Hundreds of National Guard troops, local residents and volunteers continued to reinforce and raise sandbagged barriers and floodwalls. They had been bracing for a record crest on Saturday but awoke instead to a slightly lower water level.
Cold weather froze flood waters in the fields around this metropolitan area of 175,000 people, keeping spring melt from adding to the flooded river, said Mike Hudson, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Fargo.
The Red River Valley is an important farming region for spring wheat and sugar beets, though spring planting is still weeks away. Wet soil could delay some seeding, which for wheat and corn can go well into May. U.S. wheat prices fell on Friday as snowstorms in the Plains aided needed soil moisture.
The river's level has continued to drop since midnight (0500 GMT) and was 40.68 feet (12.41 m)at 11:15 a.m. CDT on Saturday, down from 40.82 feet (12.44 m). The temperature was 17 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 8 Celsius) just before 11 a.m.The river had been forecast to crest on Saturday at 42 feet before freezing temperatures caused the weather service to revise its forecast. The river should stay at its current level or drop over the next three to four days, the NWS said.
President Barack Obama on Saturday expressed support for flooded residents and praised volunteers. Earlier, Obama had issued disaster declarations for North Dakota and Minnesota.Flood barriers were holding, but the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is "worried about" a few spots where engineers could not get earth-moving equipment in and had to rely on sandbags instead,Corps spokeswoman Shannon Bauer said.
Most of the earth and sandbag dikes now protecting Fargo-Moorhead rise to 43 feet (13.11 m).The river topped the record level of 40.1 feet set in 1897 on Friday.
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