Three National Guard soldiers crouch below a Chinook helicopter attaching 1-ton sandbags to a sling. The eight-bag slingload was destined for Claussen Springs, where dam erosion threatened the community of Kathryn. (Photo credit/Steve Collins) 

By Steve Browne/VCTR
& The Associated Press

Members of the National Guard used night-vision goggles and a Blackhawk helicopter to shore up a dam early Thursday as water from a tributary of the swollen Sheyenne River began eroding it — threatening the small town of Kathryn.
Officials said on Wednesday that the Clausen Springs Dam would flood the town of Kathryn if it broke, so the town's 55 residents were evacuated and Guardsmen went to work to strengthen the dam and try to change the flow of water against it. They used helicopters to lower 1-ton sandbags into trouble areas.
But overnight, water started seeping in around the edges of those sandbags. At about 3 a.m. Thursday, a quick reaction force of the National Guard was called in to help, said Lt. Col. Rick Smith, a Guard spokesman.
The Guardsmen donned night-vision goggles and used a Blackhawk helicopter to lower more 1-ton sandbags at the site of the leakage. Smith said they planned to continue placing more sandbags there during the day Thursday.
"They are just putting reinforcements there to stop that leakage," he said.
Overflowing lake water ran across the grass spillway, eroding the training dike running at a right angle to the  earthen dam from the spillway, said Barnes County Commission Chairman Rodger Berntson. When discovered, the flowing water was eroding the side of the dike at an estimated rate of half a foot per minute.
National Guard Lt. Sandi Wade said Blackhawk and Chinook helicopters placed more than 20 one-ton sandbags in the stream on Wednesday. The bags were
placed to divert the force of the flowing water away from the dike towards the opposite bank, in an attempt to stop further erosion of the dam.
On Wednesday, residents fled to relatives' homes or the Red Cross shelter at Maple Valley Elementary School in Oriska after officials went door to door telling them to get out. The Guard has about 35 soldiers in Kathryn, Smith said.
Fire Chief Paul Fisher was on Kathryn's Main Street Wednesday, using a two-way radio to monitor the flow of three culverts outside town. If they were to break, he said, "I'll make one more sweep through town and get out of here."
Although the erosion was slowed by the actions of the Barnes County Highway Department, National Guard, and Army Corps of Engineers, by Thursday morning the situation had still not been stabilized.
Kathryn is about 17 miles south of Valley City. The Clausen Springs Dam is on a tributary of the Sheyenne River.
City of Bridges swamped
In Valley City, the Guard continued to patrol the dikes and watch for breaches on Thursday.
"Valley City is definitely not out of the woods," Smith said. The elderly, disabled and people living in low-lying areas had been urged to evacuate by 6 p.m. Wednesday to make sure emergency routes were kept open. Mayor Mary Lee Nielson said that would affect about 1,450 homes — "not quite half the city" of nearly 7,000 people.
Nielson said she knows some people will stay in their homes but she hopes they will choose to leave.
"I told people in a nice way, 'If you don't have a reason to be here, to flush a toilet, leave,'" she said.
Fran Aune and her stepdaughter, Deb Wacha, were moving Aune's belongings out of her duplex Wednesday. Aune and her husband, Andrew, planned to set up a camper on a higher part of Valley City and wait out the floodwaters.
"It's scary," she said. "We've been praying a lot."
Although the news from the Baldhill Dam is good, Valley City officials stress the flood threat is not over and warn against the danger of complacency.
“This water is going to run at a high flow for two weeks,” Valley City Police Chief Dean Ross said. “We still have to be on our guard.”
Ross said traffic in Valley City was still a problem and urged people who don’t need to be about to stay at home.
The river  is currently at 20.6 feet, more than half a foot above the record level set in 1882, according to Rich Schueneman, resource director of Baldhill Dam.
Schueneman announced on Thursday morning the outflow from the dam would be maintained at 6,500 cubic feet per second through Friday and perhaps longer. The original plan was to raise output to 7,000 c.f.s. on Friday.
The decision not to raise the outflow was made after the National Weather Service lowered their estimate of the amount of water contained in the snowpack in the upper Sheyenne Valley watershed,  according to Schueneman.
Valley City Public Works Supt. Jeff Differding said the need to minimize water usage is still urgent. The sanitary system is operating at maximum capacity. Any water used by a household, and any flood water that flows into a basement drain, winds up in the sanitary system.
The Sheyenne empties into the Red River, which is expected to reach a second flood crest of its own near Fargo this week. The Red crested at Fargo and neighboring Moorhead, Minn., late last month just short of 41 feet, after volunteers filled thousands of sandbags to raise levees above that mark. Projections of the river's second crest have been lowered to around 35.5 feet to 36 feet.
Roads across North Dakota were flooded and travelers were warned regularly about delays or detours due to high water. Amtrak has suspended service between Minot and St. Paul, Minn., because of track flooding east of Minot.

Valley City Times-Record reporter Steve Browne contributed to this report.