Evacuating Two Cities

Evacuating Two Cities. . , Flood predictions from the National Weather Service continued to rise, and a community struggled to keep up. As residents battled the Red River, city officials fought to keep people safe. New and strange sounds engulfed the cities; civil defense sirens signaled the evacuation of first one neighborhood, then the next, bullhorns of National Guard personnel called out warnings, helicopters chopped overhead. Between April 16 and 19, Grand Forks issued four evacuation orders that eventually covered 90 percent of the city; even hospital patients and nursing home residents were moved to higher ground. All of East Grand Forks was evacuated. , Where did everyone go? Many evacuees took immediate shelter in a hangar at the Grand Forks Air Force Base. Some found refuge with family and friends, heading to 49 different states and several countries. And people across the region opened their hearts and homes, their schools and their churches, to the residents of the two communities. , In what became the largest evacuation of an American city since the Civil War, the greatest victory was that not a single life was lost.