There are several types of floods that can occur including riverine floods, coastal floods, catastrophic floods, estuarine floods and a few other types. The Red River floods are a typical type of riverine flood which usually occur in the spring but have also happened in the summer. They are usually caused by an excess amount of snow melt and/or an excess amount of precipitation in the water shed of a river. This causes river levels to rise and eventually to jump its banks and flood surrounding areas. Flood waters can travel over and cover many miles on either side of the river.
Riverine floods are usually a very slow type of flood where people have time to protect properties but they can also happen overnight in the spring if the river ice that melts and fractures jams across a river and causes water to backup upstream of the ice jam in a few hours. Any type of flood can cause huge amounts of damage to not only human property but also to the natural landscape as river banks slump, trees get undermined and fall over, water flowing over land erodes channels through natural dams or berms and flood debris like logs, straw and river silt are left behind as the water recedes.
In 1997 a horrific flood poured over the dikes in Grand Forks and East Grand Forks forcing more than 60,000 people out of their homes and also causing a fire that gutted 11 downtown buildings close by this cache area. After 1997, the people of Grand Forks and East Grand Forks fought back and built a new series of dikes and temporary dikes to help combat future floods and this year (2009) they were tested once again with the second highest flood on record and this time they won the battle against the rising Red River. From the posted coordinates, you can see many examples of the now permanent dike structures on both sides of the river that are now part of the landscape.
To count this find you need to complete the following and send the answers to the first 3 to me (MHz).
1. What is the second lowest year listed on this flood monument?
2. Have the tallest person in your group stand next to the monument. In any measurement, find the approximate difference between this person's height and the 1979 flood level.
3. What year's flood is closest to the same level as the crown or center of the bridge deck located at N47 55.614 W097 01.701?
4. Please post a picture of yourself on the bridge or with the bridge in the background but please do not post a picture of the monument at the posted coords as it will give away some answers. Thanks!
Congrats to roylake for being FTF!
