With freezing water lapping at the top of levees, an army of flashlight-wielding flood patrols searched for leaks early Sunday as officials in Fargo, North Dakota reinforced defenses against a record-breaking flood.
Officials fear as many as 30,000 people could be left homeless in the northern plains if the mighty Red River breaks through levees protecting Fargo as well as Moorhead lying on the opposite bank in Minnesota.
The weary region was granted some relief Saturday as water level sank by several inches to 40.38 feet (13.2 meters), but city officials warned that the river was not done with them yet.
"With water this high we absolutely are in the watch and respond and plug mode," Fargo mayor Dennis Walaker said.
The Red River is putting enormous amounts of pressure on the city's 48 miles (77 kilometers) of protective dikes and levees and crews are struggling to reinforce weak spots and contain minor leaks, he told reporters.
That pressure is likely to continue for days, if not weeks, as the floods make their way slowly northward to Canada and are replenished with inflows from tributaries and overland flooding.
"We simply need to have people patrolling the streets, watching the dikes and calling us when they see something," Walaker said.
Thousands of people have already fled their homes as this flat prairie state remained blanketed with snow and flooded waterways which were closing in on isolated farms and smaller towns.
Water levels in some homes had reached the second floor while small dikes kept others dry in the middle of a deep, muddy lake.
Bitterly cold temperatures may have saved the city from a deluge by freezing some of the floodwater and preventing further melting, officials said.
But a potential blizzard forecast to dump four to eight inches (10 to 20 centimeters) of snow on the Red River Valley in the coming days may cause waves up to two feet (60 centimeters) due to high winds, the weather service warned.
And dangerous ice jams were forming.
Downtown Fargo was largely empty after the mayor asked non-essential businesses to close their doors and residents to stay off the roads to make room for rapid response teams.
Sandbagging efforts were set to resume Sunday morning at the Fargodome stadium where desperate volunteers have already filled more than 2.5 million bags used to build a series of dikes.
Earthen levees were also being reinforced and officials were considering using helicopters to lower enormous bags of sand into the floodwaters at key points.
Officials said the river at Fargo reached a high of 40.8 feet (12.4 meters) early Saturday — breaking the previous record of 40.1 feet (12.2 meters) in 1897 — and only inches below the top of Fargo's highest levees.
Curt Kesselring, who has lived through four of Fargo's floods and lost his home to two of them, was digging in for a long fight against the slow-moving water.
"I think we've crossed (the worst of) it but there can be plenty of things you can't predict," Kesselring said as he picked up better-fitting waders and a fresh pair of waterproof gloves at a local shop.
"You've got to keep an eye on the pumps, and you've got to be going out and checking the dikes all the time."
President Barack Obama vowed Saturday to do everything to help flood victims and praised the volunteers who "braved freezing temperatures, gusting winds, and falling snow to build levees along the river's banks."
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the federal government was ready to house and feed 30,000 people for up to a week.
City officials said they hoped the disaster would help them capture stimulus funds to build a permanent flood diversion system for the Fargo-Moorhead area which houses about 130,000 people.
While several smaller towns have been devastated, Fargo is the only major population center in serious risk.
Both Grand Forks, North Dakota and Winnipeg, Canada have flood diversion systems which should protect them from the forecasted crests.
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