Programs A-Z --------------------------------- All Things Considered American Mavericks American RadioWorks American Routes A Prairie Home Companion As It Happens The BBC Proms BBC World Service Best of the Day Car Talk Classical Music Comedy College Composers Datebook Day to Day Echoes of Christmas Festival of Nine Lessons Fresh Air Friday Favorites Future Tense Giving Thanks Harmonia The Jazz Image King's College Choir Lahti Symphony Local Music with Chris Roberts The Loop Marketplace Marketplace Money Marketplace Morning Report The Metropolitan Opera Midday Midmorning Minnesota Orchestra Morning Edition The Morning Show MPR Presents Music at Menlo The New Releases On the Media Only a Game Open Air The Opera Pipedreams A Prairie Home Companion Quirks & Quarks Redefinition Radio Rhythm Lab Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra Saint Olaf Christmas Festival Saint Paul Sunday San Francisco Symphony Select Company Sounds Eclectic Speaking of Faith The Splendid Table State of the Arts Studio 360 Talk of the Nation Talking Volumes This American Life To the Best of Our Knowledge Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! Weekend America Weekend Edition Saturday Weekend Edition Sunday The World The Writer's Almanac

Free Sand in Sioux Falls
By Cara Hetland
April 30, 1997

Listen

The National Weather Service has ended the flood warning for the Big Sioux River around Sioux Falls, and city officials are busy removing protective dikes and levees surrounding the city. A hundred thousand sandbags were distributed in preparation for spring flooding, and now it's time to take them all back. Minnesota Public Radio's Cara Hetland reports:

SOUND OF CAR STARTING AND STREET NOISE.

Sandbags are piled waist-high and 15 feet wide in the zoo parking lot Tuesday morning. Six people are digging through the heap of burlap to find bags that aren't broken and putting them in their trunks or pick-up beds. Troy Path is hoping for about 400 pounds of sand.

OH I'M GONNA PUT IT IN THE KID'S SANDBOX AND A LITTLE UNDERLAYMENT FOR A PATIO - SO, THIS IS A FREE DEAL - KIND OF HELP CLEAN UP AND [GOOD SAND?] YEAH - GOOD SAND AND IT'S FREE SO THAT'LL WORK [LAUGH].

As one drives away, another pulls in. Most plan to use the sand in their garden to mix with the heavy clay soil. Finton McMann works part-time for the city helping coordinate this sand pile site.

OH IT'S BEEN REAL BUSY OUT HERE TODAY - WE'VE - THEY BRING IN SEVERAL TRUCK LOADS EVERYDAY AND THEY PROBABLY GO THROUGH MAYBE THREE-FOUR THOUSAND BAGS - AS FAST AS THE CITY HAULS IT IN, PEOPLE ARE RIGHT HERE TO PICK IT UP.

[FADE SOUND OUT]

Most of the sand bags at this location - one of three in the city - comes from city parks along the big Sioux River. Public Works Manager Kevin Smith says it's easier and less expensive to give the sand away than pay workers to split the bags open and spread the sand around. He says the city distributed over 100,000 sandbags and 960 tons of sand. Any contaminated sandbags - meaning those touched by flood waters - can be taken to the landfills at no charge. The city will keep a thousand bags for its own use, and contractors and sign companies have requested the remaining bags that people don't want. Smith says plywood and two-by-fours used to raise the spillway will be donated to Habitat for Humanity. He says in all less than $50,000 - not counting man hours - was spent on flood preparation.

THE CORPS OF ENGINEERS TOLD US IF WE DIDN'T DO ANYTHING WE WERE AT RISK OF APPROXIMATELY 150 TO 200 MILLION DOLLARS IN PROPERTY DAMAGE IF WE HAD A CATASTROPHIC FLOOD. AND THANKFULLY WE DIDN'T HAVE IT, BUT WHEN YOU LOOK AT PLACES LIKE GRAND FORKS - $50,000 IS CERTAINLY NOTHING TO SNEEZE AT, BUT IT'S A DROP IN THE BUCKET FOR THOSE FOLKS.

Heavy spring rains could still pose a flooding threat around Sioux Falls. Smith says emergency operation workers are still on alert but there will be little people can do to protect against flash floods.

Return to Flood of 1997.