Loading sandbags inside the Fargo Dome. Photo: Dennis Drenner/American Red Cross

Forklifts and extensive volunteer support are helping combat nearly catastrophic flooding in the Red River Valley.

Residents, businesses, hospitals, nursing homes and houses of worship in neighbouring towns Fargo, North Dakota and Moorhead, Minnesota have faced an onslaught of danger and, in many cases, mandatory evacuations.

Among others, forklift suppliers Herc-U-Lift Inc, F-M Forklift Sales & Service Inc, Rentall, United Rentals Inc, Forklifts of North Dakota and Tool Crib have sprung into action.

Herc-U-Lift provided equipment and talent.

"We have donated three (Ingersoll-Rand rough terrain) forklifts for sandbagging use, one (Ingersoll-Rand) tractor lift inside the Fargodome (indoor stadium) to move pallets around and two variable reach forklifts to carry sandbags to where people can take them to the walls," says Don Hamilton, rental manager for Maple Plains, Minnesota-based Herc-U-Lift. In addition, "we have a lot of rental business from the (West Fargo-based) Bobcat companies themselves".

Herc-U-Lift supplied more than 100 hours of volunteer labour, notes Craig Zimmerman, manager of the firm's Fargo store. "Two of our mechanics and one of our salesmen operated the equipment."

Early in the crisis, flood fighting organizers moved the sandbag filling operation inside the Fargodome because of slippery parking lot conditions that posed challenges to volunteers, according to Zimmerman.

Herc-U-Lift distributes equipment for the Genie, Haulotte, JLG, Komatsu, Load Lifter, Mitsubishi, Skyjack, Track Mobile and Tusk brands in five Upper Midwest states.

Fargo-based F-M Forklift Sales & Service has supplied Ingersoll-Rand-brand extend booms and other forklifts and hauled Bobcat-brand equipment to help the flood fighters.

"We have rented to the City of Fargo for its sandbag warehouse and to the Fargodome for the sandbag operation there," says Dan Trottier, service manager in the Fargo store. "They have built 3.5 million sandbags in the last week. Also, across the river, we had a couple (of forklifts) in Moorhead where they filled maybe 1 million bags."

F-M is also renting to private contractors and "good customers", Trottier notes.

Across North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Montana, F-M Forklift is a full-service Toyota dealer in six locations, a full-service Crown dealer in three locations and an operator of four satellite forklift service sites. Also, F-M Forklift serves portions of Minnesota and Wyoming.

Two Fargo locations of Rentall provided equipment.

A couple of Caterpillar extended reach forklifts are in use as needed, says Rick Schmidt, manager of the Fargo Rentall store on 32nd Street South, and "we are across the street from the (Innovis Health LLC) hospital, and we helped unloading equipment there" using forklift equipment.

The Fargo Rentall store on 25th Street South supplied a Butler forklift to load generators and help with relocation of the sandbags.

Fargo-based Rentall has other sites in Minnesota, Nebraska and North Dakota.

Another provider, United Rentals, has "rented forklifts for lifting sandbags up to the dikes," reports Jeremy Olson, inside sales representative with the firm's Fargo branch. As of 31 December, United Rentals had 628 rental locations in the US, Canada and Mexico.

The North Dakota division of Forklifts of Minnesota Inc supplied equipment.

"The City of Fargo is using a Clark forklift, and the Red Cross has one Nissan and two Doosan forklifts and two Clark pallet jacks," says Cheryl Thompson, dispatcher with the Forklifts of North Dakota division in West Fargo.

From another supplier, Tool Crib, "the city (of Fargo) is using three TCM forklifts for sandbag operations," says Jim Reichel, rental supervisor in the Fargo branch. Tool Crib is a business of Grand Forks, North Dakota-based Acme Electric Co.

The Red River climbed to a crest of 40.82 feet (12.2 m) early on 28 March and slowly began to recede. A major blizzard, however, arrived on 30 March and, eventually, could push waters over the 43 foot (12.9 m) dyke.