Herald contributor Monte Paulsen toured the burned-out downtown area late Sunday afternoon. Here's what he saw.

Clouds of steam rose lazily from the mounds of twisted metal and blackened brick lining Third and Fourth streets on Sunday afternoon as Grand Forks leaders struggled to figure out how their city will rise from the worst disaster it has ever faced.

The Grand Forks County Commission will meet today to begin sorting out how the county will do business in the coming weeks. The meeting is scheduled for 1 p.m. in the Larimore (N.D.) American Legion Hall.

Sorting through the rubble downtown will take a long time.

Small fires licked at the water's edge Sunday, finishing off what Saturday's inferno had left behind. Trees, benches, dumpsters and debris of all description surged through downtown, whisked along by currents of up to 25 miles an hour. Giant U.S. Army Reserve trucks and U.S. Coast Guard skiffs prowled the streets as Grand Forks firefighters battled the downtown blaze from pumper trucks hauled in atop massive military flatbeds.