More Minot Residents Might Return Home Soon

Associated Press | 7/5/2011

Owners of about 600 more Minot homes and businesses might be able to return by Thursday, as the flooding Souris River recedes.

City spokesman Dean Lenertz says the 600 structures are in the northeast part of the evacuation zone. Officials likely will let the owners return once the river falls to 1,555 feet above sea level. The National Weather Service forecast calls for that to happen late Wednesday or early Thursday.

Dozens of residents forced from their homes were allowed back on Friday and over the weekend. Those people were in the outermost areas of the northwest part of the evacuation zone. Lenertz did not immediately have an exact count.

About 11,000 people were evacuated before the river broke a high-water record that had stood for more than 130 years.

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