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			Photo Album Pleasant Township, Cass County, ND, April 1997
			Watching pumps and filling sandbags to plug leaks in a dike is an essential 24-hour routine for a flood fighter. The bright glittering sunlight sparkling off the river during the day gave way to the black velvet darkness of night. The sound of gasoline pumps and generators chugging faithfully in the background was our constant companion day and night.     One of two marvelous young women from Moorhead State University who worked part-time jobs eight hours each day until midnight, and then drove 20 miles to stand watch on a dike all night in the bitter cold until sunrise. Their cheerful generosity and faithful, unwavering endurance throughout the long cold nights are forever engraved in my memory.                   The powerful, heavy strength of the flooding Red River in spring is awe inspiring in a different way than the lazy, muddy Red River of summer.     Fields that are dry during a normal year were flooded in April 1997 under two to four feet of icy cold water from the overflowing Red River.                     The frigid, strong current of the Red River flowed unimpeded over the fields and roads of our neighborhood.     Canada geese in the distance walked on sheets of ice and honked their welcome to the new spring.
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