Departing for my first road trip, I was forewarned: “You have to drive over ice to get there.”

Naivety, coupled with never driving on ice save for slippery roads before, allowed for disillusionment.

“I’m in,” I said. “Let’s go!”

Tasked with retiring lines submerged in the ever-rising Devils Lake Basin, lineman stationed in the Cando office drive diesel pickups over the multiple miles of ice almost every day.

“Drive with the car doors open,” the female office workers warn, pointing at inky newspaper photos of vehicles half submerged. “And don’t wear your seat belt.”

Cando, located 120 miles north of Jamestown and 40 miles south of Canada, is home to a population shrinking. Rural residents emigrate from everywhere, sure, but here, residents also move because they and their property are literally drowning.

Farms and homes, still populated with bright green John Deere tractors and manicured shutters, sat empty and lifeless as water has inundated the property and owners deserted it for higher ground. Other owners had summoned the wherewithal to at least move their farm trucks and classic cars to neighboring hills in hopes the water would recede before swallowing them too.

These vehicles site upon a hilltop southeast of Cando, N.D. Their owner likely moved them there to prevent the ever-rising lake from engulfing them. The Devils Lake region began flooding in the 1990s. It continues today.

My boss, Connie, has told the tale in North Dakota Living several times.

The lake was 25 miles from any of this property when these families settled here, she said. In a few years, the lake has risen so high, those farmers and ranchers have given up sections and even quarters of farmland in addition to their homes and finally their livelihoods, she surmised.

The water surrounding this farmstead can reach depths of up to 30 feet (notice the water levels around the barn, and the building with only its roof peeking through). In March 1993, Devils Lake had a surface area of 44,230 acres. At its June 2011 record elevation, Devils Lake covered about 211,300 acres, according to the North Dakota State Water Commission.

Northern Plains documented the water’s wrath in this video called “Roads to Nowhere: the Devils Lake Dilemma.”

Hence, the retiring power lines.

Linemen retire power lines because left standing but unused, the lines become a hazard for farm equipment, trucks and even wildlife. In Cando, however, the power lines could “cut someone’s head off” given all the boating and fishing there these days, one lineman said.

The lake’s depth exceeds 30 feet in places, so uprooting the poles in summer is obviously, out of the question. And last year’s winter, with all the snow, left the lake unnavigable. But this year’s weather and lack of precipitation means conditions are just about right for power-line removal. A few degrees cooler might help the linemen’s wives sleep at night.

Temps in Cando exceeded 30 degrees Wednesday, but Northern Plains employees were hard at work, driving over five miles of ice to their destinations, passing a house so engulfed, only its chimney poked through.

The lineman chopped the pole while a contracted service, consisting of father-son duo Dan and Jake Peterson of Minnesota, busted the ice with a track hoe and removed the submerged remains.

This track hoe, driven by Dan Peterson of Minnesota, removes power lines that were retired because of the rising water in the Devils Lake Basin.

Expenses to the cooperative continue. The labor and materials are un-billable expenses, and are directly paid by Northern Plains and its members.

Taxpayers foot the bill too.

For the last few years, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) seeks  another levee raise and extension for the city of Devils Lake. The cost of this project is estimated at about $155 million, according to the water commission. Expenses to state and federal taxpayers have exceeded $450 million, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

For more information, visit the North Dakota Water Science Center.

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