Pat Owens, Mayor of Grand Forks, North Dakota arrives on Grand Forks Air Force Base for an interview with the press thanking Northwest employees for their efforts in collecting needed supplies for the flood victims. The flooding of the Red River caused some 50,000 residents to leave and flee to shelters in the sounding area and on base.
GRAND FORKS, N.D. (KFGO/KVRR) — Former Grand Forks Mayor Pat Owens has died at 83.
She was forced into the national spotlight during the destructive flooding of Grand Forks and East Grand Forks in 1997.
Damages in the Red River region hit $3.5 billion.
Mayor Brandon Bochenski offered thoughts and prayers to the Owens family and expressed his gratitude for the work Owens did leading during the largest disaster in the city’s history.
“It is safe to say that Grand Forks would not be the City it is today without the work of Pat Owens,” Bochenski said.
Owens was elected mayor in 1996 after serving as a city employee for 33 years.
She was defeated for a second term in 2000 by Michael Brown and retired to Florida in 2001.
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