MINOT, N.D. — Officials in the North Dakota city of Minot are ordering 11,000 people to leave their homes even earlier than expected as the Souris River gets closer to swamping the city with the worst flooding in four decades.
Mayor Curt Zimbelman said Tuesday afternoon that about a quarter of the city's residents are being told to evacuate by 6 p.m. Wednesday. Authorities had previously encouraged people to be gone by 10 p.m. that night.
Water is expected to reach the top of city's levees within the next two days. The flooding is now expected to dwarf the historic flood of 1969, when the Souris River reached 1,554. 5 feet above sea level.
Zimbelman says the river is expected to hit nearly 1,563 feet this weekend.
The Souris River that loops down from Canada through north central North Dakota and is bloated by heavy spring snowmelt and rain.
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