Short answer
511 is the official traveler information service for road conditions, closures, and travel advisories, run separately by each state. North Dakota and Minnesota each have their own, and drivers around Fargo-Moorhead often need both. Check before you leave, not while driving, and believe a no-travel advisory.
The facts, in one place
- ND and MN each run their own 511.
- Check before you leave, not while driving.
- A no-travel advisory is an answer, not a suggestion.
- For danger on the road, call 911.
What it tells you
Whether roads are covered, icy, or closed, where travel is not advised, and where crews and crashes are. In a winter storm here, no-travel advisories and interstate closures are real, official, and enforced.
How to use it
Check before you leave. If it says travel is not advised, that is the answer, and the right move is to stay where you are. No help request replaces a plowed road, and no neighbor can reopen a closed interstate.
- Check the state for each side of your route.
- Check again before a return trip.
- Keep a winter kit in the car anyway.
Where Help Me fits
Help Me is for small favors in a lot or at a curb, not for highway trouble. If you are stuck on a road, call roadside assistance, and call 911 if you are in danger.
Help Me is not an emergency service. If someone is in immediate danger, call 911 or your local emergency number.
Questions people actually ask
No. North Dakota and Minnesota each run their own. Check the one for each state your route crosses.
No. Treat it as an instruction. Stay where you are, and keep warm.
No. Highway shoulders are dangerous. Call roadside assistance, and 911 if you are in danger.
Keep going
- seasonA blizzard is the one day to close the appWhen travel is not advised, the right answer is not an app. What a blizzard closes, who to call, and the small help that still makes sense at home.
- seasonWinter here is a logistics problemDead batteries, frozen locks, cars stuck in unplowed lots, and dark at five. What neighbors can help with in a Fargo-Moorhead winter, and what needs a tow.
- GuideWinter help, before the wind chill becomes the storyHow to ask for everyday winter help in Fargo, West Fargo, and Moorhead: jump starts, walks to the car, and the line between stuck and an emergency.
- GuideThe winter kit, ranked by how badly you will want itThe winter car kit that matters in North Dakota and Minnesota: jump pack, scraper, real gloves, a blanket, and what people forget until minus twenty.
- Who it's forFor people who drive in every dayDriving in from Horace, Casselton, Dilworth, Hawley, or Barnesville? What breaks on a metro commute and what a neighbor can help with.
- emergencyEmergencies: 911, then the right local deskCall 911 in Fargo, West Fargo, Moorhead, and Dilworth. Campus police and 211 are next. Help Me is not emergency response.
Help Me is a community app for adults in Fargo–Moorhead. It is not a K–12 student program, not a youth chat, and not campus police.