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Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota declared a state of emergency this week and activated the state's National Guard to assist in flood preparations and emergency relief. North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven mobilized the National Guard and convened mayors from Fargo and other affected regions to coordinate the flood fight.
"We're in major flood mode right now," said Karena Carlson, a spokeswoman for Fargo, where the Red River is expected to crest 38 feet above its banks Sunday. That would be the fifth-highest level of flooding ever experienced by Fargo, where the river approaches City Hall, the main public library and apartment buildings as it cuts across the city.
As of Wednesday morning, the water level stood at 30.74 feet above its banks, according to the National Weather Service.
Thousands of citizens from central Minnesota to Fargo are taking flood prevention efforts into their own hands, volunteering their time to pack an estimated 1 million sandbags this week.
"You get to know people of all ages and from all places, and we all kind of join together in a common spirit of helping," Greg Vandal, a member of the Central Minnesota Helps group, told the St. Cloud Times. "There's a lot of energy to be derived from that, but it is physically very demanding work."
Among the volunteers helping to protect Fargo from the rising river are busloads of teens and children who, with their parents' permission, are permitted to be excused from school to help with the sandbagging.
"They pretty much have saved our community," one volunteer, David Stark, told The Associated Press, speaking of the young helpers.
Michael Russell, 14, missed school Tuesday to fill sandbags. "I think I'm helping the city and my friends," he said.
At Bonzer's Sandwich Pub near the Red River in Grand Forks, N.D., Jason Honkola said longtime residents are preparing as they did for past floods.
"People are sandbagging and getting ready. That's all you can really do, is get ready for it," he told AOL News. "If it's going to happen, it's gonna happen. We'll have to do our best."
North Dakota and Minnesota could be marking just the start of a historic flood season in the nation.
"Overall, more than a third of the contiguous United States has an above-average flood risk, with the highest threat in the Dakotas, Minnesota and Iowa, including along the Red River Valley, where crests could approach the record levels set just last year," the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.
The snowpack in the Midwest is more extensive than it was a year ago and has an excess of more than 10 inches of liquid water in some places, the NOAA said. The consistently cold temperatures through early March limited runoff from a snowpack built up by December precipitation that was up to four times above average, while the still-frozen ground could accelerate the flow of all that late-melting water.
"It's a terrible case of déjà vu, but this time the flooding will likely be more widespread," said Jane Lubchenco, the NOAA administrator and undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere. "As the spring thaw melts the snowpack, saturated and frozen ground in the Midwest will exacerbate the flooding of the flat terrain and feed rising rivers and streams."
Jack Hayes, director of the National Weather Service, said that while "the El Niño-driven winter was very wet and white" in the South and East, spring flooding "is more of a possibility than a certainty and will largely be dependent upon the severity and duration of additional precipitation and how fast existing snow cover melts."
In Fargo and Cass County, N.D., the city established a flood fund to help pay for recovery efforts.
On Sunday, President Barack Obama declared an emergency in North Dakota and authorized the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate disaster relief there.
