Flood Mitigation in Minot—When the Personal and Professional Overlap
By Donna Bye, Houston Engineering, Inc. / Western Planner Board - North Dakota
As a professional planner, I never anticipated that my work would make a direct impact on my hometown—let alone on my home. Yet, when the Souris River swelled in 2011, quite a few things were out of the ordinary.
History: North Dakota and Me
Like many cities in the west with a river running through it, Minot and the Souris (or Mouse) River share a long and winding history. The river has supported the city for generations, but it also has caused its share of trouble. Before North Dakota was a state, 1882 saw the banks of the Souris River overflow. Again in 1904, a massive flood happened—the largest on record—spilling an imposing 12,000 cu ft per second of water and flooding the then only twelve-year-old city. Another major flood hit the city in 1969 followed by a string of flooding during most of the following decade. Contrary to what some may think, 100-year floods don't happen every 100 years—they can happen multiple times in a 100-year period. A 100-year flood indicates that there is a 1/100 chance of a flood of a certain magnitude each year. Such was the case yet again in 2011.
At the time, I lived and worked in Minot as the sole member of their planning department. The winter before was quite unusual with over 100 inches of snow and spring just could not get jump started on the melt until much later than usual. Our normal spring rains were held off in North Dakota, but they weren’t holding off in Montana and Canada so for many areas in those tributaries, saturation was a pressing concern.
I was educated in the art of sandbagging at North Dakota State University in 1997 when the Red River, flowing north into Canada, became a lake across the eastern border between North Dakota and Minnesota. At that time, many professors offered credit and grades for volunteers that would help save their properties. Groups of local citizens participated in the effort to save the City of Fargo, but the City of Grand Forks and many small towns along the river to the north were not so fortunate.
Sandbagging is a skill that’s hard to forget—like riding a bike after a long hiatus—except I wanted to run away from the bike instead of getting on it. The 2011 Memorial Day weekend forced me to remember with a shovel in my hand around Father’s Day. Notwithstanding the lessons learned in college, Minot failed the final exam as the course of the Souris could not be diverted. It was quite a let down to know that all the back breaking work would be a loss for more than just a few homes: close to 12,000 people evacuated and over 4,000 structures damaged by the flood. This equated to a 25% housing loss to our community and a heartbreaking realization to all those affected.
North Dakota often exists in a state of partial isolation. Trends around the nation and the world don’t often affect the lives of those living in our region. Our state of around 700,000 citizens is unique for its wide-open spaces and not-so-fast pace of life. We are strong, smart, resilient people that have grown to appreciate the simple things in life yet still enjoy the amenities of larger metropolitan areas.
It's not a bad thing to sometimes be isolated and apart from the rest of the world. For example, when most of the country was struggling economically during the economic recession of 2009, North Dakota was experiencing growth and prosperity. The oil and energy sector played their vital role, but part of it was isolation from the national equations which had unbalanced the country’s economy. People were finally looking at North Dakota for opportunities that they could no longer obtain in their hometowns. At that time, I was cautiously optimistic; I had lived through a bust in the 1980s that forced my family to relocate within North Dakota and knew the struggles of economic disruption. These small life lessons resonated with me and probably guided me in the career path I chose. I knew what was left over from the last bust in my hometown of Williston, ND. I carried that loss forward and promised I would not let my current hometown of Minot become such a barren wasteland of abandoned buildings, overgrown weeds, and gravel parking lots along major thoroughfares for people to pass by with a sigh of disappointment.
Planning at the Helm – Disaster Relief
In 2011, my family and I lived in our first home—a little ranch house in Minot we had worked hard to renovate. The rear property line of that home was the Souris River. As a graduate from a landscape architecture program, I took an interest in being connected to nature, especially the water. While I had taken a course in sandbagging, disaster planning was not a focus of my days at college nor was it a specialty that I looked for during my career. However, as the City Planner for Minot that year, the Mouse River roared like a lion and gave me the toughest education I could have imagined. That spring, my simple life started to change.
Soil conditions in the river valley were well drained and were excellent for farming, producing the best plant species imaginable. Early that spring, however, everyone started having trouble with water in their basements. Piles of flooring started to appear on curbsides ready for the garbage truck to deliver them to the landfill. It was a heavy winter, with record breaking snows, a really slow melt, and significant rain in the watershed. This well drained soil had nowhere to store any more water.
By the end of May, water levels started to look concerning; by Father's Day in June the devil was at the doorstep. Population and economic growth were booming and people were lined up to develop around the city eager to invest in our growth. At the same time, we at the city were anxious about letting those permits and construction happen because we feared the worst.
The Minot community is divided by the river. There is a north hill and a south hill and a river valley in between. That spring, the growth was occurring on the hills while the flooding and suffering was occurring along the river. We were helpless as we watched the water overtake our little ranch we’d worked so hard to renovate. My home was flooded but the community needed me. I was divided on taking care of my own property and helping 12,000+ others figure out what to do in this time of need. It was one of the difficult tensions we who work as civil servants are required to make.
Never Let a Good Disaster Go to Waste
My community needed me—it was a difficult path. We tried to address the needs of displaced residents and developers trying to continue development. We needed those jobs to prevent a worse economic catastrophe, but it was a constant juggling act. Several federal agencies had provided funding for rebuilding the infrastructure, but the residents were feeling detached from the process.
Our goal for the resilience and recovery was to reframe the residents’ relationship with the river—enjoying it instead of fearing it. Before the flood, there were blighted areas of industrial and less-compatible commercial uses in and around the downtown. We wanted them to relocate outside the downtown core, to avoid conflicts with land uses. We took advantage of a tough situation to both engage deeply with the public and repurpose parts of our core. We carefully journeyed through two years of research and community engagement, forming neighborhood groups to communicate and develop support for the changes the community wanted to see in the core. We used an EPA Brownfield Area-Wide Planning Grant to fund the planning and strategies around their vision for multiple sites downtown. The whole initiative became a therapy session for traumatized residents who felt like the City was finally listening to them. The subsequent planning efforts produced a brownfields redevelopment framework which helped us earn a $74 million grant from HUD for the redevelopment 1.
Although Minot did not anticipate the flooding, they responded in many ways. One way was by approaching Houston Engineering, Inc. (HEI) for help with shoring up their defenses to protect against the next event. HEI provides comprehensive support before, during and after flood events: from flood protection inventories and emergency action plans to call center support, damage assessment surveys, and complete infrastructure solutions. A detailed and extensive model determined the boundaries and effects beyond a 100-year flood event. HEI began design on new concrete floodwalls, earthen levees, tie-back levees, and closure structures. These infrastructure elements tied into flood protection systems throughout the region. HEI also completed designs to modify the storm sewer, roadway, a new pump station, and relocation of various utilities. They were a true supporting partner during the effort.
The planning department responded by reviewing and revising ordinances that looked into the future and protecting properties that were affected by the flood. Communities who shared our experiences reached out and offered advice on revisions to local regulations and the public was encouraged to weigh in. Alternative lot sizes and setbacks were considered in hopes that land prices could offset the need for some to relocate.
The community is different almost 9 years later. It is still a city full of emotions that include, anxiety, anger, and grief. Some residents experience it on a daily basis and are still struggling to recover in some way whether it's financially or mentally. The citizens are at times divided and the leadership struggles to find a path moving the masses forward.
There are still areas in our community that call out “Hey, I was part of the flood of 2011” and there are other locations that are completely renovated and you can smile at what they’ve become.
After my experience working with HEI, a few years after the flood I joined the engineering firm that helped Minot recover. I now have completed my third year of employment at HEI and realize that the lessons I’ve learned and the education I now can share cannot be matched by any program or training available. I am not defined as a recovering City Planner, but a resilient Community Planner being able to use the tools handed to me in this amazingly unique situation to spread the knowledge to other communities and non-profit groups. It’s a new lens on a different pedestal making sure the communities in North Dakota are ready for just about anything.
1 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Brownfields: Success Story. https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2019-06/documents/after_the_floor_redevelopment_booms.pdf EPA-560-F-19-013. June 2019.
Donna Bye served as City Planner for the City of Minot, ND, for over 15 years before joining Houston Engineering, Inc. in 2017 in her current role as a planner. Her past work in disaster relief and community planning resulted in funding and grant awards totaling in millions of dollars. Donna also held a unique role with the City of Minot, as she was the first individual to hold the title of Chief Resilience Officer, helping entities better understand how their actions affected their communities. She was part of the efforts that won the city $74.3 million dollars in the National Disaster Resilience competition. Her degrees in landscape architecture and environmental design provide her with a unique perspective on community and garden projects. She currently holds seats on the International Peace Garden Board, the North Dakota Planners Association, and the Western Planner Board, as well as the State of North Dakota’s Beneficial Use Recycling Group. She is married to her high school sweetheart, has two children and one dog, and enjoys, biking, golfing, snowshoeing and gardening.