The Flood of 1997, which smashed into eastern Grand Forks Friday and Saturday, oozed its way onto the UND campus Sunday, setting off a flurry of activity to save precious documents and other valuables.

The English Coulee, a source of much of the damage from the 1979 flood, continued its slow rise as flood waters from the Red River backed into the coulee channel. As it rose, it topped hastily constructed dikes and crept up the streets leading to campus from the north.

Water flowed over the sandbag dike protecting Smith Hall, flooding the lower floor of the dormitory and food service building. UND President Kendall Baker said the flooding couldn't be prevented; fortunately, most of the equipment had already been moved to upper floors.

The only place where university officials continued to battle the water, rather than simply working to lessen the damage, was outside Wilkerson Hall, a food service and office complex. At that site, the city donated a powerful pump to bring water back over a sandbag dike.

At midmorning Sunday, Baker called available university administrators and began to plan for an emergency rescue operation.

A cry for help

The president's wife, Toby Baker, went on the radio about 9:30 a.m., with an appeal to university faculty, staff and students to help with the effort. Within minutes, people began coming in the door of the university's Plant Services building. By the end of the day, nearly 200 people had responded to the call and were bused to various sites on campus.

Many of those who turned out to help had spent much of the past two weeks slogging sandbags, and now were carrying books, records and other valuables from ground-level floors and basements to safety on upper floors.

In addition to pure muscle power, the university sought to bring in people who could make intelligent decisions about the items in each location.

These included the basement of Chester Fritz Library, the lower floors of the Law School, the Student Health Service on the first floor of O'Kelly Hall (student health records), the basement of Oxford House (alumni records), the Medical School and the lower floor of Merrifield Hall (North Dakota Quarterly).

Let's do it again?

The volunteer mobilization shut down about 5 p.m. University spokesman Peter Johnson said a decision will be made this morning on whether a similar effort will be necessary today. The university devised a schedule to keep staff members on campus 24 hours a day for at least the next five to seven days.

Kendall Baker said he was gratified and encouraged by the response. He was visibly stressed about 10 a.m. Sunday, while the plans were still being pulled together. By midafternoon, he was back to his usual cheerful self, praising volunteers, and even taking time to grab a bite to eat. "I was a little worried this morning," he said at 3 p.m. "I feel a little better now."