A state of emergency has been declared in the City of Fargo, in anticipation of spring flooding.

"The City of Fargo is in danger of suffering a substantial flood event," Dr. Tim Mahoney, mayor of the City of Fargo, said Monday afternoon.

Mahoney says he signed the declaration so the city could prepare financially for the spring's upcoming flood.

"My engineers and team have to order a variety of things which cost money," Mahoney said.

This would allow the city to receive some compensation for equipment from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

On Monday morning, staff met to discuss the city’s preparations and potential responses at various flood levels. In addition to all Fargo City departments, the City of West Fargo, Cass County, Fargo Public Schools, North Dakota Air National Guard, FirstLink and the American Red Cross all sat in on the meeting.

Mahoney says with the potential water levels we’re expecting, transportation will be impacted.

"North Fargo will be inconvenienced quite a bit,” Mahoney said. “And the crossover between Moorhead and Fargo will be inconvenienced, 'cuz we're only down to two bridges, and then South Fargo will have trouble on 52nd."

Fargo city administrator, Bruce Grubb, says the city is planning for at least the 10 percent scenario—that says the river would reach 40.3 feet.

"If we over prepare, we're fine with that, we just don't want to risk underpreparing," Grubb said.

On Friday, the flood outlook raised a couple feet—previously the worst-case scenario was looking to be around 39 feet. Now, there's a five percent chance it'll get to 41.4 feet.

"The levels were raised quite substantially," Grubb said.

With a record in 2009 of just under 41 feet, the city says a lot of the work will require volunteers to operate the spiders: the machines making sandbags.

"We're running sandbag central full blast,” Mahoney said. “We need 200 volunteers an hour basically. It takes about 80 to 100 to run each spider.”

Fargo Sandbag Central will open on Tuesday, March 26 and will continue operations until the sandbag goal has been met. The goal is to make one million sandbags in about 10 days.

"I think it's a great opportunity for a workout, and get out there and be with the public and have a great time,” Mahoney said. “Maybe we can get some competition in it."

Mayor Mahoney says when it comes to community service, the City of Fargo usually exceeds his expectations.

The city says it will continue to get updates from the weather service twice a week to update on flood levels.