History in the Making: Response to the 2009 North Dakota flood By Captain Leon Schlafmann

Editor's Note: For more information on Fargo's 2010 flood preparations, check out FireRescue's interview with Captain Schalfmann.

When it comes to fire (structural, wildland, wildand/urban interface), no one knows how to handle it better than the fire service. But if you think about it, the fire department will respond to just about any type of emergency if help is needed. The city of Fargo, N.D., is 40 square miles with a population of 100,000 people. It sits along the west bank of the Red River of the North, forming the border between Minnesota and North Dakota and flowing north into Canada and Lake Winnipeg.

The Fargo Fire Department (FFD) is the primary responder within the city. Its six stations house six engine companies, one ladder company, one regional hazmat unit, one technical rescue unit and 117 personnel. So when the Red River of the North broke record levels in March of 2009, the FFD was called to the front line. The Fargo Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) dictates that the city engineer takes the lead when natural disasters such as flooding occur in the area.

In the spring of 2009, the city engineer called on his staff to come up with a plan to hold back the floodwaters of the Red River at levels never dealt with in the history of the North Dakota community. In 1897, levels rose to 40.1 feet, but in 2009, the National Weather Service and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers projected the river would rise to 43 feet in a worst-case scenario. To put that into perspective, that’s 25 feet over flood stage.

A Call to Action

The assignment: Build 45 miles of sandbag dikes, earthen levees and new flood barriers for use in just 6 days. The U.S. Corps of Engineers was brought in to construct the levees, while the FFD was asked to oversee several different tasks, such as managing tens of thousands of volunteers who built miles of sandbag dikes to protect the city of Fargo from the Red River.

Working in 12-hour shifts, the FFD assisted sandbag-filling operations and helped with quality control of the bags that would be placed on dikes. Two-person teams were also assigned to sections of the dikes to ensure proper construction and placement of every sandbag. That might not seem like much of a task, but we’re talking about the filling and placement of 2.7 million sandbags and another 800,000 bags for reinforcement.

Fifty-eight patrols made up of National Guard and police officers monitored the dikes and levees around the clock. If a problem occurred, 12 strike teams consisting of firefighters and vehicles would be dispatched. City engineers would also be dispatched and, if needed, one of nine heavy response teams consisting of National Guard troops, engine companies, a dozer, a skid steer, front-end loaders, and trucks of sandbags and clay.

The Breach

Early on, firefighters and police officers were tasked with planning and executing an evacuation operation in the event of a dike failure. Special-needs individuals and vulnerable populations were evacuated early via Fargo Cass Public Health. An advanced team from a FEMA task force also assisted in the planning operations.

FEMA brought to the table a level of experience and expertise that we were unable to provide. But even with all the pre-planning and protection, we weren’t ready for what was about to take place.

As the Red River of the North was approaching record levels, a call came in that the dike had breached at Oak Grove High School, the same school that was lost 12 years earlier to the same river. Many steps had been taken to protect this school, but at midnight on March 27, the water was once again pouring into the buildings.

The Response

A heavy response team was dispatched, along with fire department strike teams, to the school. The plan was to attack the river with military precision using firefighters and National Guard members. Public works brought in large pumps, and Blackhawk helicopters dropped 1-ton sandbags in the breached area.

Like any operation, it had its successes and failures, but in the end, the school was saved, with only two of the buildings on campus taking on low levels of water.

This became a true example of departments working together in a time of crisis. For some time, fire departments have been working together in mutual- or automatic-aid situations, but add public works, city engineering, the U.S. National Guard and police officers to the mix and you usually have the makings of mass confusion. What made this situation different? The FFD adhered to the incident command system (ICS). As a result, we learned that the ICS not only works well, but it’s also flexible and can involve multiple agencies when necessary.

A New Record

The river crested at a new record of 40.82 inches on March 28, 2009. The water level started falling below major flood stage on April 26, but it didn’t return to its banks until the end of May. Responders spent the rest of the summer cleaning up. In the end, only five residential properties were lost and two buildings at the school were damaged.

Those evacuated (as a precaution) included 2500 special needs individuals, 300–400 area residents and about 210 pets. Only one major injury occurred to a volunteer who was providing traffic control.

Lessons Learned

After the water level receded and people were able to return to their homes, the FFD reviewed its overall performance during the event and determined it had learned several lessons. The next time your department is faced with an emergency situation that affects most, if not all, of your response area, consider the following points:

1. ICS isn’t optional for the fire service when it comes to large-scale emergencies, but do all the departments and agencies in your community know how to function in your organizational chart? If you’re not sure, you must address this issue before the next event. “Are you NIMS-compliant?” were the first words out of a FEMA team member’s mouth, and during a disaster is not the time to wonder if you are. And by the way, being NIMS-compliant doesn’t just mean you took a NIMS 700 or an ICS100 class.
2. Establish working relationships early with primary partners (police, National Guard, FEMA, Red Cross, etc.) As firefighters, we turn to our mutual-aid agreements with neighboring fire departments, but when a major natural disaster strikes, the department(s) you work with might not be available right away. Learn how your mutual-aid system works, and how to obtain resources when you need them right away.
3. Is your EOP functional or just a binder collecting dust? Ours was a dust collector. Sure, people knew their roles but did they understand them? We fight floods every year around here, so our response has become somewhat routine. But natural disasters aren’t routine, so departments need to treat every threat as if it were the “Big One.” I’ve always been taught to “go big fast,” meaning stay ahead of the event or emergency.
4. Are we “jacks of all trades, but masters of none”? I don’t think so. When events turn ugly, fire and police are looked to for leadership, management and assistance. Our never-give-up attitude forces us to stay and get the job done, which allows us to master certain skills and behaviors we might not otherwise develop.
5. Exercise your plans. The people making the decisions during an emergency need to know the roles of all the players and how many resources they have to work with. Set up table-top exercises with real-life scenarios and train on how to manage an emergency event. Don’t just go through the motions; make people make decisions. Answer questions, such as, “Where will I get all the people I need to pull this off?” Around the training table is the time to figure out how to work through an emergency, not at 0200 HRS when the water is coming up over a dike or a chemical tanker is lying on the roadway.
6. Always remember life safety during an emergency. That is your first priority. Make sure everyone goes home.

It’s All About Teamwork

The FFD’s assistance during the floods of 2009 was invaluable to the community. Firefighters know risk management and keep a constant watch out for life safety, so if building the dike became too risky, they would step in and correct or stop the actions of the volunteers. The FFD, as well as the fire service in general, provides assistance during emergency situations because that’s what we do best. In my opinion, no one functions as a team better than the fire service. We have strong roots in the ICS and, therefore, we know how to get the job done in a crisis situation. Captain Leon Schlafmann is a 20-year veteran of the Fargo Fire Department, currently serving as the emergency services coordinator. Copyright © Elsevier Inc., a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. SUBSCRIBE to FIRERESCUE