‘The work that’s been done has averted the need for 280-300 thousand sandbags’: Valley City crews working hard to prevent flood damage

VALLEY CITY, N.D. (Valley News Live) - Valley City, the City of Bridges, is another community experiencing flash flooding.

The city has had to close off most of its bridges due to increasing waters.

“People are just, that’s why I like living in North Dakota. Last week, when it was blowing snow in my face, I wasn’t too sure. But today, I am again,” says Valley City Mayor Dave Carlsrud.

Valley City is looking a lot different than it did just a few days ago, with water levels rising three to four feet by Saturday morning.

“It’s even gone up. A lot more roads have closed off,” says Valley City State University student Kristin Albrecht.

The fire department has been working many hours to help build a flood defense.

“They were working on flood gates last night until midnight. They were right back at it this morning, 7 am,” says Mayor Carlsrud.

The city has had many helping hands to assist with flood protection, including students from Valley City State.

“We didn’t realize until last night what the time frame was going to be. We put it out on Facebook and at the University. The University kids showed up, and man, they really made it happen. Without them, and other volunteers from around town, we’d still be figuring out how to get sandbags out,” says Mayor Carlsrud.

Before this weekend, Valley City had no sandbags for anyone to throw.

“We didn’t have any, the county didn’t have any, we asked some other communities. Fargo stepped up and Mayor Mahoney said, ‘What do you need. Let me help you,’” says Mayor Carlsrud.

Back in 2009, the city had also experienced major flooding.

“The dyke broke in ‘09 so we had to evacuate,” says long-time resident Alexa Nis.

The mayor says, since then, permanent flood protection has been a work in progress for the last few years.

“This year we do have the flood walls, which saves a lot of time on sandbagging. In previous years, we used to spend weeks out here, day and night, sandbagging everything that you see that has floodwalls now,” says Valley City Fire Department Captain Jeff Schlittenhardt.

In the end, crews and city officials say they are grateful for the community’s help.

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