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Article: A front-row seat at flood stage; I recognized the people, not always the faces but certainly the type ... The waters are receding in Fargo, but those who dared settle the Red River Valley remain, even if they can never truly rest easy. Not with this river.(NEWS)
- Article from:
- Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)
- Article date:
- May 5, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 Star Tribune Co. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The ticket agent at the airport asked about my cousin Phil. A woman watching her back-yard dike whooped with delight when she found out I was Gus and Dorothy's boy. Another stranger, guiding his canoe down a flooded street, heard my last name and then spelled it out loud, misplacing not a single consonant. No mean feat, that.
At times, covering the Red River flood in my hometown of Fargo, N.D., seemed less like a news assignment than a class reunion.
I'd covered a major flood once before, in Missouri in the summer of 1993. I went to the French colonial village of Ste. Genevieve, where townsfolk were grimly filling sandbags in 100-degree heat to curb the ...