Lessons from floods in Fargo

By Rebecca Carter, PhD, ICLEI USA Adaptation Manager
March 31, 2009

People across the nation watched with baited breath last week as residents of Fargo, ND, worked together to save their city from the floodwaters of the Red River. Although their efforts seem to have paid off and the river appears to have crested below the level of the sandbag levees they constructed, the scene easily could have been a replay of the last major floods to hit the region—the ones that swamped Grand Forks, 80 miles downriver, in 1997. But this time, as Fargo grabbed the headlines, there was hardly any mention of Grand Forks; and no news was good news.

Why Grand Forks Averted Disaster

There is a major difference between the two cities’ experiences in this spring’s floods. Grand Forks had infrastructure to protect it, and Fargo did not. After incurring $1.5 billion in losses to hundreds of homes and businesses in 1997, Grand Forks was able to raise $409 million, half of it in federal funds, for a floodwall and water-diversion system to permanently protect it from the recurrent flooding that had plagued the city since it was founded. In 2007, FEMA certified that Grand Forks’ new levee system was complete and ready to protect the city from floods of up to 60 feet—nine feet higher than the crest during the 1997 flood, and well below this year’s.

In contrast, the floods largely missed Fargo in 1997. While Fargo leaders have been pressing for a flood protection system for years, they have been unable to obtain the community, state, and federal support needed to permanently protect their city from future floods. As the March 29 article in The New York Times put it, “Big federal money for permanent flood abatement and the local political will to support such disruptive projects, flows only where disaster goes.”

The Climate Change Factor

The idea that nothing gets done until communities have a bitter taste in their mouths should be of great concern. Consider that a 2008 study from the University of Maryland found that although global climate models predict that North Dakota will become drier in the future and subject to more intense droughts, it is also expected to experience more intense storms. Given the Red River’s history of flooding, land use changes such as expanding agriculture into wetlands that once might have absorbed flood waters, and more severe weather predictions, there is little doubt that Fargo will face a similar—or worse—flood threat in the years to come.

Other communities also face increasing vulnerabilities to climate change as sea levels begin to rise, wildfires become more frequent and intense, and new public health risks such as extreme heat events increase.

From Reactive to Proactive

Grand Forks’ and Fargo’s experiences illustrate the need for a more proactive approach to funding infrastructure to reduce community vulnerabilities due to climate change. Local governments can’t wait until the impacts descend on them—they must anticipate them, plan accordingly, and obtain buy-in from their community members for bold actions. There is, of course, a rush of stimulus spending on infrastructure projects nationwide, but how much allocation is happening with local climate resiliency in mind?

ICLEI USA’s forthcoming Climate Resilient Communities™ Program will assist local governments in enhancing their resiliency to the impacts and costs associated with projected climate change. When this program launches later in 2009, it will provide local governments with the guidance, tools, and resources to assess vulnerabilities, establish targets and goals, and plan and take action.

In the meanwhile, our thoughts go out to Fargo, which is a dedicated ICLEI member that is committed to doing the right thing for its community and for the planet.