GRAFTON - With rivers cresting or falling, flood-stricken northeastern North Dakota residents know they face a big cleanup job.

Anna Einarson said she saw her freezer floating in the basement when the floodwaters hit early Monday. She and her husband grabbed their dog, but little else.

"It came in the back door and ran down the steps," she said. "It ran down like a couple of water hoses pouring in. It happened so fast that I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it."

Anna Einarson, 63, and her husband, Tom, 83, spent Monday and Tuesday nights with relatives after their power was shut off.

"I want to run away," she said. "I hate to think of cleaning all of this up."

Residents across northeastern North Dakota are assessing the damage from the flooding early this week. Officials said up to 4 inches of rain fell over the weekend, and snow-covered fields could not absorb it.

Flooding caused by heavy rain on frozen ground happens about once a decade in North Dakota, said Mark Ewens, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Grand Forks.

"It's a relatively infrequent event," Ewens said.

The Weather Service is forecasting little or no rain through the week, Ewens said.

"The subsoil should start absorbing some of this moisture," he said. "But some folks still have a fight on their hands."

Pembina County Emergency Manager Becky Ault said the Pembina River appeared to have crested, but the Tongue and Red Rivers still have ice that could jam. Residents in the town of Neche were sandbagging Tuesday night to protect from overland flooding, she said.

About 60 houses were flooded in Grafton and about 20 houses were flooded in Minto, said Walsh County Emergency Manager Brent Nelson said.

"We have no house estimates yet, but I expect the damage to be significant," Nelson said.

State officials were compiling emergency declarations from counties and cities, but they said an accurate estimate of damage would have to wait until the water recedes.

The Salvation Army put up 11 families in motels and the Red Cross set up a shelter at the armory in Grafton, Nelson said.

"We have a little reprieve now, and then we move into the cleanup phase," he said. "For those that did get water, they've got several days of more work coming."

A late-season drought last year should help the area, Nelson said.

"We went into the winter pretty dry, so the soil should have some room for some of this water," he said.

Some Grafton residents said the city should have filled in gaps in its dike system before the flooding hit, but city officials said the water came so fast that they had no lead time.

Some believe the added moisture could push Devils Lake to record levels. The lake already has more than doubled in size and risen more than 20 feet during as a result of flooding over the past decade.

"There's a lot of overland flowing, with the snow, rain and ice all coming together at once," said Joe Belford, a Ramsey County commissioner. "It's going to take a long time for this thing to run into the system, but there will be a tremendous impact."

Grand Forks has shored up its flood protection since the Red River swamped the city 1997. The Red is expected to crest in the Grand Forks at 38 1/2 feet on Wednesday or Thursday, said Jim Campbell, the city's emergency manager.

"That will pose absolutely no problems for us at all," Campbell said.

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Information from: Grand Forks Herald, http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/