4 Seasons of North Dakota

The four seasons of ND you should know about:
1. Winter- and lots of it. Typically lasts October-March
2. Flooding. Lasts through April.
3. Mosquitos. Lasts May-August? September?
4. TORNADO. Lasts June-July-August? TBD

June 17th was our very first experience with tornado warnings.
We were headed to run errands but realized we forgot the Red Box we needed to return. We decided to go grab it and then run the errands. Upon crossing the bridge to our apt, we heard sirens...we thought it was the trains at first.
We got home and turned on the radio..."Severe weather and tornado warnings for Grand Forks County". I'll admit I panicked a little...I thought tornado season was a joke here. Not to mention I had no idea what you're supposed to do in a tornado warning (go in the basement if you have one or stay in a room with no windows). All in all, things were ok. We stayed inside (well Steven explored a little) and everything ended up being just fine. There was a mini storm that hit first, followed by a torrential downpour. Then, it was time for the huge part of the storm to pass through. This brought on more rain than I've ever experienced before, hail almost as big as golf-balls...and then sunshine.
Here are my crappy BB pictures because our cameras were both dead.

The hail:


Later that same day:


In less than 2 hours, it came, got worse, and then left. There were a few touchdowns and a lot of funnel cloud sightings. Our city was ok, but there is a small town out by the air force base that got hit and a town in MN just across the border. This town got the worst of it...a gas station was destroyed as well as some homes and a few fatalities. I tried finding the article on our city web page, but they archive them after a week. I think the two that actually touched down in MN were considered E-4.

What really amazed me was all the idiots who were outside watching the funnel clouds and then calling into the radio station. Seriously I think in the 2 hours I was listening to the radio station, the DJs probably had to say something like "Make sure you're safe first and then call in with information" over a hundred times.

We were supposed to have a huge storm with tornado warnings last week, but that didn't happen. Maybe June 17 will be our only way to experience tornado season.

And the rains came down...

...And the floods came up.
We have never lived in a place where we were at risk for natural disasters until we moved here. We live across the street from the Red River. This river is kind of unique because it flows to the north. Every year when the snow melts, the river floods from Fargo all the way up to Canada. There was an extreme flood in 1997 that wiped out most of the downtown area. President Clinton came and declared a national disaster on the area. The water was above the stop signs on the streets in downtown. Wikipedia it, I'm sure it's there. Anyways...the river obviously melts every year and because of the insane amount of snow we get, the river usually floods. We were counseled to start praying that the flood waters would be tempered as early as the beginning of February. We didn't realize what a big deal this flooding stuff was. But, we were proactive and set up an evacuation plan if we had to leave our apartment.
We are above a store on the second story so we knew our things would be safe. We just needed to know how we would get out, where our car would stay, what we would take with us and where we would go. I never knew how much work all this emergency preparedness stuff was! We tried to do it in AZ but there wasn't a ton of motivation...
Anyways, they closed the bridge on our street almost as soon as the river melted. The flood gates go inside these slots in the "welcome to grand forks" gate. They also set up a police line all the way on top of the hill so people don't go down into the 'greenway'. The greenway is a park during the non-flooded, non-snowed months of the year. (so like May and June?! lol)
Anyways in all the excitement we decided to take pictures of the flood gates and such. (Be kind I am sensitive during this whole pregnancy weight gaining and shifting thing...and it was cold and windy outside)The flood gates are behind me...normally those metal things aren't there and it's the entrance to the bridge.
The water got just a little higher than this picture shows. There was something like 47 inches of ice pack and a lot of water when it melted. That sidewalk is where the greenway is.
That stone pillar thing in the middle...well the top (right before the peak of it) is where the water level was in 1997. Other years are etched on the side as well. There are actually park benches and a cement platform about 4 feet down in the water.It turns out that the flooding really didn't get as bad as everyone thought and was nothing compared to the 1997 flood. They were actually able to keep the larger, taller bridge that is about a mile north of this one open. We've since learned that when they close that bridge, then it's time to worry.
The bridge stayed closed for about a week. Then both ND and MN Dept. of Transportation had to go underneath and check to make sure some floating trees hadn't damaged the bridge and they opened it up again. The greenway is still pretty flooded and it is closed off in certain areas. I walked across the bridge today to the post office in East GF and the water was much lower and I could see the benches around that monument.
All in all, we ended up being just fine but we were prepared just in case. Now we are just left to wonder *again*...WHY DO PEOPLE LIVE HERE? It snows 8 months out of the year, floods for 2 and there is only 2 months left over that we hear are full of mosquitos...lovely :)