dramatic rises on the Souris River, were destined to come true. Releases from Rafferty Reservoir were ramped up to 2,118 cfs with the hopes of keeping flows at Sherwood at 3,200 cfs or below in accordance with treaty obligations between the U.S. and Canada. Sherwood was already flowing at 3,800 cfs. By the 26th the flow in the Souris at the Boy Scout Bridge on Minot’s west See FLOOD — Page 2
In December 2010, the Saskatchewan Watershed Authority, now the Water Security Agency, issued a statement saying “above normal precipitation during this past summer and fall has left much of the eastern portion of Saskatchewan saturated” and that “rivers and creeks are flowing at rates well above normal.” Quite ominously, the statement included that there was flow in streams “which are normally dry in the fall.” There were ample warning signs in North Dakota too. Water was flowing across fields and low spots throughout the region, even in January in the midst of a freezing North Dakota winter. Numerous hillsides were slumping and caving as their moisture-laden soil gave way. By mid-January ranchers in the Towner area, RESPONSE BEGINS On March 30, the Corps, which had taken where large meadows are relied upon to annuKim Fundingsland/MDN ally produce hay for livestock, reported the over operation of Lake Darling Dam, announced water table in some areas had risen from 8 feet they would be cutting back on releases from As water surged into Minot in 2011 many homes succumbed to the mercy to 3 1/2 feet and sump pumps that hadn’t run Lake Darling into the Souris River because they of the Souris River.
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