MPR: The Unstoppable Flood

The Unstoppable Flood
By Dan Gunderson
June 8, 1999
First of two parts

A flood of epic proportions is happening in northeastern North Dakota. Devil's Lake has risen nearly 25 feet in the past six years. The Lake has no natural outlet to release water. Above-normal precipitation in recent years has raised the lake to levels not seen in recorded history. Thousands of acres of farmland are submerged, hundreds of homes have been moved, and hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent protecting roads, utilities and towns.

There's growing concern the lake will overflow and threaten downstream communities,including Fargo Moorhead.


Sign of the times at a public boat access on the outskirts of Minnewaukan, North Dakota. Five years ago, the lake was eight miles away. Photo: Dan Gunderson

FIFTY YEARS AGO, people around Devil's Lake were begging for water. Farmers raised crops in the lake bottom. Huge clouds of dust blew off the dry lake bed. Retired newspaper editor Russ Dushinski remembers the day president Franklin Roosevelt came to see the disaster in the late 1930s.

Dushinski: It was a dry, dusty day in July. They had an open car. They took him around the lake. They'd put up signs that said, "you gave us beer, now give us water."

The locals thought if Roosevelt could end prohibition, he could bring water to a dry lake. They wanted the president to support a plan to build a canal to bring water from the Missouri River to Devil's Lake. Roosevelt refused. Dushinski says the lake withered to little more than a stinky marsh.

The lake began to come back to life in the 1950s as rainfall in the region increased. In the 90s, it's become a monster. The lake has risen nearly 25 feet since 1993 and quadrupled in size. It's become one of the best fishing spots in the Midwest, but that's little consolation to those watching the devastation spread.

Many have called on the government to do something, but county commissioner Joe Belford says he's contemplating other options.

Belford: I think the community needs to pick a Sunday soon for prayers to God on helping us get through this dilemma. I think the time is here and people are looking for something like that; to pray to God that this thing will go away before it destroys us all.


Joe Belford shows how deep the water would be at his Devil's Lake convenience store if the seven-mile-long dike protecting the city should fail. Photo: Dan Gunderson

Devil's Lake is Joe Belford's obsession. The part-time county commissioner now works full time fighting floodwater and bureaucracy. Outside his office at Joe's Corner Mart, the numbers painted on a pole next to the gas pumps are a sobering reminder that many residents in the city of Devil's Lake live behind a wall of water.

Belford: If the dike were not in place, there would be seven feet of water in this room. It's a phenomenal thing that's happening and no one alive has ever seen it.

Half of the city of Devil's Lake would be under water if not for a massive $60 million dike. It's really not a dike, it's a seven-mile-long dam, holding back 21 feet of water. If the lake rises another 13 feet - as some predict - the dam will have to be raised at a cost of $100 million.

Construction equipment roars all round Devil's Lake, building up roads, moving homes away from the lake, and raising dikes. As he drives along the newly formed lakeshore, Joe Belford points out dozens of homes threatened by the rising water.

Belford: You can see how close the lake is here. It won't be long but this home right here is going to be burnt. There's no physical way to get it out of there. It's probably a $200,000 home - beautiful home.

About 400 homes have been moved or destroyed as the lake engulfs them.

A sandbag dike keeps the lake out of Barry Rongen's home. A couple years ago, Barry had 35 neighbors. Now, just a handful of homes remain. Soon, his will move to higher ground too.

Rongen: It was ok until this spring. In a way, the water was nice because we enjoy the lake. But now we hate the water. It's a love-hate relationship. Where we're moving to now, we won't see the water, won't be near it. We'll probably miss it, but we don't want to have these problems ever again.

Some homes high above the water have been abandoned because the roads to them are under water. County Commissioner Joe Belford says some highways have been rebuilt three or four times, but the lake rises as fast as construction crews can raise the roads.

Belford: It's just like going to the casino. You throw $10 in and you think "I'll throw in another $10 in." That's what's happened here. No one thought it would do this with roads and infrastructure, but it keeps gobbling up our quarters, stacks of quarters.

Nearly $300 million s has been spent to protect roads, and utilities around Devil's Lake.

While the city of Devil's Lake is protected by a dike, some smaller towns face the lake unprotected.

The ever-present prairie wind whistles through the grain elevator in Church's Ferry, a harbinger perhaps of a soon-to-be ghost town. Rising water threatens to engulf the sleepy community of 120. There's been talk of moving the town, but the cost may be prohibitive. Odds are if the lake continues to rise, Church's Ferry will simply cease to exist in a couple of years.

Haugeberg: The lake is the enemy. In my mind, the lake is absolutely the enemy, and right now the enemy is winning.

Jarvis Haugeberg manages the BTR Farmer's Elevator in Church's Ferry. It's the biggest business in town with annual revenues of $20 million . But Haugeberg sees no future for the business.

Haugeberg: I've only invested 10 years of my life here and I don't want to move. I don't want to move at all. If I had been born and raised here and farmed this land for 25 years, I for sure wouldn't want to move. There's nothing you can do, though. You just can't stop this water.

Nowhere has the advancing lake been more dramatic than the small farming town of Minnewaukan.

Thompson: Where we're standing here in Minnewaukan, we're on the edge of the lakeshore. In 1993, the lake was eight miles east of here. You couldn't even see the water.

Vern Thompson is a North Dakota state senator from Minnewaukan. He says by this fall, the beach will be within a stone's throw of the high school on the edge of town. The county fairgrounds will be under water. Thompson says at times the problems caused by the lake seem completely overwhelming. City and county governments are out of money. Dealing with the 17 federal agencies now involved in Devil's Lake can be a nightmare. And always hanging overhead: the fear of just how high the lake will rise.

Thompson: This lake has been like a cancer eating away at people's homes and livelihoods and that's the emotional side of it that's really taken a toll on people.

It's unclear how or when this disaster will end. Forecasters say the current wet cycle will last another five to seven years. The lake is expected to continue rising at a rate of three to five feet a year. At that rate, in five years the lake will find an outlet and send water flooding down the Sheyenne River to communities like Valley City and Fargo-Moorhead.

Local and state officials have tried to build an outlet to the lake for years. Twenty-eight outlet plans have been drawn up and rejected. Environmentalists and officials from Minnesota and Canada say an outlet will cause environmental damage.

The debate over an outlet will likely soon shift to the courts. Host Tag: Tomorrow in the second part of our series Dan Gunderson will examine the fight over the water no one wants.

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