Image
© Associated PressFlooding Over Midwest.
Excessive snow in the northern Great Plains and Midwest may spur floods that rival the record- setting deluge of 2009, threatening U.S. wheat crops and livestock as cities in the region stockpile sandbags.

Since October, North Dakota, the largest wheat-growing state, South Dakota and Minnesota got almost 3 feet more snow than usual, National Weather Service data show. According to Bloomberg News, more than 20 inches remain in some areas, about the same amount that was on the ground at this time in 2009, before floods along the Red River of the North caused about $223.7 million in damage and killed more than 91,000 cattle.

Planting delays may curb wheat output for a third year in the U.S., the world's largest exporter. Global inventories of the grain already were eroded by floods last year in Australia and Canada and a drought in Russia that sent wheat prices to two-year high last month. World food prices tracked by the United Nations reached a record in February.

"There is strong interest in wheat" from traders because of the potential threat to U.S. production, said Jim Peterson, the marketing director of the Bismarck-based North Dakota Wheat Commission, an industry group. If floods delay the start of spring planting until late April, "you'll start seeing the market get quite concerned," he said.

Frozen soil can't absorb water if snow melts too rapidly, and most ground in the three-state region is saturated after wetter-than-normal weather since September. Areas around the Red River, which flows north to Canada and forms the border between North Dakota and Minnesota, may get the equivalent of 0.25 inch of rain this weekend, said Bill Barrett, a weather service meteorologist in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

"We expect in the next 10 days we will be deploying sandbags" to prevent the overflow of the Red River, said Michael Redlinger, the city manager of Moorhead, Minnesota, which is spending as much as $200,000 on temporary flood barriers. "It is definitely getting closer now."

Almost half the U.S. has an above-average risk of flooding through April, with areas of North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota among the regions with the highest threat, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said today. Eastern South Dakota may experience "moderate to major flooding" next week as rising temperatures melt snow, the government agency said. Fargo Flood

In 2009, the Red River swelled beyond flood stage in Fargo, North Dakota's largest city, for a record 61 days. That caused $184.7 million of damage on the North Dakota side of the river, according the state's Department of Emergency Services. Minnesota's Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management estimated losses in the state at $39 million.

This year, current snow conditions in many areas "certainly rival or even exceed" levels from 2009, said Steve Buan, a service coordination hydrologist with the North Central River Forecast Center in Chanhassen, Minnesota.