Bengfort.com

I know that I’m following a very serious and interesting post about Devi’s trip to South Western China with what is probably only a half amusing post- so I apologize for that! Lately I have been extremely busy working on my thesis and my summer course work, working late and not taking any real interest in my personal hygene. Today at the gym, I was incorrectly identified as a member of faculty, and when I looked in the mirror, and started laughing- because I obviously didn’t look like and undergrad, and the incredulity with which i was identified as faculty led me to believe that folks don’t really know what a graduate student in the summer at NDSU looks like!

Therefore I give you: A guide to identifying a graduate student working on a thesis during the summer in North Dakota:

Sweatshirt, yet FlipFlops

This pictures help identify how graduate students in the summer dress. The undergrads are mostly concerned about the opposite sex, so they dress in tight fitting or “cool” clothes. Graduate students don’t really care about too much except for temperature. ND Summer (at least this summer) is both warm and cold- frost in the morning, 80s during the day. Therefore, shorts and a sweatshirt- and flipflops!

Sleepless, Coffee, Work, Games

In the summer there is this false assumption that you can sleep in, therefore you stay up late working. Unfortunately, even though you don’t have to get up at 530, the day is pretty much shot unless you get up at 630.

Note the beard

Other identifying features: unshavenness (no time), coffee (no sleep), crazy eyed look (too much reading), and unkempt hair (no care).

I’m sorry I haven’t updated you guys on the flood situation which has gotten progressively worse in North Dakota, and Lisbon in particular. I have been hugely busy and cut off from home and dog by the rising waters- so blogging hasn’t been the highest priority lately! I’m sorry to say that CNN and the major news networks have gotten pretty bored of covering the flood here- but in fact, it has been quite exciting.

Fargo, Grand Forks, and Bismarck remain safe and mostly dry- these are the major cities, and I suspect that is the reason for the lack of national news coming out of this state. However, the flood has mostly wiped out the town of Catherine (a small time near us), and caused a lot of trouble in Valley City and Lisbon… so pretty much I picked the worst place to live in North Dakota!The guard has been deployed in pretty much full force to the area. It is hard to go anywhere without seeing HUMVEEs, Black Hawks, Soldiers, or LAVs with dirt in the back of them. So pretty much, still a war zone out here.

Back at Tim and Pat’s house- they have become an island- affectionately named Arrowhead Island. The Sheyenne has taken an oxbow that now goes over the road in front of the house and then back to the river through Grandma and Grandpa’s house. As a result, they and the neighbors are completely cut off from the road- and we have to take a boat to go back and forth one side to the other. Luckily, they managed to get most of the cars parked on the other side before the road became impassible (it is now a waterfall) so to get out you simply canoe or row to the other side, and grab your car to head out. The amount of mud is incredible!

The Sheyenne once again set a record, this time at 22.4 feet- a few feet above the previous record of 19.7 set a couple of weeks ago. As a result, the sandbag dike at the back of the house is now replaced with an earthen clay dike that completely surrounds the house thanks to the water coming in from all sides. The clay dike is at about 24 feet high- and the water is up against it, and leaking underneath slowly. Tim and Pat have been spending many sleepless nights checking on the water and resetting pumps to continually pump out the leakages that are occuring- I can’t imagine this has been any fun for them (or the dogs for that matter).

The water has started to go down- but not by much, and not very fast. We are hoping by the end of next week to have it down enough that the constant pumping can cease, but it is hard to tell when the road will come back or even when the water will be removed. It’s a pretty bad situation. Meanwhile, I have been working extremely hard for the end of the semester and have been spending most of my nights sleeping in my pickup because driving back to the flood is just unmanageable. Sleeping in the truck got tough after a while, and when Mike came for the weekend, at least I had a bed and a hotel room- and one of my classmates let me stay with him a night. Now I’m staying with Beci and Ben- the end of the semester is 3 weeks away, and it looks like I might be with them to the end!

And now, some pictures …

Winston is initially curious about truck driving.

Some of you may know that Tim is driving a fuel tanker now from ethanol plants in the south to gas pipelines here up north. Fuel prices have recently shot up thanks to the current events in this region, and the trucking company has been desperate for drivers- so as a result he is on the road today, even though the roads aren’t so good. Yesterday we decided that we should probably go to where the semi was parked and brush it off, warm it up, and generally prepare it for work; and since Winston has been getting cabin fever along with the rest of us, we decided to take him for a little puppy ride.

At first he was very interested in the Semi, and he really enjoys riding in the back seat of the pick up truck. I suspect watching out the window of a moving vehicle is akin to doggy TV. However, as the day drew on, Winston realized that being a trucker dog meant a lot of hard work and getting tossed about.

Pain number 1: Winston tries to get into the semi. As you can see from the above picture, the cab of the semi is probably about twice Winston’s height. That didn’t stop him. He jumped, he missed, he fell in the mud- and he was very displeased. Unfortunately we weren’t paying much notice to Winston because we had just discovered that the semi was stuck- really stuck, and we couldn’t get it out.

Pain number 2: In the last of our several attempts to free the semi from the mud, we tried to tow it out with the pickup. Unfortunately, Winston had to sit in the back seat for the duration of this indignity. And as we drove forward trying to jerk the semi out, he was tossed around the back because he couldn’t figure out the seatbelt. Needless to say, he isn’t so fond of the idea of a trucker dog anymore.

Gives driver dirty look after being tossed about in the back.

15 Inches of Snow Bury Us

It’s April- it’s spring… right? Well, the past three days wouldn’t make you think it was… we have been pummeled by a snowstorm that layed us down with around 15 inches of snow, and it hasn’t stopped yet! So, this is North Dakota, and it snows a lot- sure, but these unseasonable snow storms are part of the dramatic weather that is affecting this region, and all of us are wondering a few things:

1. When will it stop snowing?
2. How will this affect the floods?
3. Why the heck did I give up alcohol for lent?

The snow is heavy and wet snow- so flood management personnel are going back and forth on whether or not this will delay the next flood crests, or if it will make things horribly worse. What it depends on is the temperature, which isn’t suppossed to go above freezing until the weekend, and when it does melt- everything is going to rise. Right now we are hearing predicted crests of 22 feet on the Sheyenne here in Lisbon (the last crest was 20.1) sometime next week. Of course, when they predict 22 feet, that means it will either be 20 feet or 25 feet according to the stats from last week.

So we have been pretty much burried here. There has been no travel (nor the ability to travel) since Sunday. I-29: the interstate I take to Fargo is still closed because of a frozen snowey lake on the roadway, but really there is not much other news- we are all just getting a little bit of cabin fever and trying to dig our way out.

Dad and I just got back from a Sunday afternoon lookey-lou and I thought it would be a good opportunity to update you on how the flood is going on in North Dakota. Actually, we did receive a bit of relief the past couple of days thanks to freezing temperatures and and lowering flood waters- but the fight isn’t over yet! Even though the “record crest occurred Friday at midnight”, we are looking at a severe blizzard tomorrow and more water coming from the south, as well as the release of dams and other hydrological problems- but for now, we are all sitting tight.

On Friday, NDSU closed for the entirety of next week. The administration is still discussing how the academics will be handled when we return, but they couldn’t justify opening the university when so many folks have evacuated. This leaves me in a precarious position both as a student and as an instructor- I have no idea how my school work is going to be affected, nor how I am going to handle missing 2 weeks of school for my own class! For instance, this Wednesday I had my seminar presentation scheduled- a presentation that each of us have only once a semester. It will be difficult to make this up since there are just as many students in the seminar as there are weeks of the school year; and my entire grade is based on that presentation!  Rumors abound that in the flood of ‘97 NDSU simply canceled the rest of the semester, giving students whatever grade they had when the school closed. However, in ‘97, the flooding happened much later (middle of April, not the end of March), and frankley, I can’t imagine that happening again without a major disaster occurring.

Minor disasters have been occurring around the area. Today a fixed damn around a school broke, and even after two hours of fighting the water, it simply couldn’t be stopped. As you might imagine, one crack in a dike quickly becomes a big one. Other people have literally lost loved ones (as in misplaced) because of the medical evacuations out of Fargo. A fellow parishioner at our church struggled to find his wife over the weekend because he was told she was medevaced to Minneapolis when in fact she was transferred to Bismarck. So the after affects of even the amount of flooding we have had so far are going to be far reaching.

As always, here are more pictures taken today during our lookey-lou, which are probably more interesting to you than my reporting! (Leave comments!)

Crest time is now approaching rapidly- and final preparations are being made as quickly as we can. I know many of you have seen the news on CNN and thought maybe that the flood has already happened- but in fact it hasn’t! Here is the deal- there are several “stages” that are determined by certain flood heights. For instance, on the Sheyenne in Lisbon, “Action Stage” is 11 feet- which means that it’s time to start building dikes. Actual flood stage- when the flood spills out of the river banks is a mere 15 feet. Moderate flood stage is what we have been in for the past few days both here in Lisbon and in Fargo- which is where you guys have been seeing most of the news out of. Moderate flood stage is 17 feet. What the predictions are talking about and what we are preparing for is the major flood stage- 19 feet in Lisbon (with a record river height set in 1897 of 19.3 feet). As of 9 AM this morning, the river level was at 19.19 feet. Similar numbers exist for Fargo, except they are much higher since the Red River is much bigger than the Sheyenne. Fargo is predicting a crest height of 45.1 feet- and their dikes are only built up to 43 feet (which is two feet above major flood stage).

The dike that protects our farm is at 19 feet- so you might imagine that we are overflowing right now- strangely enough, we aren’t. This morning we started moving sandbags into the garage of a neighbor and turned the heat up (to defrost them, they were frozen solid)- and we walked down to the river bank, and to our surprise the water was a foot below the dike! We suspect that this is because of an ice jam farther upriver, which means that when that jam looses we are going to get it. So as soon as our bags are defrosted we are going to raise the backup dike a few feet to try to protect ourselves that way. So far it is hard to know what is going to happen- the NOAA predictions keep showing that the river is supposed to decrease in height, but actual measurements have been going up– they have revised the forecast in light of that several times, but have still been inaccurate. Track the river heights for: Lisbon and Fargo at the NOAA Advanced Hydrologic Prediction service.

Fargo is definitely getting the worst of it, and NDSU has been closed for the entire week. No word if the campus has been closed or not, but hospitals and a few neighborhoods are being evacuated over there. Even if I wanted to get to Fargo, I can’t because the roads between us and Fargo are closed by floods over the roads that have frozen and won’t release. (I guess I could just say they are covered in ice, but that really doesn’t describe why they are closed!) So that is my update- if you have any specific questions, I recommend not listening to CNN- they tend to over-dramatize and underplay actual facts- so leave me a comment and I will do my best to answer more scientifically!

I’ll leave you with a few more pictures of the flood for your interest!

Well, God didn’t want to make it easy on us. This morning I woke up to find 4 inches of snow on the ground in addition to the flooding. On top of the snow, wind had picked up to around 20 miles an hour and the temperature dropped to 20 degrees: these are the makings of a blizzard flood! (Though locals note that this wasn’t actually a blizzard, just a good imitation of one.) This means a couple of very interesting things:

1. The river and the overpour over the dike has frozen- stopping the water from encroaching towards the house, and actually retreating it a little.
2. Created a new ice block farther upstream that has lowered the river levels here.
3. Delayed the crest- the predicted river heights have dropped significantly, only to rise again next week.

What this has given us is a respite, although an unwelcome one. If we had rain, we would have been in a world of hurt, but thanks to the snow, we have a delay before this melts to cause us the problems, but it has in essence slowed down the current problems. So now, instead of a nice balmy 50 degrees to do our flood prevention work in, we have to do it in below freezing weather with killer wind and frozen sandbags!

I have no idea what this means for school- which is now closed for pretty much the entire week. I’m getting further and further behind on school work, and I have comprehensive exam coming up. So if you notice any mental breakdowns in the future- you’ll know why!

The Hanna Farmstead was recently featured on WDAY 6 news at 10! Uncle John was interviewed, even though both Dad and a neighbor were out on the Dyke because John was the only person who didn’t steer clear of the reporter! (Let’s just call him the Hanna Family spokes-uncle!) Through a little bit of trial and effort on my part, and in my desire to bring you up to date news coverage on the flood, I have managed to obtain the video for you below:

Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.

Just to be copyright-correct, I am providing a link to the WDAY 6 Fargo website where the video is embedded: http://www.wday.com/

Currently almost every river in North Dakota is flooding- and this has given me the opportunity to learn a lot about flooding that I didn’t know before. For instance, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) actually tracks river levels and determines flooding based on “stages”. Tim has been tracking this closely (and you can too- here: NOAA Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service for Lisbon, ND) and this has helped assist us determine dike heights and additional requirements for sandbag walls. This year we are setting records for stage height. Fargo is currently predicting a 41 foot flood stage when the river crests (a new term as well- meaning when the river reaches its high point)- this obviously is going to cause a lot of problems for those folks that lower than 41 feet above the river level! So what are cities to do?

Well, the answer is a giant call for volunteers. Almost all cities are recruiting volunteers to fill sandbags and build sandbag walls. This is the essential reason NDSU has been closed for 4 days (it has been closed up until Thursday), so that the student body can fill sandbags at the Fargo Dome. Almost all communities (including ours here on rural 32) are stepping up to stop the flood waters as best as we can. Cities are limiting water consumption as the floods cause lifts to break, and crews are out in force using mobile pumps to remove water. However, there is a slight dark side to the civic nature of fighting floods- the so called “lookey-lou”. Lookey-lou’s are criminals who drive slowly or stand watching the flood efforts or taking pictures. Almost every city has imposed a blanket ban on “lookey-lous”, claiming  they can arrest for citizens who do so, or instant conscription into sandbag filling teams. Hopefully then you can appreciate the great danger to myself as I took these pictures from the truck as we went to go get groceries- so that you can see how Lisbon prepared for the flood.

The national guard, the police, and almost every state government organization are out fighting the flood. They have even come up with some creative ideas to solve specific problems. For instance, here at 7052- our main issue is that ice floes are trapped in a corner of the Sheyenne river. This by itself is what is causing the backup of water that is steadily progressing towards the basement (and the run over of the river across the 19 foot dike). Ice floes in the region are a considerable problem- and communities have tried to break up the ice using several measures including:

1. Using heaving movers and excavators to dig out the ice (if they can find stable ground to not loose the machinery!)
2. Throwing dynamite out over the ice and exploding it (not effective)
3. Dismantling bridges in the way of the floes (difficult)
4. Using bombers from the Air National Guard to bomb the ice (true story)

Hopefully all this effort will pay off! The crest is expected on Friday, and that is the time when we determine whether we managed to do enough, or if all of our efforts were in vain!