by John Stevens
March 5, 2010 10:26 AM
The city of Fargo, North Dakota, ran into a snag this week in its effort to fill and store one million sandbags to prepare for the likely flooding of the Red River this spring. In a city warehouse, workers were attempting to stack more than 5,000 sandbags when the floor of the building collapsed under the sandbags' weight. No one was hurt, but as the sandbags plummeted into the basement, they broke a gas line. According to Assistant Fire Chief Larry Schuh (quoted in Tuesday's article_1880b9c0-2618-11df-9820-001cc4c002e0.html">Bismarck Tribune and InForum), firefighting crews had to vent the building for 45 minutes before they could enter safely. Meanwhile, police diverted traffic for four city blocks around the warehouse, fearing that the escaping gas might cause an explosion.
The building in which the floor collapsed was not a commercial storage facility. It was an abandoned building being leased by the city and was previously occupied by Sugar Sand Marine, a boat manufacturer. The building was built in 1956 and was the only storage space used by the city in which sandbags were being stored on a floor that stood above another level. In other facilities where the city is leasing storage space, sandbags are being stored at ground level in buildings that do not have basements. Currently, Fargo has leased enough space for 1.6 million sandbags, but it is negotiating with two other facilities in order to line up more space, according to Terry Ludlum, Fargo's solid waste utility manager (who was quoted in Tuesday's Worthington Daily Globe).
After the floor collapse at the old Sugar Sand Marine building, the city quickly arranged for an extra 20,000 square feet of heated storage space at one of the facilities where it is leasing storage. Unfortunately, it was not immediately clear whether the sandbags that were involved in the collapse would be salvageable, as some of them were torn. In addition, no sandbags could be removed from the building until a temporary support beam was constructed to prevent one of the walls from collapsing.
About one seventh of the sandbags filled in Fargo on the first day of its sandbag filling effort were involved in the collapse. The sandbags had filled two semi-trucks. Schuh estimated that they weighed about 125 tons.