The Cleanup
On March 28th 2009 the Red River flood waters began to recede and so the massive cleanup began. Coordinating the cleanup efforts turned out to be just as big of an undertaking as placing all on the dikes in the first place for Mayor Walaker. With over 52 miles of dikes protecting the city cleanup efforts understandably took some time. The National Guard stayed around to help speed up this effort. Slowly the closed avenues and street began to open as dikes came down and the city started to return to normal. Volunteers were still needed and though the response was not as great as the sandbagging efforts, more than enough citizens lent a hand.
With all of the people helping place sandbags private property was bound to take some damage. Fargo city officials, including the Mayor, decided to set up programs to help private property owners reverse the damage that may have been done. According to the City of Fargo website "eligible costs [to be covered] may include vegetation or tree replacement, irrigation system repairs, damaged concrete or paver blocks and other incidentals related to sandbag placement." Another program that was set in place was the Flood Protection Incentive Program. This program will help property owners cover the costs of building a flood wall on their property up to $10,000 or 75% of the total cost of the construction. With all of the help that citizens were offered during the cleanup the sting of the flood was greatly reduced and life was able to return to normal much quicker.
Throughout the flood fighting efforts and the resulting cleanup that followed Mayor Walaker held a positive attitude and was an inspirational leader to all of the Fargo residents. Many residents held high praise for the Mayor, and the overall feeling was that he was the only man that could have gotten us through the worst flood in Fargo history.
With all of the people helping place sandbags private property was bound to take some damage. Fargo city officials, including the Mayor, decided to set up programs to help private property owners reverse the damage that may have been done. According to the City of Fargo website "eligible costs [to be covered] may include vegetation or tree replacement, irrigation system repairs, damaged concrete or paver blocks and other incidentals related to sandbag placement." Another program that was set in place was the Flood Protection Incentive Program. This program will help property owners cover the costs of building a flood wall on their property up to $10,000 or 75% of the total cost of the construction. With all of the help that citizens were offered during the cleanup the sting of the flood was greatly reduced and life was able to return to normal much quicker.
Throughout the flood fighting efforts and the resulting cleanup that followed Mayor Walaker held a positive attitude and was an inspirational leader to all of the Fargo residents. Many residents held high praise for the Mayor, and the overall feeling was that he was the only man that could have gotten us through the worst flood in Fargo history.
