As River Rose, Volunteerism Rose With It

(CBS)  By CBS News correspondent Dean Reynolds

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The overnight leakage has indeed been patched up, and the river continues to slowly recede. But sandbag production here has resumed as a precaution, because in Fargo you can not be too safe

All week long they had watched it rise, higher and higher than anyone had ever seen.

The Red River is an oddity, running north - not south - toward Canada, across terrain as flat as a tabletop. Always flood-prone, it was a sure bet to overflow this year from unusually heavy rain and snow.

Chris Leveau measures the river for the U.S. Geological Survey.

"I've never seen water this high in Fargo," he said. "It's unprecedented."

And unprecedented was the effort to beat it.

In Fargo, a city of 90,000, 80,000 volunteers showed up - men, women, children. Everyone who could help appeared in defense of the city.

"You've got to try and stay positive," said one volunteer.

It was a development President Obama noted in his weekly address:

"In the Fargodome, thousands of people gathered not to watch a football game or a rodeo, but to fill sandbags. Volunteers filled 2.5 million of them in just five days, working against the clock, day and night, with tired arms and aching backs. Others braved freezing temperatures, gusting winds, and falling snow to build levees along the river's banks to help protect against waters that have exceeded record levels."

But as the week wore on, the river kept rising ...

Predicted crests of 37 to 38 feet were replaced by estimates of 40 all the way up to an alarming 43 feet, equal to the height of Fargo's levees and dikes.

The river inundated the home where Peter Frei lived.

"As the water came up from the basement, you could feel all the memories go right up to the ceiling," he said.

His was one of nearly a hundred Coast Guard rescue missions this past week.

In nearby Moorhead, Minnesota, 2,600 houses were evacuated. In Fargo, nursing homes were emptied, patients were moved from hospitals, and a certain fateful tone intruded.

Fargo Mayor Dennis Walaker said, "If we go down, we're gonna go down swinging."

Walaker and other leaders spoke daily at open meetings that provided the public invaluable information, as unvarnished as the data from National Weather Service analyst Greg Gust:

"We're here to make sure you guys are getting it direct from the horse's mouth which is the end we want it coming out from," he said to laughter.

While the word spread Saturday that the river was at last cresting, no one was ready to celebrate.

Ilene Lee spoke with us, the river a few steps from her door: "I'm feeling fairly confident. Cautiously optimistic, which, for a Norwegian is practically delirious!"

While frigid weather has helped freeze the river in place, there is still abundant snow cover here. An abrupt thaw could melt it into the river ...and a terrifying week could be repeated.

But a statement was made here that may be useful beyond the Great Plains.

After weeks of national stories about cheats and schemers, the people of faraway Fargo showed what a sense of community really means ... and the rewards that sacrificing for a cause greater than oneself may bring.

[KittyAW]

Those who understand that each person is ultimately responsible for hirself and that cooperative effort is in each person's wide view long range best interest will react as have those in the upper mid-west Red River valley. Such people do not need FEMAs and the like to direct efforts to forestall flood damage. They build ***** and levees and pitch-in for sandbag making and whatever is necessary when a phenomenal amount of rain results in water threatening those same normal flood control measures. And such people don't complain that the "government isn't doing enough" because they understand that a self-responsible community is made up of self-responsible individuals. Governments foster dependence - on the rulers to the rulers' "tune".
Kitty Antonik Wakfer Casa Grande AZ

[bud28dy]

The community all coming together to overcome adversity is the American way. They are depending on no one but themselves and aren't blaming the government and the police etc. What a contrast with the sad situation in New Orleans where no one helped anyone and took the tragedy as an opportunity to loot neighborhood businesses and homes. Instead of helping themselves, those sorry excuses for human beings sat on their fat butts n the convention center or whatever it was and wailing and complaining about everything and everyone. Hopefully the savages down there will see whats happening in Fargo and change their ways but its doubtful since their own pathetic helplessness is too ingrained in them.

[TTGrandma]

I need to add to this story that Fargo is in ND and Moorhead MN is the sister city where this is happening as well as south of here to way north in Canada.
There have been many volunteers from many states coming to 'help at home' as well as many colleges and HSs of the area closed so the students could help. Even if this was not their home, THIS IS THEIR HOME away from home. There have been many mocking their efforts, making it sound like the Red River Valley is what everyone lives (on the beach). Our upper Midwest was settled (as much of the US was) by waterways and trailways. This area was settled by our wonderful ancestors and family as we all know it begun in one of the most beautiful areas ever. I grew up in SD, grandparents in ND and now in MN. It is not foolish pride I speak of, but wonderful people who know and care about their neighbors, whether they are next door or people for several blocks in their area. Farmers, city dwellers, small towns, all know and share the same. They live in the best place that God gave them and they will expend all efforts to save it. This is indeed God's Country to the fullest. Waving grains, blue sky, miles and miles of horizon.

[honeybee_03]

I am from Fargo and I just returned from an all day stint filling sandbags at the 'Dome. My hands are blistered and bleeding and my arms are practically numb. What a great sense of pride I felt reading this story, and reading the comments below has choked me up and forced me to hold back tears.

Thank You All for the kind words and support, it really is exactly what one needs at the end of a day like today.

~Battered but Still Fighting in Fargo

[Rickhaggard]

This is what America is all about, neighbors helping each other, not like New Orleans where people sat on thier ***** and waited for someone else to do everything for them, True American spirit.

[riredbird]

I am in awe of these people I can't get 10 people to volunteer for a bake sale and these people turn out to help themselves and their neighbors, I'm willing to bet the ones that didn't show are in nursing homes or hospitals. People of Fargo you have given me hope for America yet, thanks.

[sandy19731]

An incredible story of people coming together to help their community and save a city. Kudos to the city of Fargo, ND