It is February 2010. Last year at this time we had just flown back home after attending our son's U.S.A.F Basic Military Training (BMT) graduation at Lackland AFB, TX, (San Antonio) and he was on his way to his technical training base, Sheppard AFB, TX, (Wichita Falls) for 10-months of Air Force Specialty (AFS) training.
February 2009 in Minnesota it was still winter, and spring flooding wasn't on our radar, since we thought our new home was high and dry. Oh yeah, I live in Oakport Township, north of Moorhead, ever hear of it?
On Good Friday of 1997, we had a a clay dike built around our house (plus 600 sandbags), which kept the flooded Red River from inside our home, but the structure was damaged beyond repair. That spring, the crest was 39', and at that point, water was flowing over the street in front of our house and lapping at our dike and sandbags.
In November 1997, our old house was torn down, hauled away in dump trucks, and we rebuilt on our acre lot, elevating 4 feet higher, so we were pretty confident if there ever was a "next time."
We had no idea next time would be 12 short years later, and the crest would be a record-breaking 42.8'. Although we rebuilt higher, it wasn't high enough.
March 19, 2009, we drove to Sheppard AFB, TX, to visit our son (spring break for us), and when we returned on March 23 at 1 a.m., University Drive North in Fargo was bustling with dump trucks hauling clay dirt from an alfalfa field just south of County Road 20. There were backhoes, dozens of trucks, banks of lights illuminating the work, and we thought... "holy crap!" It was one in the morning, what was going on?! We realized at that moment that there was big "Trouble in River City," and we had to get home to find out where the Red River elevation was and what predictions had been announced.
Looking back, we had five days to get a sandbag dike around our new house and elevate it to a possible 43' which was the first crest prediction. Five days! We had friends from our church, an NDSU fraternity, NDSU Plant Science co-workers, and relatives at our house for a day and a half. It was devastating and Burton stayed with the house 24/7 to insure pumps didn't freeze, malfunction or the power went out. The day of the crest, March 28, I got more pumps to Burton in a MN DNR airboat and my brother, Breck, and nephews, Curt & Taylor, came to help and give Burton some rest.
We saved our home, but of nine houses on our side of the street, within about four blocks, only three were saved, and our's was one of those... so sad. Water came too fast and too high and inundated dikes, filled basements, power was turned off and the rest is history...
I don't want to go through this again. It makes my stomach hurt to think of it.
