In this Aug. 24, 2010, photo is what used to be U.S. Highway 281 on the north end of Minnewaukan, ND. The road has since been moved because of approaching waters from Devils Lake. Residents from Minnewaukan are scrambling to save their town from the lake, which is approaching from three sides. (AP Photo/Dave Kolpack)

AP Photo/Dave Kolpack

UPDATE JULY 2010: NOAA has launched a new website to support future decisions about Devil's Lake.

Two years ago I ran a story about the town of Devil's Lake, North Dakota that has been threatened by continually rising water for 17 years. A news article puts is succinctly: "Devils Lake has risen about 27 feet, hit record levels and tripled in size since 1993 because of a series of wet years, causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage." Close to $1 billion dollars has been spent to save the town. The photo below was taken by FEMA in 2009.

Last year around this time I updated the story to say that the lake was close to a new record, and another 10 feet would bring a "2000-year flood". Last week, another major highway (Highway 20) was closed due to the flooding. On May 3rd, the problem seemed to get some national attention when FEMA visited, along with other local, state and national government officials. You can read a summary of what happened at the flood summit on this website, or watch videos of the summit on the Devil's Lake Facebook Page. The problem seemed to be taken very seriously and the best solution, called the "east end outlet" was approved by the townspeople, but there was no date set for completion.

- STUMP LAKE CURRENT LEVELS
- STUMP LAKE FORECAST LEVELS (Not Available Currently)
- STUMP LAKE COMPARED TO HISTORICAL PEAKS
- DEVILS LAKE CURRENT LEVELS
- DEVILS LAKE FORECAST LEVELS (Not Available Currently)
- DEVILS LAKE COMPARED TO HISTORICAL PEAKS
- COMPLETE DEVILS LAKE 100+ YEAR HISTORIC LEVELS

One year ago when I wrote about this, Devil's Lake was near record levels at 1449 feet. It has now surpassed record levels and was sitting at 1451.77 feet yesterday. If you think it's bad in town, check out nearby Stump Lake, which Devil's Lake is pouring into. It was around 1448 feet then, it peaked at 1451.64 when the summit was taking place on May 3rd. Three feet doesn't sound like a big rise but it's enough to take out a road and a wide swath of land, depending on topography, and remember the lakes are above the elevation of much of the surrounding land so it's up to man to keep the water out.

One thing a lot of people don't realize about Google Maps is that, while the high-res satellite/aerial shots are frequently updated, the map data itself (showing roads, for example) is updated extremely infrequently -- every 10 to 30 years. Something very eye-opening to do is to look at the Stump Lake area and turn on the "Satellite With Labels" option in Google. That reveals many former roads which are now underwater:

You can also see where trees have been killed by submersion (dead trees appear as grey objects instead of green, in the satellite photos taken during the summer). And as I mentioned in last year's report, you can see photos of the dead trees by using Google Street View.

You can also compare the size of the lake, shown from their "Map" layer in light blue below, against the satellite image showing the current lake (note the two small lakes to the north which are now part of Stump Lake):