The Associated Press
 AP Photo,Jim Mone Volunteers use a ladder and other items to fill sandbags. |
MOORHEAD, Minn. — A low-lying township along the Red River in Minnesota is in a desperate fight to save 500 of its 550 homes.
Oakport Township Chairman Greg Anderson says he knows of a few homes that have already flooded. About 50 homes in the township north of Moorhead are thought to be safe.
Anderson says they need more volunteers, but that by the end of the day the rising water will leave few areas where it’s possible to sandbag.
Oakport Township’s problem is that it lies along a former channel of the Red River that’s normally dry. According to researchers at North Dakota State University, the Red changed course and abandoned the channel as recently as a few hundred years ago.