Grand Forks 1997 Flood Recovery: Facts and Statistics
Renewed, Rebuilt, Reborn
- Chronology: October 1996 - March 1998 (PDF 1.13MB, TXT 82KB)
- Flood Categories and Historical Crests
- 1997 Flood Impact
- North Dakota Fact Sheet
- Minnesota Severe Storms (DR-1175-MN) Fact Sheet
- North Dakota Disaster Statistics (PDF 221KB, TXT 8KB)
Flood Categories and Historical Crests
Flood Categories
- Major Flood Stage: 46 ft
- Moderate Flood Stage: 40 ft
- Flood Stage: 28 ft
- Action Stage: 27 ft
Historical Crests
- 54.35 ft on 04/22/1997
- 50.20 ft on 04/10/1897
- 48.81 ft on 04/26/1979
- 48.00 ft on 04/18/1882
- 47.85 ft on 04/06/2006
- 45.93 ft on 04/21/1996
- 45.71 ft on 04/11/1978
- 45.69 ft on 04/16/1969
- 45.61 ft on 05/12/1950
- 45.55 ft on 04/04/1966
1997 Flood Impact
- Red River crested at 54.35 feet. Earthen levees in place could protect to a level of 52 feet (49 feet for levee + 3 feet of freeboard)
- Water rise was 1 inch/hour (2 feet/day) during flooding
- 3.5 million sandbags (17,500 tons of sand) plus 170,000 cubic yards of clay and 20,000 cubic yards of gravel used to fight the flood
- 90 percent of Grand Forks’ 52,500 residents evacuated; all 9,000 East Grand Forks residents evacuated.
- 83 percent (9,001) of Grand Forks homes and 62 percent (751) of the city’s commercial units damaged
- All 385 businesses in downtown Grand Forks impacted (400,000 sq. ft of space)
- 11 historic buildings and 60 apartments burned
- No water for 13 days; no drinkable water for 23 days
- More than $74 million damage to Grand Forks Public School District (16 of 22 schools significantly damaged)
- More than $48 million damage to University of North Dakota (72 state-owned buildings)
- More than 20,000 volunteers came to the community to help clean up and rebuild
- 60,000 tons of flood debris hauled to landfill
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Adobe Acrobat (PDF)Last Modified: Thursday, 19-Apr-2007 11:17:43 EDT