A group of 33 Fargo evacuees with special needs were rushed to Bismarck on Friday to escape rising floodwaters that threatened their downtown apartment building.

"I was sandbagging for two days, and then I went to work, and then I came home, had a meeting downstairs and they said we had to be out by the next day," said Todd Uiki, 34, one of the adults in the assisted living community taken to Bismarck on Friday. "The river is bad."

Chuck Bisnett, CEO of Pride Inc. in Bismarck, said he got a call from the Fargo-based Community Living Services on Friday morning notifying him that the residents would need a place to stay while Fargo continues to battle the rising Red River.

"They were concerned about getting flooded; they felt that they needed to get them out of there right away," Bisnett said. "They didn't have any running water or anything like that."

Within eight hours, volunteers from God's Child Project, Dakota Adventist Academy, the West Central Human Services Center and St. Mary's Central High School had cleaned and put beds in the vacant Sunrise Building on Third Street in downtown Bismarck. By 9 p.m. Friday, the residents, some in wheelchairs, arrived in two buses accompanied by seven CLS staff members.

Bisnett said North Dakota Teen Challenge occupied the building up until six months ago. On Saturday, the residents had a place to sleep with running water and a TV to pass the time. They could be in Bismarck for a week - maybe two.

He added that Lowe's donated a refrigerator, and Wal-Mart and Target each donated pillows and pillowcases to the evacuees while they stay in Bismarck. The Lighthouse Cafe also is donating meals to the residents and staff.

Dustin Brast and Patty Knudson were watching a movie Saturday afternoon, miles away from the flooding in Fargo.

"It was my only choice of getting out of there so I don't get stranded," Brast said.

"I was just shocked when my mom told me," Knudson, 48, said of the flooding danger.

(Reach reporter Brian Duggan at 223-8482 or brian.duggan@bismarcktribune.com.)