Some Blame the Weather Service
By Lorna Benson
April 24, 1997

Listen

The National Weather Service is taking some heat over its failed Red River crest prediction. Minnesota Public Radio's Lorna Benson reports.

THE MAYOR OF EAST GRAND FORKS is blaming the National Weather Service for failing to give residents along the Red River "adequate warning" to prepare for this spring's massive flooding. Mayor Lynn Stauss told a group of flood victims staying in Bemidji it wasn't their fault they did not buy flood insurance or protect their valuables. Stauss says residents trusted the weather service and its 49-foot flood crest prediction:

THEY NOT ONLY MISSED IT, THEY BLEW IT BIG. NOW THEY EXPECT THAT EVERYBODY SHOULD HAVE FLOOD INSURANCE OR THEY'RE NOT GOING TO GET ANY AID. THAT IS NOT RIGHT BECAUSE WE WERE GIVEN THE WRONG FORECAST, AND WE SHOULD HAVE HELP; IF YOU'D KNOWN IT WAS GOING TO BE 54 FEET, EVERY ONE OF YOU WOULD HAVE HAD FLOOD INSURANCE. EVERY ONE OF YOU WOULD HAVE TAKEN VALUABLES OUT OF YOUR HOMES AND PROTECTED THEM.

Chief Meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Grand Forks, Lee Anderson, would not comment on the mayor's remarks. Anderson says the severe flooding is clearly a tragedy and he understands the community's frustration.

But Anderson says the National Weather Service did provide good information in its spring flood outlook issued in February. He says meteorologists warned communities the flooding could be potentially severe and could exceed record levels.

Anderson does not believe the weather service failed even though it's flood crest prediction was off by five feet.

THE HYDROLOGIC SITUATION WAS VERY COMPLEX; UNPRECEDENTED; THE NUMERICAL MODELS WE WERE USING TO HANDLE THE EVENT WERE HAVING DIFFICULTY HANDLING THE SITUATION AND THIS WAS AN UNPRECEDENTED EVENT.

On the other side of the river, the Mayor of Grand Forks was quoted this week as being equally upset with the National Weather Service. But Mayor Pat Owens was quick to deny that report, saying there is no way she would blame the Weather Service for what happened in her community.

Owens says if Grand Forks had known the river's crest would surpass its dikes, it is possible the city would have made other flood plans.

They probably would have looked at addressing some other items regarding the levees and so forth, but that really is an unknown, and that's why I said we cannot point fingers at the weather service, and I believe that it's passed, and we need to go on into the future, and the worst thing that we can ever do is go into the future by damning someone when we are not sure what happened.

Owens says the best thing the community can do now is pull together, help each other and move forward.

Return to Flood of 1997.