Intermezzo?

Tomorrow schools and colleges open up again. I calculated that in the month of March I met with my classes for 3 whole days. The rest were taken by a blizzard, Spring Break and flood fighting. The rest of the semester now consists of 5 weeks of classes and a slightly altered finals week. However, the river may have other plans.

We are expected to get a second crest sometime in the last half of April. What this will mean depends on how far the river goes down (currently it is just under 34 ft)down from 40.8), how much snow thaw and rains make it rise again and how much the Sheyenne River puts into the Red River. The Sheyenne is already causing more flooding in Valley City, ND and it is the biggest threat unless April turns into a very rainy month. All of this may mean a new fight for Fargo/Moorhead. Dike reinforcement is already being monitored and Fargo put up another contigency dike today in far south Fargo. Folks who have just gotten back into their homes may be forced to leave as the river rises again. The campus may have to stop classes again to lessen the strain on Moorhead's infrastructure. Both towns may have to close up public and private places again to assure traffic doesn't get in the way of the rapid response teams that fix problems in dikes. But for now all of that is just possible not certain.

So, tomorrow we begin a full week that should be as close to normal as possible while the river level remains in "major flooding" territory. I will reintroduce myself to my classes and start working under the "post flood" syllabi that I've put together. It will be weird, but I think people will enjoy the return of the routine. Now the ordinary will allow us to escape the extraordinary.