Saving Fargo (or, I’m Switzerland)

So I went up to Fargo early yesterday morning (seriously, it was stupid early, Fargo is 4 hours away and we wanted to make it there before half the day was over).

Fargo is about to be flooded by the Red River. They had a lot of rain last fall, a lot of snow this winter and it’s not letting up! The River is now at a record high (40 feet) and they are guessing it to crest at 43 feet.
The National Guard has been dispatched, people are being evacuated and they needed volunteers. So, I got a wild hair and decided to go up and help sandbag. I got lucky (or as fate would have it), connected with an old friend via Facebook who offered to come along.

Wow, what a trip.

First, I have to say that I hate Fargo (sorry Fargo) but it’s always windy and I hate the wind. It’s winter about 9 months out of the year. They are in super winter mode right now. To me, Fargo would be a hellish place to live - but I give credit to the people, they are tough.
The sandbagging was pretty interesting. We were hoping to drive out to the sites to help but they insisted that we take the bus. Strike two, Fargo, I hate the bus.
The busses were supposed to run every half hour to and from the “home” locations. But, our semi’s with more sandbags got held up and then our bus didn’t come back to pick us up…ever. So, we were stuck in a blizzard with no sandbags. Personally, I think they left us because they wanted us to stay put and wait for sandbags. We had to walk back to our base - about a mile. No, it's not that far except for when it's blizzarding on me.

Strike three Fargo because the smile on my face is not because of warmth or comfort. Thank you J for keeping the smile there.
So the sandbagging really wasn’t that bad. Besides moving around 1,000 sandbags, each weighing between 30 and 60 lbs, or so. It was a good work out, lots of fun people watching. From he-women throwing sandbags at people, to weird-look-on-his-face-all-the-time Guy, to flew-all-the-way-from-Ocala-to-do-this-so-makes-me-wonder Guy, to no-girlfriend-because-he-tries-to-knock-over-women-with-sandbags Guy. It was really fun.

All kinds of people turned out to help (I was not the only princess!) and when it was organized with a Leader, it went really well. It was pretty funny when it wasn’t organized because people just walked and walked, no purpose for direction, just following the herd. That is a weird feeling and sort of reminded me of when we had to walk during the London tube bombing.

I almost got to eat at the Texas Road “House” but once again I was robbed blindly of this experience – this time because they closed due to the flood (stupid nature).

They really need to fix their sign.
We ended up staying over because traffic going home was stopped, it was blizzarding and the four hour drive could not start in those conditions at 6:00pm.

All in all it was a good diversion for me, I feel good about DOING SOMETHING rather than just saying, “it’s too bad” and I had a tremendously fun time catching up with a friend. We are not jumping onto any sort of moral high-ground, 'we are such do-gooders because we did this.' We had the time and it's always good to do something good. I figure if Fargo is saved, it was because of us. If it isn’t, it’s because the bus left us without sandbags and hindered our abilities. :)

If anything we stimulated their economy a little.
I wasn’t expecting how emotional the trip would be for me, I had a hard time sleeping. People are really close to losing their homes, I’m not sure that all the work that was done is actually going to save them. The dikes are for-sure putting it off and it might save some homes but they have a whole ocean of water just waiting…

It's really quite menacing. Even after this is all over, even if the dikes work, the mess is going to be a huge clean up.
It was also a real learning experience catching up with someone I haven’t seen in ten years, talking about people we know/knew and what they are up to...trying to figure out the HOWS and WHYS. Brings back memories I had forgotten, some good, some bad. Overall a very good experience – we figured out we actually went to Kindergarten together. I was relieved, impressed and excited at the person my sandbagging partner has become.