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NoDak History: The Great Flood of 1881

By   /  September 27, 2011  /  News, Nodak History, Top Stories  /  No Comments

(Photo submitted by North Dakota Historical Society) This historic photo shows the ice blocks that formed in the streets of Mandan after the Missouri River flooded in 1881 and then froze.

The Missouri River provides great beauty when it flows within its usual course. But when the murmuring waters of the Big Muddy rise to become a torrent, the peaceful river becomes a woeful hazard. This year’s flood will go down in history, but it may be put into context by examining newspaper archives and congressional […]

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InFocus with Burleigh County Commissioner Jim Peluso

By   /  August 18, 2011  /  Flood, News, People, Top Stories  /  2 Comments

(Photo by Matt Bunk) Burleigh County Commissioner Jim Peluso said the Corps of Engineers has to rebuild trust with the residents of central North Dakota after this year's flood.

Jim Peluso is in his second term on the Burleigh County Commission, and he’s worked for the Bismarck Parks and Recreation Department for more than 30 years. Peluso’s day job and his passion intertwine in some ways; he’s the facility manager in charge of pools and arenas, and he’s a hockey nut who coached the […]

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ND braces for $3B economic hit from record amount of wasted farmland

By   /  August 12, 2011  /  Business, News, Top Stories  /  No Comments

(Photo by Matt Bunk) This Burleigh County farm was among the agricultural land that was too wet to be planted this year.

North Dakota’s largest economic engine is sputtering this year due to heavy rain and river flooding that laid waste to more than a quarter of the farmland in the state. The state’s agriculture industry stands to lose more than $1 billion during what will go down as the wettest, most unproductive growing season in generations. […]

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Corps refuses to disclose untold number of e-mails

By   /  August 5, 2011  /  Flood, News, Top Stories  /  2 Comments

This is an excerpt from the Corps of Engineers' response to the Great Plains Examiner's Freedom of Information Act request.

Last month, the Corps of Engineers turned over thousands of pages of e-mails sent and received by Missouri River water chief Jody Farhat, but the agency refused to turn over an untold number of messages that included “internal deliberations” between government officials about water-management operations during the months leading up to the flood. The Corps’ […]

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Farhat defends Corps after e-mails revealed warnings

By   /  August 5, 2011  /  Flood, News, Top Stories  /  3 Comments

(Photo by Matt Bunk) Col. Robert Ruch, Jody Farhat and Brig. Gen. John McMahon attended a flood meeting at Bismarck City Hall in late May.

Just more than a week after thousands of pages of her e-mails were published online, Jody Farhat, the Corps of Engineers’ chief water manager for the Missouri River, granted an interview to the Great Plains Examiner. Here is a partial transcript of that conversation. According to some news reports I’ve read, the Corps is saying that releasing […]

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Corps of Engineers grilled by ND political leaders

By   /  July 27, 2011  /  Flood, ND in DC, News, Top Stories  /  2 Comments

(Photo by Matt Bunk) Officials in charge of the Corps of Engineers' Missouri River operations met with local and state officials May 27 at Bismarck City Hall. Shown from left to right are: Col. Robert Ruch, Jody Farhat and Brig Gen. John McMahon.

North Dakota’s political leaders have ratcheted up the pressure on the Corps of Engineers by scrutinizing flood-control plans for the rest of the year and requesting more thorough explanations of the water-management decisions that led to the ongoing flood. U.S. Sens. Kent Conrad (D) and John Hoeven (R) met with Corps of Engineers Brig. Gen. John McMahon […]

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Mandan’s Battle of the Bays

By   /  July 5, 2011  /  Flood, Mandan News, News, Top Stories  /  1 Comment

(Photo by Matt Bunk) Mandan residents gathered in a field near Raging Rivers water park on May 30 to fill sandbags for homeowners in Lakewood Harbor, Marina Bay, Bridgeview Bay and Borden Harbor.

As the Missouri River threatened to burst out of its banks, Mandan had to act fast or lose more than a thousand homes and face financial disaster. With millions of dollars in taxes on the line, Mandan desperately searched for a way to save its wastewater treatment plant and four of its subdivisions – Marina […]

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Public records show Corps reacted too late to avoid flood

By   /  July 2, 2011  /  Flood, News, Top Stories  /  18 Comments

(National Guard photo) The view of Garrison Dam's spillway from a National Guard Black Hawk helicopter June 19.

In early May, Mark Unterseher was fishing off sandbars near his home on the heavily wooded shoreline two miles northwest of Bismarck. He was doing the same thing in April while the Missouri River was flowing lethargically past his neighborhood at a depth of just more than six feet. Unterseher, 44, said it’s hard not to think […]

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Southport makes final stand against flood without city’s protection

By   /  June 30, 2011  /  Bismarck News, Flood, News, Top Stories  /  8 Comments

(Photo by Matt Bunk) Southport developer Kevin Turnbow walks away from the mouth of the Southport bay June 8. Just days before, the city restricted him from plugging the bay and finishing a dike around Southport.

The sun was setting behind a row of riverfront homes in Southport one evening last month as Kevin Turnbow made the rounds in his neighborhood, checking the pumps he rigged to keep groundwater from filling the basements of some of the swankiest homes in Bismarck. He pulled over to a curb and leaned out the […]

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It’s time to change the Corps’ Master Manual

By   /  June 30, 2011  /  Flood, Matt Bunk's Column, Opinion  /  5 Comments

Matt Bunk

Sometimes it takes a flood to get our priorities straight. That might be true on a lot of levels, but none more so than the need to correct the absurd methods of managing the Missouri River reservoir system. This year’s flood so far hasn’t caused the catastrophe in Bismarck-Mandan that many people feared it would. […]

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