Wednesday, May 10, 2017

Watery Wednesday: April 18,1997

The emails to the outside world continue.

Subject:  Friday Flooding

Hello everyone, still here, still pumping.  At the present time the water is holding steady here.  Fargo the city itself is having  a lot of problems, but they also have a lot of resources to draw from.

Yesterday we had some filled sand bags delivered by boat to the next door neighbors, they have a plastic tube dike and the ground is getting really mushy, all the dikes are meant to be temporary, its been a lot of water for a lot of days. It sounds like we will be isolated for another week or so.

Dad went home yesterday, Mom brought us KF Chicken, candy bars, bananas, chips and vegetables.

Yesterday was a hard day, the wind was blowing about 30 mph causing lots of waves.  We added some sand bags on the leading edge of the wave action.  The guys at the Air Guard hauled filled sand bags from Kindred, then they ferried them over in the windy water.

Mom was here just long enough for coffee and a hug and back out again.

Gene just finished a long water watch, I slept five hours.  We now set the alarm every hour in case some one dozes off.  Sometimes it helps to just lay down for 20 minutes,  This is an emotionaly exhausting situation, but we are trying to keep a sense of humor!

Today Gene will go out for drinking water, when our community well had a burned out motor they opened the old sealed well and started it up but it may be contaminated.

Hope you all have a good day!

Love gene and con

April 18 1997 Water

View from the deck looking North.

April 18 water 2

All the snow melted little by little.

April 18 Water 3

View from the garage

Duck boat  1997

Our transportation a flat bottom duck boat with an electric trolling motor.  It is moored just outside the sand bags that surround the house.

Garden Shed about April 18

Our garden shed

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When the guys from the Air Guard brought over the sand bags in a fishing boat, they could only ferry so many  filled sand bags at once.  The boat was really heavy and rode deep in the water, they had to be really careful. It was scary watching them motor over from the landing.

In a day or two or five our Realtor/friend Vern would come by in a boat, as he approched our sand bags he hollered “Is it safe to visit? Does she have a gun?”

Blog Signature

Links to earlier days of the flood.

Watery Wedneday:  April 16

Watery Wednesday: April 13

Watery Wednesday: April 10

Watery Wednesday: April 9

Watery Wednesday : April 8

Watery Wednesday: April 6

Watery Wednesday: March 19

14 comments:

Tired Teacher said...

You and Gene were physically and emotionally strong: I'm sure this ordeal would have overwhelmed most people.

DJan said...

Did they think you were going to shoot them? I laughed at this post, even though it's not a laughing matter.

Still the Lucky Few said...

What a trial! I hope you stay safe, and keep your spirits up!

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

This has been quite a story to read as I just caught up on previous posts. And, sadly, flooding still continues in so many states this week and even in parts of Canada. Sad for so many residents who struggle through like yourselves.

Sam I Am...... said...

What an awful situation and there is much flooding going on to this day in many parts of the country. I pray for those affected as I cannot imagine what I would do here alone and old!

Rita said...

Wise idea to set the alarm for every hour on the hour. You guys had to be just depleted!! Thank goodness for your folks coming with supplies...and just the company. The National Guard really helped a lot. What a time!!

Far Side of Fifty said...

Yes since Vern sold us the house he felt a little responsible. We bought and sold four times with him and we knew him for many years. He knew me well...and at the time we laughed too! :)

Red said...

It's good that you can bring up these old emails and have an account of your flood experiences.

Henny Penny said...

Oh my gosh! This is still just unbelievable! So, someone had to watch the water all the time? Could it all of a sudden rise quickly even at this point? This is probably a dumb question.

Karen said...

So glad your house wasn't built where the garden shed is!

Far Side of Fifty said...

Yes we watched all the time. You had to watch the dikes and do repairs or call for help from the one that was sleeping...or the neighbors. Ice Dams could build up, there was still huge pieces of ice flowing.

Far Side of Fifty said...

Me too!

Cynthia said...

That last picture is worth a thousand words.

Paula said...

Oh my goodness! Prayers for all!