You remember, don’t you, those horrific videos of the destruction of Grand Forks, North Dakota by a raging Red River? I remember, too, seeing video of the frantic sand-bagging of shores by prison inmates and anyone else who could help, and the historic downtown burning above the flooded streets. (Photo: Burned-out building, Grand Forks Herald)
“In 1997, in what many consider to be the biggest mistake in the modern history of the National Weather Service, the city of Grand Forks, N.D., was nearly wiped off the map in a catastrophic flood,” writes Ashley Shelby in today’s Minneapolis Star-Tribune.
It was a highly technical NWS error. Based on complex calculations, the river was diked up to 52 feet, but the Red River rose to 54 feet. Grand Forks’ citizens were outraged and grief-stricken over the loss of their beautiful, historic downtown and entire neighborhoods.
But before this resentment could fester, Bill Clinton, FEMA Director James Lee Witt, and Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala rolled into town. Witt’s team had, in fact, had been in Grand Forks in the weeks leading up to the flood, urging homeowners to enroll in the federal government’s National Flood Insurance Program. FEMA officials were familiar figures in town.
Before arriving in Grand Forks, Clinton had authorized FEMA to provide 100 percent of the direct federal assistance for all of the emergency work undertaken by federal agencies in the disaster zones (the normal reimbursement rate is 75 percent).
The National Guard had been mobilized months earlier …
The mobilized, readied National Guard “was responsible for executing the remarkable evacuation of Grand Forks (until New Orleans, the largest evacuation of an American city since Atlanta in the Civil War) and provided immediate search and rescue support as the floodwaters deluged the city.”
James Lee Witt’s FEMA performed like a well-oiled machine in Grand Forks and the entire Red River Valley after the flood …
Witt’s FEMA began canvassing Grand Forks almost immediately after the city was evacuated. Trailers were brought in for displaced residents. The famous FEMA trailer christened “Red October” arrived soon after — one of FEMA’s mobile emergency-response support units, outfitted with more than a dozen computers wired with Internet access, a satellite communications system, a radio system and 48 phone lines, including dedicated lines to the White House and the Pentagon. The U.S. Department of Energy immediately announced an action plan to restore power systems in North Dakota, and deployed personnel to help cities get their systems back online. …
It’s unfair to the thoughtful, well-researched quality of Shelby’s column to excerpt it. It’s not long, so I hope you’ll read it all.