VALLEY CITY, N.D. — The mayor of a flood-threatened North Dakota town asked 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,” said Mayor Mary Lee Nielson. “When it collapsed, the river came in, and it overloaded the sewer system.”
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.
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.
At the Barnes County Historical Society, curator Wes Anderson scrambled to plug toilets and control the damage.
“I heard this gurgle, gurgle, gurgle in the upstairs sink, and I thought, ‘This isn’t good,’ ” Anderson said. “Then I heard something in the downstairs sink, and I thought, ‘This is worse.’ “
