You Know You're From North Dakota When...

...you identify painfully with news of a history-making flood. I'm from the Fargo area that's been in the news so much the past few days, and still have family--including ones with horses--taking a stand against Mother Nature.

It's a war-zone kind of scenario, made worse by an unrelenting series of late-winter storms and freezing temperatures. Not the best of weather to be out passing sandbags down a line of human hands.

My sister-in-law, whose horse operation sits between two tributaries of the Red River, sent this photo yesterday of an ice-busting Blackhawk helicopter  as it went over her family's house.

When you're not from that area, it can be hard to grasp why animals, in particular, are vulnerable to flooding. You can't just move them to higher ground--there IS no higher ground. The Red River Valley of the north is one of the flattest places on earth, where water escaping a channel flows outward, uninterrupted, for many miles.

Here's an update on what's being done and where area flood victims can get assistance for displaced animals.