endmilled.com - WDAZ in Fargo, ND & the spring flooding of 2009

WDAY in Fargo, ND & the spring flooding of 2009

The following pictures were taken between Friday, March 27th, and Monday, April 1st of 2009. The cities of Fargo, ND and Moorhead, MN were affected by record spring flooding of the Red River Valley. Personnel from WDAZ's sister station in Fargo, WDAY, were kept very busy keeping the local residents and others in their viewing area informed with up to the minute river conditions. Things were looking pretty bad on Thursday the 26th. It seemed that the river crest predictions were being raised on a daily basis. WDAZ started simalcasting WDAY's hourly flood updates, and calls went out all over the state asking for help with sandbagging and dike building efforts. The people of North Dakota and northwest Minnesota weren't going to stand by and let the river flood take over. On Thursday night I was captivated by what I was seeing on TV. On Friday morning after not getting much sleep I received a call from my chief engineer. I was asked if I would be willing go help out WDAY with remote truck and live van operations. I would also need to be available around the clock if one of the temporary levees or sandbag dikes failed. If that happened I could be there to step in if others from the station had other more important issues to deal with. I jumped at the chance to help out in any way I could. I quickly packed up the Jeep with a weeks worth of supplies, and camping gear since I didn't know what was going to be in store. I arrived in Fargo that afternoon and was put to work near the area referred to as The Dike West. We had our remote production truck which is often used to broadcast local sporting events, set up in a parking lot overlooking the river, and one of the larger dikes protecting the city. The truck was used to provide live shots during the newscasts, and live footage of the river during the hourly updates seen throughout the day. Most of my time in Fargo was spent in that area, but I was also occasionally sent out with crews to other parts of town, or to the Moorhead side of the river. By night I would sleep at the studio in an unused upstairs office, and be on standby in case a major problem occurred. Thankfully nothing like that happened. Except for a couple small issues, the dikes and levees held keeping the city protected. I was sent home when the river level began to drop, and things at the station started getting back to normal. I enjoyed my stay at WDAY and I'll be ready to pitch in again if I'm ever needed.

The WDAY-TV and WDAY-AM Studio in Fargo, ND - March 2009