Poor Midwest: When Snow Melts, Brace for Floods

Forecasters see bad things ahead in the spring
By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 18, 2011 5:15 PM CST
Poor Midwest: When Snow Melts, Brace for Floods
In this Feb. 2, 2011 photo, Jonathan Rangoonwala enters the snow cave he and his housemates built in their backyard in Minneapolis.   (AP Photo/Star Tribune, Jeff Wheeler)

The Midwest, pummeled by snow this winter, is expected to get a nasty follow-up in the spring: major flooding. Again. Weather experts say the winter has left a "thick snowpack in much of the upper Midwest," leading them to expect serious flooding when it melts, reports USA Today. The flooding could start mid-March in cities such as St. Louis, Sioux Falls, Fargo, and Minneapolis.

"We've always been able to win, we've always been able to fight it," says the sheriff in Fargo, which got hit hard by flooding last year. "We'll continue to fight it, but every spring brings out its own new set of rules to the game." (More flooding stories.)

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