Sewer system fails in flood-threatened ND town

Sewer system fails in flood-threatened North Dakota town, leading mayor to ban flushing

By AMY LORENTZEN Associated Press Writer | AP

Apr 17, 2009

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(CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa) The mayor of a flood-threatened North Dakota town asked all residents to leave Friday after the sewer system backed up, flooding buildings in a four-block area with murky water. "We had a major main collapse in our sanitary sewer system. When it collapsed, the river came in and it overloaded the sewer system," Mayor Mary Lee Nielson said.

Nielson urged those of the town's 7,000 residents who had not already cleared out to leave, but she stopped short of a mandatory evacuation. She said the sewer system would be temporarily rebuilt above the ground and the city will, for now, pump its sewage into the swollen Sheyenne River.

Officials said the city's water was still safe to drink but sending it down drains or flushing toilets would make the backup worse. The mayor said 222 portable toilets will be stationed around town.

The Sheyenne River topped out Monday at 20 feet high, a record in the area. It remained Friday at nearly 20.5 feet. Officials have warned that the danger of flooding could persist for weeks.

Julie Nelson, the city emergency management spokeswoman, said the police station and the Valley City Times-Record's offices were among the places where sewage had backed up.

At the Barnes County Historical Society, curator Wes Anderson scrambled to plug toilets and control the damage.

The Mississippi flood which include the flood at Iowa and subsequently those in Illinois was God's disapproval of Obama as presidential candidate. The flood at Illinois on June 18, 2008 was especially serious. The flood water has broken many dikes and levees. Iowa was the first state in the primary presidential election for Obama and Illinois is Obama's home state. In May 2008 when the Democrat governor of Oklahoma endorsed Obama, in two days tornadoes on Oklahoma killed 100 people and destroyed $1 billion of properties. This had confirm that there is a God/Environment and He is against Obama. God even hates the aphabet "O". The fact that Iowa similar "I. O. Wa." or "I. O. U." probably means the Black community may have owed Washington or the U. S government or the American people in general something very important. What they are, many of you should be able to determine yourselves? I am here only to help you understand the messages from the Environment so that future disasters can be averted. Future disasters to the U. S. will certainly confirm my prophecy.

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Posted By: Vigilance @ 03/27/2009 3:08:30 PM

And they say climate change doesn't exist.
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Posted By: dukeitout @ 06/27/2008 10:37:44 PM

A few months ago the residents of Fernley, Nevada suffered a flood due to partially collapsed levees caused by,hang on to your hats,--------burrowing muskrats---or so the engineers claim. What's going on here. If their claim is real maybe we should use our ingenuity to get this prolific rodent on the endangered species list; or more humanely rounded up and transported to happy muskrat swamp grounds.
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Posted By: fan_chor-cheung @ 06/26/2008 6:20:56 PM

The Mississippi flood which include the flood at Iowa and subsequently those in Illinois was God's disapproval of Obama as presidential candidate. The flood at Illinois on June 18, 2008 was especially serious. The flood water has broken many dikes and levees. Iowa was the first state in the primary presidential election for Obama and Illinois is Obama's home state. In May 2008 when the Democrat governor of Oklahoma endorsed Obama, in two days tornadoes on Oklahoma killed 100 people and destroyed $1 billion of properties. This had confirm that there is a God/Environment and He is against Obama. God even hates the aphabet "O". The fact that Iowa similar "I. O. Wa." or "I. O. U." probably means the Black community may have owed Washington or the U. S government or the American people in general something very important. What they are, many of you should be able to determine yourselves? I am here only to help you understand the messages from the Environment so that future disasters can be averted. Future disasters to the U. S. will certainly confirm my prophecy.