YEAR AGO: Minot Will Flood - KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

YEAR AGO: Minot Will Flood

One year ago today, the world changed for thousands of people living along the Mouse River in North Dakota.
It was on this day - June 20th, 2011 - that we first reported at mid-morning, and officials confirmed in afternoon press conferences, that we would soon be seeing too much water for the city of Minot's emergency levees to handle.
Here's how our report began that night, one year ago today.

It is not a question of 'if' anymore...Minot will flood.  It will be displace thousands, shut down the heart of the city for weeks, and inundate thousands of homes in a way never seen before.
"We could have a really catastrophic type of event here.  We will -- there is no doubt about it anymore.

With that, an estimated 12,000 people in and near Minot were on notice - the Mouse River flood of 2011 would become a reality within days.
For some, it meant June 20th, 2011 brought an end to days and weeks of fighting to hold back the rising water.

(Carson Schepp / Evacuating) "We started out with the day with the plans of sandbagging and building up the dike system, but everyone kind of gave up. Everyone's just moving out now."

The press conference announcing the mandatory evacuations was held at 4pm that day a year ago.
But at KX News, we had confirmed the high flow information by 9:30am, and began non-stop news broadcasting at 9:45 on that Monday morning.
It was round-the-clock news coverage that lasted 171 hours - right through the following Monday.

We'll continue our look at the flood, one year later, as this week continues.