Minot ND. Flood Update

Minot, ND is still reeling from the floods from a couple weeks ago. The flood waters are slowly going down, but a big, severe rainstorm hit on Friday, making the flooding a little worse. Still, thousands of homes have been damaged, with over 800 homes destroyed.
They have also canceled the North Dakota State fair. from the Minot Daily News:
There will be no North Dakota State Fair in 2011.
Fair manager Renae Korslien announced Sunday that the nine-day event that had been scheduled to begin July 22 has been canceled due to flooding. It will be the first time since its designation as a State Fair in 1965 that the event won't go on.
"We tried. We tried hard, but the timeline got too short," Korslien said. "It's a disaster a disaster in our heart and a disaster on our grounds."
Flooded by the swollen Souris River at the end of June, the fairgrounds was to be free of water by now, based on original hydrograph data from the National Weather Service. That forecast led the fair board to move forward with plans for a fair, although without competitive exhibits that include 4-H and FFA.
A revised hydrograph from the National Weather Service now shows the Souris River will be receding more slowly than originally forecast. Initially, the forecast was for the river level to have reached 1551 feet on Sunday. That level is critical for draining the fairgrounds, which still had two feet of water on the midway Sunday. Now it appears that level won't be reached until Thursday, due in part to significant rainfall in the river basin Friday. That's a key delay when it comes to having the grounds ready in time.
http://www.minotdailynews.com/page/content.detail/id/556621/Flood-cancels-State-Fair.html?nav=5010
There is also a pretty neat story about how two dogs ran away from their owner and ended up in the middle of the flood, on top the roof of a flooded house and they were rescued: http://www.minotdailynews.com/page/content.detail/id/556617/Mischievous-dogs-rescued-from-roof-during-flood.html?nav=5642
These dogs were habitual runaways and have been put in doggy jail at least 25 times previously.

Fortunately, there have no fatalities involved with the flood and there have been few, if any injuries because of the flooding. There has been outcry for the Fed's to do more and in fact, it seems like the local and state governments have handled this flood better than other floods in recent memories in the U.S.. This should not be a surprise for people who have lived in North Dakota or know North Dakota residents. They are a tough but caring people and they believe in limited government, even in times of disaster.