ND River Rises to Historic Heights

North Dakota’s rising Souris River made history Sunday, rising four feet above the 1881 record. The waters peaked at 1,561.7 feet above sea level, but are expected to drop two feet by midweek. The flood has destroyed 4,000 homes and forced the evacuation of 10,000 to 12,000 residents in the city of Minot. Although things are improving, there will be a long road to recovery. "The average flow in the river is around 100 cubic feet per second," said Jeff DeZellar, spokesman for the St. Paul District of the Army Corps of Engineers. "That's almost no water, so it's going to take a long, long time to get back to normal in terms of river flows, and the recovery obviously is going to be months, for sure.''