Dakotans watch and wait for floods

UPDATE: (AP) — The Souris River's full weight is being felt in Minot, where an estimated 2,500 homes are filling with water as the river has soared nearly 4 feet in a single day.

Mayor Curt Zimbelman said city leaders expect more than 4,000 homes will have significant water damage by day's end.

About a fourth of the city's residents were evacuated earlier this week because of a swift rise in the Souris. The river broke a 130-year-old record Friday and is expected to go more than 6 feet higher by this weekend.

City leaders say a top priority is getting a federal declaration that would qualify Minot residents for individual aid. They say that would allow FEMA to set up centers to begin working on transitional housing for flood victims.

*This is an update to previous AP coverage below.*

US geologists: Souris River has broken 1881 record at Minot, now at 9.5 feet above flood stage.

*This is an update to previous AP coverage below.*

The flooding Souris River has tied its record level at Minot and continues to rise.

U.S. Geological Survey data show the river was at 1,558 feet above sea level at 11 a.m. Friday at the city's Broadway Bridge. That's 9 feet above flood stage and the same as the all-time high set in 1881.

On Thursday, the river exceeded the level of a 1969 flood in the state's fourth-largest city. The crest that year was 1,555.4 feet above sea level, or 6.4 feet above flood stage.

The National Weather Service is forecasting this year's crest at 1,564.5 feet by early Sunday, or 15.5 feet above flood stage. The level is expected to begin slowly falling early Tuesday.

*This is an update to previous AP coverage below.*

MINOT, N.D. (AP) — Geese and airboats on patrol shared the flooded streets of Minot on Friday as the Souris River thundered toward a record flood, rising so quickly that its progress could be seen inching up the side of homes in the North Dakota city.

The Souris was expected to break a more than century-old record at some point Friday, then go as much as 6 or 7 feet higher over the weekend, fed by heavy rain upstream and water releases from Canadian reservoirs.

North Dakota's fourth-largest city expected widespread flood damage, and as many as 10,000 residents, about one-fourth of the city's population, were ordered from their homes earlier this week. Crews focused on protecting critical infrastructure to avoid an expanded evacuation.

"We don't like to lose," Capt. Jeff Hoffer, an Army National Guard officer, said during a tour of flooded areas Friday. "This is very disheartening. I feel badly for all the people."

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service launched four boats on Friday to patrol flooded neighborhoods, ready to respond to 911 calls. City officials said no injuries or incidents had been reported overnight. The evacuation zone was empty except for emergency officials and the geese, who paddled in about 5 feet of water washing down the streets.

George Moe, whose house was about a block from the water's edge, returned briefly to pick up some keys. Moe said the only thing left in his house was the mounted head of an antelope shot by his wife, who died about three years ago.

Moe, 63, said he had lived in the house for 40 years. He worried about it as well as the shop where he works as a mechanic; it was taking on water and he was unsure he'd have a job after the flood.

"I hate to see something go to hell after 40 years," he said. "There ain't much you can do."

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Thursday accelerated water releases from the upstream Lake Darling dam. In just four days, the predicted release of water from the dam more than doubled — from 11,000 cubic feet per second to 29,000. National Weather Service hydrologist Steve Buan laid the blame on 4 to 6 inches of rain that fell last week in largely rural — and saturated — areas to the north.

With peak water levels expected Saturday or Sunday, Minot officials said they have done everything they can to protect critical infrastructure. Mayor Curt Zimbelman said dikes have been raised as much as possible around the city's sewer lift station and can't be raised any higher. The city was confident the water treatment plant was protected.

"We need to hope that they hold," Zimbelman said.

The city issued a voluntary evacuation notice Thursday to 400 more people in the river valley, although officials said damage to those homes might be no more than water in basements.

City Council President Dean Frantsvog said authorities expect "a large portion of" the 4,400 homes and 200 businesses that have been evacuated "will be inundated."

In Burlington, a town of about 1,000 people a few miles upstream on the confluence of the Souris and Des Lacs rivers, city officials abandoned sandbagging as hopeless. About a third of 320 houses are expected to be lost in the town that was founded in 1883 and is the oldest in Ward County.

"We're no longer able to save the city," Burlington Mayor Jerome Gruenberg said Thursday.

Burlington officials instead sent