I live in a small city called Grand Forks. You probably haven’t heard of the city with two rivers flowing through it (The Kettle and Granby). Every spring in Grand Forks, both rivers rise and water escapes into the flood plain. I live on a mountain so I’m nowhere near the clutches of the river.
Last year (2017), the river rose to a unexpected height and did some minor damage to businesses and homes near the river. Some people say that a “real” flood goes all the way to down town. Well, last week, it just did. In the year of 2018 (right now!), the river crested the highest ever recorded water level ever seen in Grand Forks. Grand Forks has been declared “a state of emergency” and people have been evacuated. School was probably the most ordinary and normal thing. But many field trips that were supposed to take place in the “week of doom” were canceled and some were postponed.
The rivers both join near the big factory Rockwool and the mill, both of which are flooded and had shut down until further notice. Hundreds of people worked beside the curling rink to fill sand bags and many of people offered to use their vehicles to transport sandbags before the river crests again. Entire truckloads of sandbags went to people near the Granby and the Kettle. Enormous piles of sand are beside the rink now. There are bobcats and dump trucks and Panago (the local pizza place) supplied pizzas for people working. Everybody pitched in and helped save other people as a team, a community, and just a real hand. I just hope nothing like this ever happens again to Grand Forks.