Interested Moorhead residents soak in flood info

About 200 Moorhead residents filled many of the seats of the Hansen Theatre at Minnesota State University Moorhead on Tuesday night to hear city officials talk about what they have done and plan to do to protect the city from floods.

The meeting was geared toward residents living south of Interstate 94 and focused on specific actions the city will take if a major flood occurs.

Ken and Margaret Dahl, who live in the area of 40th Avenue South, said they were pleased with what they heard.

They said city officials explained what they would do to prevent a repeat of problems that occurred last spring, when floodwater backed up into a drainage ditch, causing a scare.

Ken Dahl said if the city can accomplish what it says it can, “that’s going save all of us a lot of heartache, a lot of work. And that frees us up to help other places if we need to.”

Judy Frisch, who lives in the Horn Park neighborhood, said she attended the meeting to learn more about what the city plans in her area.

“I’m looking for future protection,” said Frisch, who added that her home is higher than most in her neighborhood and didn’t suffer damage in last year’s flood.

‘Wake-up call’

Nancy Hanson, who attended Tuesday’s meeting with her husband, Russ, said she felt the city did a good job fighting the flood of 2009 and that a lot has been done since to help flood-proof her neighborhood on Rivershore Drive near 37th Avenue south.

“We want to see what else they (city officials) have in mind,” she said.

Hanson said she and her husband got “quite a wake-up call” last spring when they found their home, which had never been at risk of flooding in the past, sitting on the potentially wet side of a contingency dike.

The city has spent $7 million on infrastructure improvements since August, most of it on things like gates on sewer pipes that empty into the Red River, said Moorhead City Engineer Bob Zimmerman.

He stressed the city has worked on ways it can improve communication with residents during a flood and said one thing Moorhead will do in the future is put staff in specific zones throughout the city, “so you all will have someone there to talk directly to.”

Flood insurance

One reason for Tuesday’s meeting was to remind residents of changes that will be made to Federal Emergency Management Agency flood maps showing which properties will be in the 100-year flood plain.

Homeowners in the 100-year flood plain are required to purchase flood insurance if they have a federally backed mortgage.

Maps showing the proposed flood-map changes are available on the city’s Web site at www.cityofmoorhead.com.

Anyone who plans to buy flood insurance for this spring was advised to do so now because there is a 30-day waiting period before insurance becomes effective.

City officials reminded those at the meeting that the first crest of the 2009 flood arrived March 28.

The city plans a public meeting for March 1 that will be geared toward residents living between I-94 and Main Avenue.

A March 2 meeting will focus on neighborhoods north of Main Avenue.

Readers can reach Forum reporter Dave Olson at (701) 241-5555