Sunday
It's been a week since our first volunteering experience. Last Sunday I sandbagged, went to church, and then sandbagged the night shift. Steve went in between those times.
Today has been much quieter. It was a quiet night, and we were excited the river was going down. Then when we woke up this morning, we heard a Fargo private school got flooded because of a leak in a permanent dike. It's like the mayor says, we can't let our guard down.
We walked around the neighbourhood last night and today to take pictures. Here are the pictures from the last week:
Steve coming back from sandbagging--did I mention sandbagging gets your REALLY dirty? This was the beginning of the week. All that snow melted by Tuesday. Then we got 8 more inches of snow.
This is me taking really bad pictures driving in our neighbourhood on the way to sandbag. The city used school buses to bus volunteers to neighbourhoods to bag.
Last night we checked out the dike where we got the code red. It's a block and a half from our house. It's really eye opening to see the water, up to your head being held back by a bunch of sand. It's erie to hear the water being pumped out from the other side of the dike and the water lapping against the bags.
These home owners have to stay out day and night watching the pumps. I think they were taking a break when we came by, but they had camping chairs out.
Joshua's school has been taken over by the National Guard. These trucks are full of mud and sandbags for emergency breaches in the area. I also asked the some National Guardsmen for a picture. They're on continual patrol of the area.
These are the rich homes in the neighbourhood. They're the closest to the river.
The city put these markers out before we built the dikes so we knew how high to build them:
So that's how things look in my neighbourhood. It's pretty quiet, except for the helicopters and drone planes that fly by every fifteen minutes. It's hard to believe that a bunch of sand is holding this all back. And it has to do it for the next 8 days.
posted by Sarah Beck @ 5:49 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
so glad for the updates. I check your blog every couple of hours. It is humbling to think of all the many people volunteering their time, and working together for the greater good. I wish this happened more in society. Fargo and its people are such great examples to america of working together and selflessness. It just breaks my heart to think of all the people who have lost so much.... and are still giving all they have to help others. I am glad that you guys are being strong, doing your all to help so many people! we are thinking of you. Love you. Sorry for calling your EVERY DAY last week... just wanted to make sure you guys were ok!!! Hang in there only 1 more week!
I still can't believe you guys are going through this. My family went through the same thing back in Missouri in 1993. It was so bad they had to take a boat to get to there house and the cemetery graves were floating everywhere and it stunk!!You guys are in our prayers! this might sound strange, but what a neat experience you guys are going through. You wont ever forget this. I am grateful that you guys are okay.
Thank you for the tour of your neighborhood. I am trying to figure out where you are at. Good luck my thoughts are with you. I was there in 97 and remember the same things but just not so bad.
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