As States’ Rivers Began to Swell, Federal Resources Poured In.

[elleng]

FARGO, N.D. — Well before the waters of the Red River were expected to reach their most threatening levels here, Dennis Walaker, the mayor, received a telephone call from President Obama.

The president said Fargo would get whatever help it needed, the mayor recounted, gushing over how it felt for “just a big kid from a small North Dakota town” to get such a high-placed pledge.

The telephone call last week was but a hint of the degree to which the Obama administration, faced with what threatened to become the first major disaster of its short tenure, turned federal resources to the fast-rising rivers in North Dakota and Minnesota.'

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/01/us/01flood.html?th&emc=th