GRAND FORKS, N.D. — Former Grand Forks Mayor Patricia “Pat” Owens, who led the community through the historic Red River Flood of 1997, has died.
The face of Grand Forks, N.D. mayor Pat Owens shows the strain of trying to manage her city during the April 1997 flooding. Owens’ resilience became well-known during the crisis. (John Doman / Pioneer Press)
Her daughter, Robin Owens Flurer, announced the news in an email Tuesday afternoon.
“Today, Pat passed away of natural causes at 83 years old,” Flurer said.
Owens is known for her work as mayor of Grand Forks during its greatest crisis, when the waters of the Red River rose past sandbag dikes and devastated a community that had grown used to floods but none that compared to 1997. And as much of the town succumbed to the growing waters, fire broke out in sections of downtown.
The images of the fire, in the wake of the flood, were broadcast on national television. Owens was featured prominently in that coverage, remembers Keith Lund, who is now the director of the Grand Forks Region Economic Development Corp., but at the time was a staff member at the Grand Forks Urban Development office
It was a “really stark image” that was presented to the nation, Lund said, and “she really did represent the community well.” He said her ability to connect with important decision-makers on a national level — including then-President Bill Clinton — helped direct resources to the city.
“I recall she was a great ambassador for Grand Forks during a very difficult time,” Lund said. “She had a great relationship with our congressional delegation and state leaders and was coined ‘America’s mayor’ for a period of time while we were going through this horrific event.”
In 2017, the Grand Forks Herald published a retrospective edition that marked the 20-year anniversary of the flood. In it, she noted how she was faced with a difficult decision.
In Grand Forks, N.D., President Bill Clinton toured the flooded area via helicopter on April 22, 1997 and then held a joint press conference with Grand Forks mayor Pat Owens. (John Stennes / Grand Forks Herald / Forum News Service)
“I always remember Howard Swanson, our attorney, and Ken Vein, our city engineer, looking at me and I’m sitting down, and they said, ‘Pat, you have to decide whether to evacuate the city,’ ” Owens recalled in the 2017 Herald interview.
Her response: “Oh, my goodness.”
“I was tired, and my brain went from one side to the other,” Owens said. “I thought, ‘If I make a decision to evacuate and we don’t have a flood, they’ll impeach me.’ But I thought, we have to save lives at all costs, so I signed the form to start evacuating the city.
“I think that was one thing I did that I was really happy I had done because, boy, everything started breaking loose after that.”
Amid the devastation grew a friendship with Clinton. In 2012, the Herald reminisced about that relationship.
Owens remembered that Clinton promised to help the Red River Valley cities rebuild in a speech at Grand Forks Air Force Base, which at the time was serving as a camp for those displaced by the flood. The Herald noted in 2012 that Clinton kept his word through federal Community Development Block Grants, disaster recovery assistance and funding for the flood control project.
Former President Bill Clinton is cheered on by supporters following his speech in downtown Grand Forks on March 17, 2012, at the flood obelisk. Former Grand Forks mayor Pat Owens and other city officials from the flood of 1997 in Grand Forks and East Grand Forks joined Clinton on stage. It was Clinton’s first visit to Grand Forks since the 1997 flood. (Eric Hylden / Grand Forks Herald / Forum News Service)
“He basically looked at the crowd and looked at me and said, ‘I’ll be with you to the end.’ And he kept his promise,” Owens told the Herald at the time.
And then, she said, Clinton kept a door open to local officials at the White House after his visit.
“Almost every time we went to Washington we’d see him,” Owens said.
Clinton came back to Grand Forks years after the flood and spoke at a ceremony at the flood obelisk, a marker near the Sorlie Bridge that notes years of high water — including the record 54-foot mark that occurred in 1997.
Owens was there, too; she took the stage with Clinton.
Related: When hell and high water came: A look back at the 1997 Grand Forks flood
Owens only served one term as mayor — a tumultuous term, after dealing with the flood itself and then directing the recovery, which at times proved controversial. In 2000, she lost a three-way race to Michael Brown, a local doctor who himself served as mayor until 2020 before being unseated by current Mayor Brandon Bochenski.
Bochenski never personally met Owens but he said she reached out via email, noting that she was watching city developments from a distance and that she wished him well.
“I thought it was amazing for her to take the time and reach out to give me well wishes,” Bochenski said. “She didn’t have to do that.”
He, too, noted her status as “America’s mayor” during the flood and commended her for “getting the community through the flood, which was obviously the worst time, at least in recent history, here.”
East Grand Forks Mayor Lynn Stauss, left, and Grand Forks Mayor Pat Owens answer questions from the media after announcing an anonymous donation of $2,000 each to flood-stricken families within their city limits Tuesday. (John Doman / Pioneer Press)
He said he feels she remained “well-loved with staff members.”
Prior to being mayor, Lund recalled that Owens served for years as assistant to the mayor. After her time as mayor ended, Owens moved to Florida.
A pedestrian bridge over the Red River — connecting Grand Forks to East Grand Forks, Minn. — bears Owens’ name.
“In grateful recognition of her extraordinary service as mayor of Grand Forks during and after the Flood of 1997,” reads a nearby sign.
Asked what image he sees of Owens when he recalls her time as mayor, Lund said it is a vision of a person who assumed leadership on the cusp of a historic community crisis.
“The image I see of former Mayor Pat Owens was that she was struggling herself with what the community was going through but stepped up in the moment to represent the community and advocate on our behalf, ultimately putting the city on the path to recovery,” he said.
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