Byron Dorgan: “The Red River flood was a flood that became 150 miles by 40 miles nearly. You could not see a river; it became a huge…”

“The Red River flood was a flood that became 150 miles by 40 miles nearly. You could not see a river; it became a huge lake in the Red River Valley. But the point of it all is this. When this flood came-- let me just use Grand Forks, ND, and East Grand Forks, MN, represented by Senator Grams and Senator Wellstone who worked so hard on this. Nine thousand people--when those dams broke and that water came rushing down the streets, the people got out of their houses, in most cases with only the clothes on their backs. They rushed to the end of the streets, were pulled up by National Guard trucks and by other devices, and they lost their homes, lost their vehicles. Then we saw them at a hangar, big aircraft hangar out at the Grand Forks Air Force base sleeping on cots--4,000 of them from every other small town for 100 miles around. In Grand Forks, 50,000 people, 90 percent of the town was flooded. I was in a boat of the Coast Guard in the main street of Grand Forks, ND. You would hit a car. You could not see the car. All you could see was 2 inches of the top of the radio antenna. In the downtown, a major fire destroyed 11 of the huge buildings in downtown Grand Forks in the historic district.”