Minot, North Dakota

After I returned from Minot, ND I learned that my Great Grandmother was born and raised in Minot - I guess this was a chance for me to say thanx to my ancestors. This is an article I wrote for our local paper, and I've included some pictures here.

Friday, Sept 2, 2011. My son, Brady, and I were leaving on what I hoped was to be a fun experience, but more, a way to really help somebody else – to make a difference, a positive difference, in someone else’s life. Ten hours later we arrived in Minot, North Dakota. Each person that went had their own unique experience. This is mine – I think it’s largely representative of what we all saw and felt.
My brain couldn’t believe what my eyes were seeing. Minot looked like it’d been hit by a bomb. What was more shocking to me, was this was TWO MONTHS after the flood had hit! This was a classic case of “it gets worse before it gets better.” Houses had to be gutted before anything could start to be repaired, and all that stuff was being piled outside on the curb. We immediately found our way up to the church (which was literally up, at the top of one of the hills.) When we arrived the first order of business was to get tents set-up and organized. It was funny to watch a churchground turn into a campground, complete with outdoor showers! A quick trip to Walmart for all the things we forgot and a quick meal and we were off to bed so that we could get an early start.
In the morning we were all assigned to a group leader (complete with our uniform of a yellow “mormon helping hands” t-shirt), and that leader then gave us our assignments. I was in a group of 16, with Bob Quinton as our leader. Our first assignment was on the outskirts of town. On the way there we saw lots of little lakes, later to learn that all of them were in areas that were once dry. The home that we were working on was big, and was situated by what looked like a beautiful lake – it wasn’t. It used to be a horse pasture.
In home after home the story was the same – weeks after the waters had receded homeowners were trying to get things cleaned up, but the sheer volume of work to be done was overwhelming. An individual could work all day and not notice a dent in the project. A crew our size could come into most average-sized homes and clean out the basement and main floor in 5 or 6 hours. It wasn’t just that there were more of us. We had the equipment to be efficient. We had the time to work straight through instead of having to go to work to pay for all of the repairs. And most of all, we hadn’t been fighting this battle for two months, we were fresh.
Our first home had deep mud in the basement – all of us in the basement had to wear gum boots. We found frogs and crawdads crawling around there. Water had been in the basement for about 8 weeks. One of our group got to taste his breakfast twice that morning. It was a slimy, stinky mess. We have a picture of the garbage we took out of the house – it’s almost 8 feet high, with a 10 foot base and stretches for 70 feet down the curb. It would have taken the homeowners 8 or 9 weeks to get it done, by which time the house would’ve been lost. Anytime you get a bunch of teen-age boys working together you know there’s going to be some kind of shenanigans – someone found some old golf clubs and a bucket of balls. Soon we were all making little mud tees and taking a swing to see how far over the “pond” we could hit a ball.
Sunday morning brought a sacrament service at 7am. I don’t think I’ve seen a sight like that before. Honorable men blessing the sacrament in pajamas and yellow t-shirts. As soon as our service was over we headed back out for another day of mucking!
The next home-owner we helped was serving in the airforce. He was on duty out-of-state when the flood hit, and his wife and kids were visiting her parents over-seas. They never had a chance to save any of their personal belongings. His neighbors shed (from three doors down) was in his backyard. His was upside-down. He was a strong man, and had done a lot of the initial work – but we still spent our entire Sunday morning helping him. His gratitude was evident as we left.
Our last home was a doozy. It was right beside the dyke that was breached. Water got 7 feet up the walls of the main floor. Everything had to go. The dark basement, with only small windows, was difficult to get stuff up and out of. The old steele tub, and all the mud and waste. It made for some hard work! Thankfully, the church has put into place some amazing emergency equipment – we had generators, saws, hammers, crowbars, sleds – anything and everything that might be needed! It was a remarkable experience to see how organized and efficient the church is at these temporal kinds of needs.
As we left we got the greatest reward ever – a tearful thank-you from the home owners. We were given this blessing time and time again all weekend long. What a wonderful opportunity to serve and to help some who had previously been bitter towards the church. They now see us in a different light. The “angels in yellow” as some called us made a real difference in Minot. The local members were grateful for the help – they had been working at this for the whole two months! They’d come home from work and put in a couple of hours of service each night. They were exhausted and our numbers were a welcome break. Local businesses didn’t get mad when we trudged mud into their restaurants. Instead they thanked us for coming.
I’m so grateful to the local men who arranged this service opportunity. I’m sure I’d forget a few names if I started naming them, so I’ll just say a big thank-you to all of those who gave us the chance to see and experience this. My son and I had our testimonies grow, and felt the Spirit of the Lord helping us. Hard work with good men, (and a few women!) engaged in a good cause – what a great way to spend the weekend!