Watery Wednesday : April 19 1997

The emails from 1997 continue.
Subject: Sat…still here

Hello everyone, we are still holding our own, Day 11 of high water.

Grand Forks is in trouble, talked to Gene’s Cousin Bonnie and Wayne, they are getting ready to evacuate.  Fargo is not in wonderful shape either, today is sunny and clear, no rain yet!

It is getting to be a really long time stranded, heard that UND closed for the rest of the semester, so there may be hope for NDSU to do the same, have not been in any shape to study.

It is encouraging to get all your messages, we appreciate the life line out of here! 

The water has receded an inch in the last 24 hours, we have two pumps going full time, two more just part time.  Everything is still pretty soggy, pray for NO rain.

Gene was really discouraged yesterday. WATER, WATER, he has never been real patient.  He got a good nights rest, I let him sleep til he woke up.  I watched TV in between dike watch, some old movies.  We had a muskrat looking for solid ground, I scared him as much as he scared me, I think he was on the dike but swiftly swam away.

Geese and ducks are going north, Gene says they are all laughing at us dumb people as they fly over.  We have many birds on our island, I am feeding them, even the poor sparrows and grackles.  We have a whole group of robins getting worms out of my south flower bed up next to the house.

We will hang in there another day, wish we could have some idea of when this will be over.  Sometimes we think it will never end. 

Hope you are all fine.  Gene and Connie

Our island home

Water flowing between us and the neighbors to the north.

View from the deck…that Mugo Pine caused us so many problems.  When the original sand bags were laid, some were laid on the branches and that cause the dike to leak.

Our Cul de sac

*******

The radio station KFGO was our lifeline, our radio was hardly ever turned off. We used our computer for email and to check river levels.

Other than a neighbor boating over,  or my parents bringing supplies we had no company…it was just us and the water…an enormous amount of water.  Water as far as the eye could see.

April 18 Watery Wednesday

April 16 Watery Wednesday

April 13

April 10

April 9

April 8

April 6

March 19

Watery Wednesday : April 13, 1997

These are emails I sent to family and friends in 1997 during the flood.  Emails went to: Jennifer, Carey, Jan and Ron, Katie, Laura, Ardith, Arlene, Cathie, Lorri and Kelly, Hans and  Debbie.

Subject: Still Pumping

Hello everyone!  Thank you for ALL your encouraging messages and prayers!

Today we are down to three pumps pumping. Finally shut off the big gas pump that hurts your ears.  We are maintaining with two electrics in the water, and of course our faithful sump pump in the basement.

Yesterday the water went down an inch, today an inch and a half.  Water is still on the dikes so we have to be watchful, it is encouraging to see the level go down, but we know we are still not out of the woods, but the situation is improving.  We can have water rising again because of ice jams, back flow from the Red River, dikes breaking etc. and the Sheyenne still has not crested. 

We are weary, its been a long struggle.  Mom and Dad will be back tomorrow maybe with the dogs, we will see.

The weather report is for good weather no rain and a slow decrease of water.

Gene says he hurts everywhere, he just woke up from a nap.  WE are officially disaster victims now, we registered with FEMA and you can call us water rats, mice is more accurate as they run over your boots quite often or boat people.  Even tho I have not been in it yet, tomorrow maybe I will row around!

Today Gene moved the boat up to the deck enough of the ice has melted so we can go across the lake.  You are all invited (Kelly especially) to help dump sand bags!!!! We have approximately 1800 of them to dump, each weighing between 40-60 IBS.

I have decided not to go to summer session at NDSU, I will take 30 days off, then re evaluate the second session.  I will have at least two weeks of classes to catch up with, luckily one of my instructors lives one mile west of us, so he has great sympathy and the others will be okay too.
Connie

The deck and the sand bags

Taken from the garage the cul de sac is filling with water.

**************
Neither of us can remember who took over for us when we went to register with FEMA.  I believe that Harvey our next door neighbor came over to watch our pumps.  Someone must have picked us up in a big boat to take us across the water to the landing where our vehicle was.  I recall we headed for Downtown Fargo and went into some building with very high ceilings to register and I am quite certain we went together.

The boat I am referring to was a Duck Boat that my parents brought over for us to use.

Watery Wednesday: April 10 1997
Watery Wednesday : April 9, 1997
Watery Wednesday: April 8, 1997
Watery Wednesday: April 6, 1997
Watery Wednesday: March 19 1997

Watery Wednesday : April 10 1997

The emails continue:

Subject: Pumping

Hi everyone, pumping about 8500 gallons an hour from the sandbags in front of the deck, we have gas and will continue til the water drops or we do.  We have water all along the east side of the house, most of which is behind the bags, we added a water filled dike to our sand bags this am.

Gene says it is useless, but he keeps trying.  The chain saw artist (Gene) was at work on the deck, it now has holes galore, for the water dike and observation holes.

The water broke over the freeway this am, it should have relieved some pressure, but it is probably just running in here as fast as it is running out. ???  I hear on the radio that this water stretches from Kindred ND to way North of us.  Connie

*********

I kept thinking “It’s not so bad, I was watching the bird feeder in the yard…the water/ice was always at the same level”  Well…the bird feeder posts were froze into the ice and as the ice rose so did the feeder.

The gas pump out in front needed gas every hour.  The other pump was a small one and it was electric…you just had to make sure it didn’t get clogged.  

The water seeped beyond the first line of sand bags and that is why we put in a plastic water filled dike under the deck.  This is on the east side of the house.

Here is what it looked like in the summer of 1996.

Lake Shure is in it’s banks and the garden shed has a very large garden right behind it before reaching the lake.  Seems far enough away.

This is just outside our garage.  I think that is my Mom’s purse on the sandbags, looks like they brought us another gas can, note the duck boat off to the left.  I still have that trusty old wheelbarrow.  I am not certain when this photo was taken.  It shows the water between Stephen and Mae’s house and ours.

One of us was awake and on dike watch 24 hours a day.  We would make our rounds.  Out the patio door to check under the deck for water, then off around the south side of the house where we had two holes dug, in the holes we placed a five gallon bucket with holes in it and inside the buckets were sump pumps.   The sump pumps were on floats  and if the float didn’t activate we would do it by hand, then you walked along the west side of the house checking for water and into the garage door, where you would wipe off you yucky boots, go inside and head downstairs to the basement to check to see if water was coming in the window wells.  Then you would go back upstairs again, watch TV for a bit, warm up and make your rounds again.  The gas pump would spit and sputter at the end of an hour so you had to fill it with gas.   The person sleeping would be awakened by the absence of the motor noise.

Our basement sump pump ran almost non stop.  Gene used to time it…I don’t recall what it was ten seconds or so between pumpings…something like that.  I think we had a spare pump just in case.

Watery Wednesday: April 9

Water Wednesday: April 8

Watery Wednesday :April 6

Watery Wednesday: March 19

Watery Wednesday: April 9 1997

Subject: Flood Stage Three

The emails continue:

Genes report-  Finishing up building sand bags to a level of 894 above sea level, told by the neighbors on this island to build to at least 896.  No way to get sand we are #$%#*#.

Connie's report:  I took the dogs and birds out this afternoon, Mom and Dad met us off the island, yes we are surrounded by water.  I hopped a ride back in on a big truck with a generator, propane heater and nipko heater.  I made it back in by the skin of my teeth,  I think Gene was trying to get me stranded on the other side!

The dogs are on their way to a Vet in Park Rapids til this is over. (My Mother ended up keeping the birds and the three dogs.)

The water really came up overnight, we switched the vehicles early this morning, decided not to leave one in, we can hopefully get to the Bronco on high ground about 3/4 mile from here. (Gene’s pickup was sent home with my parents loaded with dogs and birds.)

The basement has been emptied except for the washer, it is really heavy and we will wait for a neighbor to help.

The water is on the bags, and we will have to start a dike watch later tonite.  They are not giving much hope, some say it is a 500 year flood, we are on the 100 year plain, I heard from an old timer today that in 1897 the water went from here to Hawley. (30 plus miles away)

Gene is doing pretty good, he is calmer today and is just expecting the worst.

I have to pack an evacuation bag, I put my text books in the freezer, we have most everything else pretty ship shape.

Gene is thawing out sand bags in the garage.  We hope the water goes over I-29 soon, it is our overflow!!
Love Gene and Connie

Water in fields everywhere.  I think my Mom took this photo.

Travel by boat

I put a little star over where our house was.  Harvey and Joyce’s house was yellow, our next door neighbors.  You can see the sheets of ice/snow in the water.

The view from our deck.  Good thing we rescued our lawn mower from the garden shed.
**********
Those were tough days.  We are one optimist and one pessimist.  I kept saying maybe the water will go down, Far Guy said it will wipe us out.  We had a really big argument about whether I would stay or go.  (Many wives went to other places not flooding and some just went to motels in Fargo.)  I wanted to stay, being away and wondering all the time what was happening would have driven me nuts.   Far Guy wanted me to take the dogs and birds and go to my parents where we would all be safe. 

It was a very difficult decision for me to make to send the dogs out. I knew it was probably the only way I could make sure they were okay.  I would get evacuated if it came to that…but the dogs would be left behind…and I couldn’t do that to them.  We had just a small area off the front step with any amount of grass,  their fenced in area was a waterway.

We listened almost continually to KFGO on the radio, they gave flood stages and weather reports, and took information from callers. 

Harvey who lived next door to us put up a water filled dike…picture a heavy plastic tube filled with water.

In one corner of the addition lived a neighbor by the name of Ted, he owned a gas station in North Fargo.   He was our source of gasoline.  The first time I went out with the gas cans I wore plastic bags in my boots to stay dry, I had to break the ice as I walked  on the back road.  Ted never charged for gas, he said if you need it just take it night or day.  Much later after the flood we paid for the gas we got from Ted and from then on got all our gas from his gas station.

Our neighbors were helpful, Harvey was a great source of information.  We would wade over to the neighbors or holler back and forth.

Far Guy says “Why are you dredging all this up now?”

Well for one thing it is history, for another perhaps once and for all I can put it behind me.   It might be Post Traumatic Stress…hurricanes, tornadoes, fires are all fast disasters….the Flood of 1997 seemed to drag on forever.

Watery Wednesday : April 8 1997
Watery Wednesday: April 6 1997
Water Wednesday: March 19 1997

Watery Wednesday: April 8 1997

The emails from 1997 continue.

Subject: Flood Stage 1 1/2 almost an island

Hello everyone!  Hope you are safe and dry!  We are ok for the moment!

Mom and Dad got out yesterday, we sent Trica and Dick and Savannah to Grand Forks this morning, they have no elec or water at Buxton.

The water is rising and the road is almost blocked, the last way out of here is almost under water.  Today Gene is trying to thaw out sand bags in the garage, it is only 12 degrees here. We still need to lay bags across the driveway.

For now the the duck boat that we got from Mom and Dad is useless because of the ice out there.  We have one vehicle on dry high ground.

We are all set with food etc… we have made all the preparations that we can.

Mom and Dad were coming back tonight but I called them and told them to stay in Osage, so I hope they do.

The Sheyenne isdue to crest late today or tomorrow, the Red on Friday or Saturday so we should be through the worst of this by April 17, it seems like a long way away.

I will try to keep you informed daily, if you don’t hear from us, either we are too busy or exhausted, or have been evacuated.  The Fargo Forum has an online page called in forum and it has a flood page if you all are interested.

Take Care!  Gene and Connie

On the garage side of the house facing the cul de sac.  You can see a load of class five gravel in the driveway…they ran out of sand so used class five.  It has rocks in it…it freezes really hard.

I think Gene walked out through the ice and water to get some sand bags from someone.  In our planning we did not account for wet feet all day every day.  I rigged up the inside of his boots with garbage bags to keep his feet dry. (Later my Mom would deliver a pair of hip waders for him and new waterproof boots for me.)

That is our house with the star.  This photo was taken from a boat or high dry land just east of us.

Harvey (next door neighbor) my Dad and Far Guy is in the duck boat with the wheel barrow. 

This is the last road out.

*************

Thawing out sand for sandbags was the pits.  We kept a pallet of sandbags in the garage but with the temperatures so low they froze.  A frozen sandbag does you no good…they have to be unfrozen to conform to the bag or ground that they are sitting on to get a good seal and to form a good barrier from the water.

We would dump part of a bag into the wheelbarrow and then with a heat gun that was supposed to be used to remove varnish from furniture and a torch we thawed out many sandbags one by one in our garage.  Once they were all thawed out we would place them before they froze again.

At one point we had no bags and no unfrozen sand. 

Our plan was to keep one vehicle inside the garage incase we needed to get out quick, and we could also siphon gas out of the tank should we run out of gas for the gas motor in our pump.  One vehicle was on high ground, we could get there by boat when the ice thawed.  Our plan was to keep all the animal with us.  We had two birds a Budgie named Charlie, a Cockatiel named Pearl and three Shelties;  Moses, Captain and G’ Day Mate.  Then we heard on the news that people would be rescued but pets would be left behind should the flood get to catastrophic levels.  I told Far Guy I was not leaving without the animals.

 

 

Watery Wednesday: March 19 1997

Watery Wednesday : April 6 1997

Watery Wednesday : March 19 1997

Today I begin a series of blog posts about our experiences throughout the 500 Year Flood of 1997. 

I dug out some old photos, I am not sure who took them, our neighbors Harvey and Joyce, my parents and maybe even me.

A bit of history first.

We bought a home in May of 1996 in Lake Shure Estates near Harwood North Dakota.  Lake Shure is smack dab in between the Red River and the Sheyenne River.  It was way too large of a home for us, but it had an out of town but close to town feeling that we both liked.  I was going to school at NDSU studying Horticulture and Far Guy was working for the North Dakota Air National Guard.  Ten minutes and I could be a the College and the same for Far Guy.  We had three Shetland Sheepdogs Moses, Captain, and G’Day Mate.  Our fourth Sheltie Miss Misty had died before we moved. The house was perfect for dogs, it had a fenced area for them with a doggie door in the garage, we added a doggie door that went from the house into the garage.

The house was a rambler, with a double garage.  Three bedrooms upstairs, 2 baths, kitchen, dining, formal living room and a family room.  Downstairs was a furnace room, a huge walk in cedar closet, a bedroom, a laundry room, a huge rec/family room and closets from floor to ceiling along one wall.
During the winter of 1996-1997 the area received 119 inches of snow.  We had snowstorms every week. We had Flood Insurance as it was required because we lived in the flood plain.  In February there started to be talk of a flood.  We went to meetings that spelled it out.  We conferred with our next door neighbor Harvey.   Far Guy was certain it was going to flood, I said it might be a slow melt.

Harvey and Joyce lived in the yellow house.  The whole development was built on a series of cul de sacs…we were at the farthest point in the cul de sac closest to the lake.  I am standing near the garden shed when I took this photo.  There is a bird feeder in our yard sticking out of the snow. On the right side of the photo you can see that the snow has gone over the dog’s enclosure…

I began emailing a few people…Ardith (she saved the emails for me and gave them to me before she died….she said it is history you might want someday.) I also emailed our daughter Jennifer, my brother Carey, Far Guy’s sister Jan and her husband Ron, Katie at Big Piney High School to relay messages to my other baby brother Jody, our friends Dave and Debbie, Lorri and  Kelly,  Doug and Arlene, Cathie, Laura, Hans and Jeannie.

March 19 1997 I wrote the first email to Ardith.

********************************
Hello.
How is everyone doing?  We think of you often.

We are now at 106 plus inches of snow, flooding is supposed to be record breaking.  Gene bought a pump that will move 8,000 gallon an hour, he is working on getting sand bags, sand, several other pumps in case we lose elec.  I think we should make a snow dike and cover it with white plastic and then sand bag from there.  Snow is the most abundant resource available…we have a lot to melt, they are predicting April 15 as approximate flood time, we will move almost everything out of the basement soon.  I have two exams next week and after that I can concentrate on flood prep.

We had Savannah again last week, she is starting to creep a little, soon she will be moving faster than us.  The kids are still waiting on the ins co to make decisions (their home was destroyed by a fire .)

Jennifer seems happier and will be moving into a new apartment soon.  I guess she plans to stay in Bemidji, her new apt is along with a job for the County checking on three developmentally disabled people morning and night. So I hope it works out for her.
Take care of each other.  CJH
***************

Snow was over the top of our deck that winter.  That is our garden shed that is down near the lake.  The trees were Russian Olives and were about twenty feet from the lake.

One Sunday afternoon we decided that we didn’t want our new lawn mower to be flooded…certainly it would get wet in the garden shed.  So we took a couple of boards and one by one we put them under the wheels of the mower and got it moved across the snow inch by inch…the neighbors Stephen and Mae said we were great entertainment that day as they watched from inside their home.

Take note of the garden shed as it will be important in posts to follow on the next Watery Wednesday.