we built this city

another thing that i need to do before leaving fargo in a few days (well, that i'd LIKE to do) is help sandbag. fargo has had AT LEAST as much snow as last year (by this time) and since the ground is still saturated from last year's snowfall and rain, there is a high chance that the city could flood. the local paper has reported that the city is calling for volunteers already. their goal is to have 1 million sandbags ready by the end of the month. i have no idea where they are, so far, but i would like to help out while i can.

in that vain, i'm pulling out a post i started last year and didn't finish. here are pictures BEFORE the flood of 2009. wiki has a great article talking about the details from last year. check it out here.

this picture is of el zagel golf course, about 5 blocks from my parents house. this is me standing on the sidewalk outside the fence of the golf course. the river is right next to the golf course, to the right of the picture. by the time the river actually flooded, this whole golf course was under water - there were about 8 feet of sandbags and mud surrounding the golf course. the water was almost up to the top. if you imagine i am less than 6 feet, the golf course was full of water straight across from the eye level of this picture.
here is some more of the golf course that was flooded.
this is an ironic picture.
this is the street next to the golf course with a picture of the mud that they brought in. this is maybe 1/3 of what it ended up looking like.
for those familiar with fargo, elm street in particular, this is me standing in the el zagel parking lot with elm street in front of me. at this point, in early march of 2009, elm street was already covered with water.
here is elm street straight on - normally, this parking lot is 10-15 feet above the street.
this is the mud brought in to protect the houses that are right across the street from the golf course. many houses couldn't get to their driveways because they were full of mud and sandbags.
another picture of elm street (flooded) on the right. in th middle is the fence that divides the golf course (to the left) and the bike path (under water).
this is the view standing in fargo looking at moorhead, mn. the river normally runs only between the two group of trees on the left and the trees in the middle.

[we built this city - fabulous song from the 1980s by starship.]