Red River Flood

GRAND FORKS, N.D.--Clay dikes protecting Grank Forks and East Grand Forks, Minn., weakened under heavy rain yesterday as flood fighters evacuated more residents threatened by the Red River's worst flooding in this century.

"The situation is worsening," an hydrologist for the National Weather Service said yesterday. The river rose to 20 feet above flood stage and just a foot below the brim of the weakened makeshift dikes.

Meanwhile, two environmentalists yesterday blamed federal works projects for contributing to the record floods in Mississippi and Alabama.

Brent Backwelder of the Environmental Policy Center said yesterday two task forces have warned of the flood dangers posed by stream channeling and the construction of dams.

"It's time to find out whether the federal flood control agencies are in fact increasing flood losses." Tom Varlow of the National Resources Defense Council, said yesterday.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has estimated the current flood losses in the flat farmland of the Red River Valley at more than $26 million.