Forum Editorial Staff Admits to Being Dumb as a Plank

The pro-dam and diversion ilk did everything they could to treat March 28th as some sort of bizarre local holiday.

Local media played their part as drum and fife as they tried to gin up some crumb of newsy memory akin to a bad parent reminding children that there might be monsters under their bed and a boogeyman on the loose in the backyard.

It seemed as though they were desperately searching for some galvanizing angle to have their viewers and readers stand up and demand the $2+ billion dollar boondoggle as being justified.

However, the Forum editorial staff offered up a special kind of stupid trite that ends up being self-incriminating.

Here is the editorial with commentary:

 

So we don’t call Fargo’s 2013 big show for state legislators – “foolishness”, but we rejoice that we didn’t need to address a known weak link in Fargo’s internal flood protection because Fargo has chosen for years to do nothing about 2nd street?

One can only imagine Walaker and his minions pouting that they could not have school closings and busloads of free labor to push their political dam and diversion agenda onto a free labor pool just trying to faithfully do their civic duty.

 

Focus on the key word “feared”. If you hype a crisis into public fear you can control them through ignorance. Pretty crafty to cover up the millions spent in the 2013 “non-flood” event, wherein, the lofty sandbag goal was to match the embellished flood prediction which fell several feet short and nearly 1.4 million sandbags long, as though it were a miracle.

I do agree, it was nice to not have Fargo crying wolf over this years repeated non-event.

 

That’s right. To truly keep the charade alive you need to be committed.

 

…and yet Fargo could not rally enough sand-baggers locally, so they sent their message all the way to the Twin Cities to steal headlines and find volunteers.

It is a good thing that the sandbags were not needed, however, equally un-necessary is the stress and the hype used to compel volunteers to build for a flood that was not coming. The non-flood of 2013 was purely for show, to garner sympathy from Bismarck and to ring up funding for the proposed Fargo Dam and FM Diversion.

 

This is were it gets good. The Forum editors get preachy about permanent flood control, yet fail to showcase the importance of completing internal protections for the city that currently exists.

However, the best part is where the Fargo editorial staff uses broad strokes to assail anyone not aligned with “their version” of “remedies” or “realities” to be as “dumb as a plank”. And that is precisely where the Fargo Forum editorial staff admits, in their own words, they are a “dumb as a plank”.

 

To those Forum editorial staff that are as “dumb as a plank”, we’ll dumb it down for you.

The most obvious and easily understood remedy would be to not build in the flood plain.

Grand Forks/East Grand Forks didn’t attempt to built a 12.5+ mile wide dam to address the 460 percent greater water flow caused by multiple rivers and tributaries upstream of the cities. They built internal flood walls and removed restrictions opening up the waterway. They also didn’t concoct a plan to ring-dike three communities to allow the creation of a man-made lake to form around the homes with no guarantee of when the water would be allow to subside, in addition to denying property owners the legal right to vote on whether they want to stay or take a buyout.

Oxbow, Hickson and Bakke are not flood prone.

Bakke and Hickson have never flooded from the Red or Wild Rice rivers. The 2009 flood would have needed to be approximately twice as large to reach only 2 percent of the homes.

Oxbows, 2010-2011 construction of permanent ring-dike protection along with a few as-needed temporary measures has the community well protected. Properties in harms way have been removed and those perched on the river bank enjoy the benefit of their location.

Fargo is fighting floods because they choose to build where it naturally floods.

That is an elevation thing, affected by the hydrology thing, because of that irresponsible encroachment thing, into the natural flood plain thing.

Fargo is raising the flood threat because it has an insatiable desire to expand and has leaders allowing to happen in flood prone areas. Expansion isn’t bad unless it’s done irresponsibly. When Fargo crossed the I-94 corridor every acre foot of water displaced has corresponded to higher crests. Development of the Rose Creek area impacted a vital flood plain buffer, accelerated flood issues and has never been addressed or offset.

So blather on about your self-indulgent proclamations of honed science.

Better yet, delve into your journalistic integrity and locate the document(s), study(s) and decision makers that chose to ignore flood plain development impacts and how that water displacement is causing the higher floods of today.

Why not tell the truth about FEMA re-mapping relating to NFIP (National Flood Insurance Program) with newly expanding city borders and how flood plain reduction raised the 100 year flood plain causing many home owners to shoulder “never before” flood insurance premiums.

…and by the way, as for levees only being able to built so high…

Good enough for Oxbow, Hickson and Bakke…, but not for Fargo?

To the anonymous cowards, hurling insults from the safety of Forum Editorial staff anonymity…

Thank You for admitting, by your actions and lack of integrity, to being as “dumb as a plank”.

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