North Dakota’s Red River is predicted to crest to near-record heights, but the chief tech leader of the state’s flagship university says officials are ready to keep the campus connected and data secure should flood waters strike.
“We spend several months and a great deal of resources making sure we are prepared,” said Joshua Riedy, chief information officer at the University of North Dakota at Grand Forks, in an interview Wednesday.
Those preparations include regular monitoring of the campus data center and multiple alternative network paths.
The primary network connection runs north and south alongside an interstate highway that is now closed due to flooding, but an alternative path, running east to west, is available if the primary connection fails.
After a major flood in 1997, the town erected a permanent flood wall that keeps the city mostly dry, Mr. Riedy said. As he previously told Wired Campus, the university was forced to remove the campus’s data center via semitrailers during that flood. Over the past few weeks, the university has been sensitive in terms of leave and missed class time for faculty members, staff, and students who live outside the city limits.
Meanwhile, in Fargo, waters are receding after reaching peak heights last weekend. North Dakota State University had made contingency plans with the state’s information-technology department in case its network was knocked out by a flood, said Marc Wallman, assistant vice president for the information-technology division at North Dakota State.
He said preparation in Fargo was far more organized this year following a flood in 2009 that devastated the town.
Flood levels this year were less severe than predicted, Mr. Wallman said, and the university has an advantage because it is on higher ground than the rest of the city.
This is the third consecutive year that North Dakota has experienced severe flooding. As an acknowledgment of that fact, the University of North Dakota hired a senior emergency-management specialist, Terrance Sando, last fall, who has helped coordinate flood preparation this year, Mr. Riedy said.
But he said no one at the university will mind if Mr. Sando is less busy next year.
