Minot, ND flood scenes and traffic jams (the historic 2011 flood)

This is a montage of scenes recorded on June 27, 2011 of the historic flooding in Minot, ND. From severe traffic jams to the actual flooding itself, pretty much everything is covered. The video, in a way, covers a typical trip from someone on the north end of town. Due to city design, most of the much-needed businesses are on the south end of town (Wal-mart, most restaurants, grocery stores, etc.) with almost nothing in the north half. Minot has been building to the south for years and almost never building to the north. This design causes a lot of trouble for residents in the northern parts of town because they have to get across the river in order to get to these necessities. With the main road through Minot closed so city infrastructure can be protected, the bypass is thus the only way to get to the south end of town.

Before the flooding, traffic on this road is usually very light so a 2-laned road makes sense. Normally, I see maybe around 10 cars on the normally 9-minute journey along this road. Going south took a massive 80 minutes. Due to the flooding and the city layout, the southbound lane is horribly jammed with traffic literally backed up for miles. It's also slow-moving due to many roads converging onto the bypass (such as the one leading from Burlington, of which is also flooded). You can also run faster than the traffic flows and at times, even walking is faster.

As a side note, I tried posting this on Ireport, but the upload is not working despite 3 attempts and reducing the file size.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• vlog
• Minot
• North
• Dakota
• Mouse
• River
• historic
• record
• flooding
• disaster
• June
• July
• 2011

[shizeninho]

North Dakota looks like a very beautiful place.

[ulillillia]

With the beauty comes... almost nothing.  There's very little around here.

[heyjamesworks]

Hey Ulillillia, two questions:

• Exactly how many miles would you estimate that initial traffic back-up was in your video?

• Have you ever revealed your real first name? I can't say I remember ever seeing it on your site. Infinitely curious!

[ulillillia]

The traffic was backed up for a good 4 miles or so. Look at a map and note the junction where the 83 bypass joins up with another road that leads west and east. Note the junction at the north end of town. This span is how far the traffic was backed up. I'm estimating it's 4 miles.

[SnowflakePillow]

Ulillillia > contemporary journalism.

[ulillillia]

Carnivalesta is at too high of an elevation for flooding. Ronnisa Plains is the closest you'll get to that and that's far into the distance. Ever wonder why the Keveran River is 14,400 feet wide, a rather high width? It's swollen from all the rain.

[LatestUFOSightings]

What color is the grass there Uli?

[wildblur]

Just saw this video again. Did you hear that ND hasn't been a state for several years now? A historian just discovered this.

[Shugo489]

@ulillillia In your April 31, 2011 blog, you detail a documentary group contacting you.

"#5 A documentary about me!? Wow!: During the summer of 2011, a film crew (sorry, the name of the company that's doing this is classified) might be coming to make a documentary about me. Details are vague at the moment, but this is definitely a first for me. It all happened by chance too. One day, I was doing my daily check as usual and, out of nowhere, I got this E-mail and it started from that."

[ulillillia]

That is not something I can do, even if I was legally allowed to drive.

[JonLeibow]

@HyperHamster I suppose if anyone could drive while recording out of both driver- and passenger-side windows in the back seat row, it would be Ulillillia