KINDRED, N.D. — The North Dakota National Guard has been responding to the calls for
assistance since the flood fight began. They continue their efforts, extending a helping hand to
communities across the state.
One place they were needed was the community of Kindred and the surrounding area. Kindred has
an Emergency Operations Center set up in the city garage and as calls come in from rural
areas that need help, the coordination begins with the Guard to dispatch members from the 850th
Engineer Battalion, Minnesota Army National Guard. The 850th Guardsmen have been providing
transportation in the form of Light Medium Transport Vehicles to sandbag volunteers who
can't access farmsteads surrounded by water in any other way. The unit will return to Minnesota
tomorrow, but North Dakota Guardsmen will continue to support the community.
Guard members are also delivering sandbags in dump trucks to the rural farmsteads that are
surrounded by water and often cut off from civilian vehicle access by flooded roadways. There are
some roads that the Army heavy equipment could drive on Monday, but now these same routes can
no longer be accessed because of rising water. Some of the roads are becoming damaged by the
floodwater to the point that they are not safe to use without risking getting stuck (for even the Army
vehicles).