BEULAH - Ron and Angie Jorgenson aren't taking any chances. They're building a 3-foot high dirt berm around their house. If the Knife River comes up, they hope they can at least keep it back.

The Jorgensons are among dozens of householders in south Beulah who took on water in the spring of 1997 and while the memory might be 12 years old, it still hurts plenty.

The Knife River and other waterways - the Cannonball, Heart, Cedar, and Little Missouri rivers - are under a flood advisory and folks who got wet in the past are keeping close watch.

Zap Mayor Terry Barden, says it like it is.

"I am nervous," he said.

Zap was finally thawing out in Monday's warm temperatures and bright blue skies, which would be so welcome, if they weren't bringing a possible flood of water down pretty Spring Creek that runs through town.

Neither Spring Creek or the Knife River were running as of Monday, though runoff water was starting to show up on top of the ice.

The Cannonball wasn't yet running Monday, either, and while the Little Missouri River did leave its banks again Sunday, causing problems for some of the same residents south of Medora who took on high water in an ice jam March 6, its flow had receded Monday.

"It's (the Little Missouri) running right along now," said Billings County Sheriff Dave Jurgens.

Zap's got a couple thousand sandbags on hand and plans to seal off five manholes in low-lying areas to prevent water from backing the sewage system into people's basements.

The mayor figures a half-dozen homes in town are potentially in harm's way.

Spring Creek empties into the Knife River west of Beulah, adding to the build up of water headed downstream.

Angie Jorgenson, like many in Beulah, was at the Class B boys' basketball tournament in Fargo in '97, when they got a "get home, the water's rising" phone call.

They hurtled west and arrived in time to move a few things up or out of the basement, but the water was rising too fast to save much. The Jorgensons live on some of the lowest ground south of Beulah and at its peak, the river water was up onto their main floor.

"It was a huge mess," she said.

She said her husband did the math and calculated it would take 3,400 sandbags to protect the house against a '97 flood. The berm seems more doable.

"We're cautiously optimistic and we're saying a little prayer," she said.

Beulah Mayor Darrel Bjerke said he's conducted several flood planning meetings to prepare for the worst while hoping for the best.

"Do we need to be nervous? Do we need to be in a panic? What do we need to be?" he says.

Since '97, the town's replaced manhole covers with solid steel, raised a sewer lift station and built a berm around the water treatment plant.

It has 16,000 sandbags available and citizens have already taken about 1,500 of them.

"We are prepared. We're on alert," said the mayor. "It's almost impossible to predict flooding."

In Hazen, students in Dan Walsvik's vocational agriculture classes got a workout filling sandbags during class Monday.

The kids didn't mind shoveling sand. "It's something different," said sophomore Kevin Neuberger.

Walsvik said he views it as community service and said it's possible some of the sandbags might protect the students' own homes.

Hazen is seeking volunteers to fill sandbags out at the city shop starting at 9 a.m. Saturday.

City planner Steve Frovarp said the city has 20,000 bags ready, "but hopefully we won't need them." Anyone can show up with a shovel.

Several homes got flooded in '97 and Hazen has to guard itself against the Knife River to the south and a tributary, Antelope Creek, which winds through part of town on the north side before dumping into Knife River about a half-mile east.

Water department crewman Dick Jacobson said city workers planned to sandbag 21 manholes and lift stations, primarily in the area threatened by Antelope Creek.

At the same time, Hazen is also dealing with the possible reclassification of the Highway 200 bypass, which serves as a dike against Antelope Creek for what's known as "West Hazen."

Frovarp said the Federal Emergency Management Administration says - unless new data proves otherwise - that the bypass isn't high enough to provide the mandatory 3-foot freeboard and in that scenario, could overtop.

While that is being slugged out, the city is exploring options which include raising the bypass, channeling Antelope Creek to drain differently and impounding the creek upstream like it used to be until the late '70s.

(Reach reporter Lauren Donovan at 748-5511 or lauren@;westriv.com.)