Ada residents back, well into cleanup
By Dave Olson
The Forum
ADA, Minn. – One of the first cities in the area to fall victim to overland flooding this spring, Ada now may be the first to prove that communities can survive.

Most of the town’s 1,700 residents have returned from the April 7 evacuation and are well into the cleanup required to make their houses livable again, City Clerk Brian Kranz said.

Ada-Borup High School will be rebuilt and the hospital and nursing home are so badly damaged they may have to be replaced, too.

Furniture and appliances damaged by water or tainted by sewage sat piled on berms Wednesday as a platoon of garbage trucks, some from as far away as the Twin Cities, prowled the streets and picked up the refuse.

Ada remains on limited power but Kranz said citizens are being conscientious about using electricity.

"If we lose power again we could be down for a long time," he said. The National Guard is still in town maintaining a number of large generators that are keeping things such as lift stations operating.

Ada was receiving some power from the south via Northern States Power Co. It normally gets its power from transmission lines to the west, which were damaged in recent storms and flooding. Repairs have been hampered by high water.

Kranz said a number of homes are still without power because of ruined electrical panels or other damage. In a few cases, he said, the amount of damage to homes is greater than their value.

Kranz said the insurance claims picture has been both good and bad. "If anything, the frustration of the people is not the flood itself, it’s dealing with the insurance companies," Kranz said. In some cases, he said, people have been told that they won’t be reimbursed for damage because it couldn’t be determined which came first, floodwater or sewer backup.

"Some are lucky,’’ he added. "We’ve seen agents that are going around with adjusters and writing out checks for $10,000."

Ada-Borup School Superintendent Don Vellenga said federal officials told him this week that the flood-damaged high school is to be replaced rather than repaired.

The federal government has a policy of replacing a structure if the cost of repairing it is at least half the cost of building a new one.

Vellenga said the damage to the high school is estimated at $5 million, well more than half the estimated $8 million cost to replace it.

Officials already are working on plans for the new school – it is to be built just to the west of the Ada-Borup Elementary School in town – but Vellenga said a new building probably won’t be completed until the fall of 1998.

The federal government will cover 75 percent of the cost of the school, the state is to pick up 15 percent and the local district will be responsible for 10 percent, or $800,000. Vellenga said because of circumstances the board can authorize the expenditure without a public vote.

He said with all the flood damage in the region they want to get their construction plans moving quickly to avoid material shortages and cost increases.

Elementary classes resumed in Ada on Monday and high school classes are to start up next Monday.

Officials and teachers were looking over the county 4-H building Wednesday and other classes will be held at the elementary school and in church basements around town.

The district plans to hold graduation as planned May 25 at 2 p.m. The location has yet to be decided. High School Principal Jim Christianson said they are planning an outdoor program.

Kranz said officials have estimated that the hospital and nursing home in town were 67 percent destroyed by the flood. And while it is likely those buildings, too, will be replaced rather than repaired, he said federal officials have yet to make that determination.

Kranz said that from the talk around town and the smiles on people’s faces, "recovery is occurring. People are seeing themselves as much more fortunate than those up north, although disaster has occurred here."

Kranz said Ada has been overwhelmed by offers of help and donated goods. He said he has been urging would-be benefactors to shift their attention to other communities that are in greater need right now.

The city has cautioned people not to pick up junk discarded on boulevards because of the threat of disease but not everyone has heeded the warning.

Jody Bueng, a Twin Valley, Minn., police officer helping out in Ada, spent Wednesday chasing curb crawlers away from the tainted treasures.

He said many of those picking up items were from out of town but most knew better anyway.