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ooTHURSDAY,MAY 26, 2011

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State boundHettinger wins Region 8title over W-W-C-S

Mississippi catfishVeteran anglers look for

‘river monsters’

Sports, 1D

Life, 1C

Friday‘Hangover Part II’ isa sad excuse of amovie sequel

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Nasty weatherPowerful storms ripthrough middle-Americaonce again — 2A

Wells shut down30 oil wells areshut down ahead ofriver flooding — 1B

■ Zoo animals are beingevacuated, 11A■ Streets closed, detoursare in place, 11A■ Tote bags being offeredfor sandbagging, 11A■ United Way relocates itsoffice, 11A■ Mandan mayor: Don’tsearch for floodingscapegoats, 11A■ N.D. Guard returns toflood duty, 11A■ Some trucker rules aremodified for flood relief, 11A■ Little Missouri River isalso on the rise, 1B■ Flooded oil wells wereshut down, 1B■ River flood of 2009 wassomewhat different, 1B■ Map shows estimates ofwhere water may flow asMissouri rises, 2B

ON THE WEBTo follow

our up-to-the-minute floodcoverage,

check out the followingpages:

■ www.ndfloods.com■ www.facebook.com/

NDfloods■ www.twitter.com/BisTrib

The Missouri Riverand Fox Island asseen from the air

on Wednesday.North Dakota Gov.

Jack Dalrymple,Bismarck Mayor

John Warford andothers took an

aerial tour of theflooding aboard a

National GuardBlack Hawk

helicopter onWednesday

afternoon. (WILLKINCAID/Tribune)

Sandbagging aimed at 100-year floodBy CHRISTOPHER BJORKE

Bismarck Tribune

Flood fight coordinators arebasing efforts to contain theswollen Missouri River on a100-year flood while the ArmyCorps of Engineers will not ruleout larger releases from Garri-son Dam.

“On the question of ‘Will itgo higher?’ I can’t tell you no. Iwould like to tell you no, but Ican’t,” said Todd Lindquist,operations manager for thecorps on Lake Sakakawea.

The river is rising fast as thecorps pushes dam releases wellabove their historic high. ToddSando, the state Water Commis-sion engineer, said at a briefingWednesday morning that effortsshould focus on a river height of18 feet, measured at the Bis-marck Expressway bridge.

“And it could go possiblyhigher than that,” Sando said.“I think we need to plan for a 1-percent event.”

A 100-year flood refers to anevent with a likelihood ofoccurring only once a century,or a 1 percent chance of hap-

pening in a given year.In Bismarck-Mandan, a

flood of that size would reach18 feet, created by the riverflowing at a rate of 94,000 cubicfeet per second. The ArmyCorps of Engineers raised itsreleases from Garrison Dam to75,000 cfs on Wednesday morn-ing and planned to increasethem to 85,000 cfs by Monday.

The amount of water goinginto Lake Sakakawea was113,000 cfs Wednesday morn-ing, according to the corps.

“These numbers are justastronomical,” Sando said.

Flood stage in Bismarck is 16 feet. The river was at 14.5feet Wednesday morning,according to the corps.

Emergency efforts arefocused on raising flood protec-tion barriers and filling sandbags.

The North Dakota NationalGuard plans to have 600 Guardmembers active by today tohelp with filling sandbags andbuilding up flood protection.The city of Fargo has provideda sandbagging machine knownas a “spider,” capable of filling10,000 bags in an hour. Bis-marck will receive 250,000sandbags from the city ofMoorhead, Minn., by trucks.

The city and the Guard alsoset up another sandbagginglocation, calling it SandbagCentral South, where they havea s s e m b l e d t w o s p i d e rmachines. Officials are urgingvolunteers to devote whatevertime they can to help sandbag.

Mayor John Warford saidthat dikes and flood barrierswere being built up along theriver from Fox Island to the Bis-marck Expressway, including David Beck helps stack sandbags around a

friend’s south Bismarck home on Wednesday.

Miller named CEO of St. AlexiusBy JENNY MICHAEL

Bismarck Tribune

Gary Miller begins his timeas president and chief execu-tive officer of St. Alexius Med-ical Center confident in thefuture of the organization.

“We think we are wellpositioned. We have donewell financially — of course Iknow that from being thechief financial officer,” hesaid Wednesday to lightlaughter from the smallcrowd gathered at BonifaceAuditorium to hear thatMiller had been promotedfrom CFO to CEO.

The Benedictine Sisters ofAnnunciation Monasteryand the St. Alexius MedicalCenter Board of Directorsnamed Miller during a noonnews conference on Wednes-day. He has been interimpresident since Jan. 24, 2011,when former president and

CEO Andy Wilson resigned.Sister Nancy Miller, pri-

oress of AnnunciationMonastery and president ofthe hospital’s board of direc-tors, said strong leadershipis as imperative today as itwas when the sisters ofAnnunciation Monasterystarted St. Alexius in 1885.

“There are challengestoday in the way we deliverhealth care,” she said.

The hospital board hasobserved Gary Miller’s lead-ership while serving as inter-im president the past fourmonths and in his positionsat St. Alexius since 1984,Nancy Miller said. She saidhe’s a “dynamic leader” whoupholds the Catholic andBenedictine heritage of thehospital.

Gary Miller said his firstday at St. Alexius was June 4,1984, when he becamedirector of fiscal and infor-

mation systems. He hasbeen chief financial officersince 1988, and he mostrecently has served as seniorvice president.

Gary Miller said Wednes-day was a “humbling andexciting day.” He said heplans to be the “chiefengagement officer,” keep-ing staff engaged on healing.

“St. Alexius Medical Cen-ter is a very special place, avery special place of heal-ing,” he said.

He identified three chal-lenges as the biggest issuesfacing St. Alexius. Being pre-pared for health care reforminitiatives topped the list,followed by working with thestate Legislature to under-stand Medicaid reimburse-ment rates. His third chal-lenge will be making surestaff and physicians stay“engaged in our healing mis-

WILL KINCAID/TribuneGary Miller, new CEO ofSt. Alexius Medical Center,talks about his newposition during a pressconference on Wednesday.Seated on the left isSister Nancy Miller.

OprahWinfreywaves asher showtaped forthe lasttime onTuesday inChicago.(AssociatedPress)

By CARYN ROUSSEAUAssociated Press

CHICAGO — There wereno free cars or vacations. Nofavorite things or makeovers.No celebrity guests on stage— though there were plentyin the audience.

The finale of Oprah Win-frey’s talk show, taped Tues-day and aired Wednesday,was all about the one thingthat made her a billion-dol-lar success: the unique con-nection she made with mil-lions of viewers for 25 years.

Winfrey finale isdevoted to her fans

Uncharted territory

“The message tothe public is thatthis is someplacewe’ve neverbeen before.”

Maj. Gen. DavidSprynczynatyk,

commander of the NorthDakota National Guard

Continued on 11A

Continued on 11A Continued on 11A