Washing away a disaster
By Gerry Gilmour
The Forum
BRECKENRIDGE, Minn. – Kal Michels is getting more sleep these days, but he still keeps his waders in the cab of his pickup truck.

A mayor who endures two major flooding events in one month is a cautious mayor.

"When you’re the mayor, it doesn’t matter if you lose 400 homes or one home," Michels said Thursday. "It’s traumatic."

Flooding April 5 and April 8 inundated 400 homes here – one of every four homes in the community. The mayor, city employees and countless volunteers survived with little and at times no sleep as they fought rising rivers.

Michels said a hard freeze on the heels of the April 6 blizzard likely spared Breckenridge and its twin town, Wahpeton, N.D., from the fate which visited Grand Forks, N.D., and East Grand Forks, Minn.

"We were cursing it at the time, but now I realize it was a blessing," Michels said of the blizzard.

Life will never really be back to normal for the 3,750 residents of Breckenridge, but people here are searching for some sense of normalcy.

The water level on the Red River of the North headwaters – where the Otter Tail River meets the Bois de Sioux – continues its slow but steady fall.

The Minnesota-Dakota bridge, linking Breckenridge with Wahpeton, reopened Thursday.

In downtown Breckenridge businesses are reopening. On the flooded south side, people are surveying damage to their homes. Some have begun pumping the putrid mixture of water, home heating oil and sewage out of their basements.

Water that flooded overland on the southside also is retreating as pumps kick it over city dikes on the Bois de Sioux.

At the flooded Wilkin County Courthouse, employees are picking up supplies and taking them to temporary offices.

Breckenridge City Clerk Blaine Hill said city water and sanitary sewer systems are fully operational.

He said volunteers are streaming into the city to help the cleanup effort and that a Breckenridge Flood Relief Fund has a balance approaching $20,000 at Community First Bank – half of that contributed by Lions International.

"The goal is to put 100 percent of that money into the hands of the people who need it," Hill said, showing a $500 check that arrived in the morning mail.

On Thursday he toured the city with a representative of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Hill said it sounds as though the city will recoup 100 percent of the roughly $100,000 it expended to fight the flood – as President Clinton promised in his visit to the valley Tuesday – but the community may have to share as much as 25 percent of the cost of repairing flood-damaged public buildings, including the courthouse, senior citizen center and library.

At St. Francis Medical Center they’re performing elective surgery again. The hospital had been cut off by flooding, with National Guard trucks providing the only access.

St. Francis president Mark McNelly said 124 nursing home residents are being moved back into their once-flooded living quarters, some as soon as today.

The residents were evacuated to the hospital, from the adjacent nursing home, when the flooding began. Among them is the mayor’s mother, Hazel.

"They’ve adapted well, but like many, they’ve been displaced from their homes, and they want to get back," McNelly said.

He estimates that 60 to 70 of the nursing home and hospital’s 400 employees experienced flooding in their own homes. They understand the anguish of those who fled greater Grand Forks, he said.

"While this has been devastating to Breckenridge, many of us do have jobs to go back to – at least at St. Francis. We’re thankful for that."

Helping other businesses rebuild is the community’s No. 1 priority right now, Michels said.

The mayor spent part of the morning on the telephone with U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., and Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., pleading for flexibility in Clinton’s $500 million flood aid package.

Both the president, and Vice President Al Gore, who visited Breckenridge, recognize that this year’s flood was an unprecedented event, Michels said.

"It needs an unprecedented response. We don’t need loans, we need grants. We need grants with no strings attached," Michels said.

He said one seed and fertilizer business in town lost its entire inventory.

"They don’t need a loan that has to be repaid over 30 years. They turn that inventory over every year, not every 30 years," he said. "People here get by on slim margins. This is not Chicago or New York City."

Michels said people need help now. If the aid package is distributed to numerous federal agencies, bureaucracy will tie the funds up for years, he said.

"People can’t afford payments (to FEMA) if they’re not in business. They’ll leave if they’re not in business," he said. "Even a month from now is too late. A month from now, they might be gone."

Michels said he expects the community will lose some of its citizens – people who will choose or be forced to move on. Housing is a pressing need, he said.

Dan Greenwaldt and Gloria Waasdorp plan to stick it out.

The brother and sister who operate Slim’s Home Furnishings experienced a total loss of their inventory in 25,000 square feet of show rooms and storage. Water was as high as 3 feet deep on sofas.

Greenwaldt said the family store’s eight employees had to be placed on unemployment, yet some were there Thursday, volunteering to clean up and help salvage some pieces of furniture.

"It’s tough to keep a payroll when there’s no business," Greenwaldt said.

Thankfully, he said, they decided to buy flood insurance this year for the first time ever. Many other local businesses did not, he said.

Greenwaldt lost his home in the flood as well. He said he went in there Thursday but was driven out by heating oil fumes. He said his tank burst in the basement. He said he closed the door and went back to work at the business.

He said he’ll live in a small trailer on the lot, with his wife, Lori, and children Justin, 8, and Jenaia, 3, until they can reclaim their home.

The house will get pumped out later, he said. "We’re kind of leaving our homes alone for now, because this store is our livelihood," he said.

Waasdorp said she can’t believe how the community and customers rallied to try and save the store. All they can do now, she said, is pick up the pieces and move on.

She said they’ll start with a "flood sale" in four weeks.

"So many people lost everything," she said. "I’m hoping my loss can be their gain. If we can sell some of this cheap to people who have nothing, I’ll be happy. That’s the only positive I can see out of this."