Oak Grove neighborhood begins work of coming back
By Deneen Gilmour
The Forum
Oak Grove Lutheran High School’s unplanned, soggy spring break ended Wednesday.

High school students went back to class in temporary quarters at Concordia College in Moorhead. Junior high students had already resumed classes at Trinity Lutheran Church in Moorhead.

Oak Grove started its hiatus April 8 when sandbagging became a full-time job in order to save the school from the Red River.

Then, six days ago, a dike burst and flooded the school and neighboring homes.

In all, students missed 11 days of school.

Academic dean John Conant said, "Kids are a little bit nervous but excited" to be on the college campus.

Most teachers and students were just happy to be in school, he said.

Meanwhile, over at the flooded campus, an experiment of sorts was beginning.

Flood restoration experts advised Oak Grove administrators that wet paper goods can often be restored by freezing them. So the school parked a freezer truck next to its Administration Building.

On Wednesday, a busload of Hillcrest Academy students from Fergus Falls, Minn., loaded up wet books from the Oak Grove library and hauled them into the freezer truck.

The Red River has receded from most of the Oak Grove neighborhood where the dike failure damaged about 30 homes.

Water still covers part of North Terrace Drive and the Oak Grove campus. Mud left behind by the river plagues much of South Terrace Drive.

Appliances and wet carpets, pulled from basements or even flooded main floors, line the streets.

Yet sunny touches of spring dot the neighborhood. Thanks to Shotwell Floral’s greenhouse on Lower Terrace Drive, potted yellow mums brighten the flooded neighborhood.

Blooming mums sit atop sandbag levees, on the bow of a boat, on decks and porches.

"A lot of our trucks couldn’t get out," said John Shotwell. "So we thought we might share them with people who’ve had trouble with the river. Our greenhouse manager passed them out. We need a little cheer somehow."