BURLINGTON, N.D. | The Des Lacs River in northwestern North Dakota began a slow drop on Thursday, but authorities continued to monitor a weak and leaky dam protecting a neighborhood of about 30 homes.
Water levels had fallen more than a foot, and the river had retreated from overflowed banks by about 3 feet compared with a day earlier, state and local officials said. Water behind the troubled Burlington Dam No. 1 was down by about a half-foot, said Todd Sando, North Dakota’s state engineer.
“The good news is the dam is still there and it’s holding steady,” Mr. Sando said Thursday afternoon.
Flooding fears eased elsewhere in North Dakota. A 30-mile stretch of Interstate 29 reopened north of Fargo after overland flooding cleared. To Fargo’s west, officials said, Valley City appeared poised to escape flooding from the Sheyenne River after raising its levees.
In Burlington, the strength of the 77-year-old dam has been suspect for decades, but this year’s flooding has spurred a need to either repair the dam or intentionally breach it by next spring, Mr. Sando said. “We’re not going to leave it the way it is,” he said.
The dam was built in the 1930s for irrigation and to provide water to homesteaders. Officials said the reservoir behind it no longer serves either purpose. Mr. Sando said draining the reservoir through a planned breach would relieve the pressure, but areas nearby might still be susceptible in flood years.
For now, authorities are watching the ailing structure with remote video cameras. They fear that any attempt to shore up the dam — or even walk across it — could cause it to collapse.
Fire Chief Karter Lesmann said authorities went door to door to about 30 homes on Wednesday night to warn residents that the dirt-and-rock dam could wash out. About one-fourth of the 200 people in immediate danger left, he said.
“We told them all to leave last night,” Chief Lesmann said Thursday. “We’re not going to tell them again.”
About 1,200 people live in Burlington, about eight miles northwest of Minot. Those in most immediate danger are on the west edge of town.
Warnings would be issued by a reverse 911 telephone system if the dam fails, Chief Lesmann said.
Mr. Sando said any breach in the dam would be slowed by an adjacent railroad bridge before water would hit homes. He said no homes would be in danger of being swept away from the current.
An expected 3-foot wall of water would decrease to a foot high about a mile downstream, he said. The affected homes were well within a mile of the dam.
Jennifer Olonia and her husband, Matt, have remained at their home to try to save it from the bloated river, which has made its way into their basement. They worried about not being able to hear emergency telephone calls at their home because of noise from vacuum cleaners and sump pumps that are being used to suck water from their home.
“We’re doing what we got to do,” Jennifer Olonia said, filling a 10-gallon vacuum tub every minute or so Thursday. “It’s sludge, mud and yuck and more sludge, mud and yuck. It’s a mess.”
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