Hey, remember that time?

I find it crazy to think this whole ordeal is not over yet. What once seemed a glamorous volunteering opportunity quickly transformed into a disaster zone. We are no longer living in an area of despair, but the damage remains prevalent. We have quite a bit of work to do cleaning up - it seems like every day, I find a new dike! They are seemingly everywhere. It will be interesting to return to the area in August and find out how many repairs are complete.

The Concordia campus is controversially known for both its liberal and conservative leanings. It seems as though the campus is split - conservative economically, liberal socially. However, I have observed a small, yet growing, group of socially conservative students. This group dresses appropriately, acts appropriately, and presents itself appropriately overall.

Our entire community has turned socially conservative in terms of swearing and topics of discussion. We have a new "f" word here, and it is not allowed in conversation. While this subject ran our lives for several weeks, it is now considered obnoxious and unacceptable to bring it up at the dinner table or in lecture.

For over a week, all I thought about was sandbagging. I did not consider my daily worries such as homework, friends, family, etc. I woke up each morning and did not question my schedule for the day - nothing could matter more. All I could think about was when I would be able to get out and sandbag some more. I was constantly considering which areas of town would need the most help and which would be the quickest route there. I had the number for Sandbag Central memorized and random addresses scribbled on the palm of my hand. My clothes were covered in mud - the socks I put on each morning were rock hard, saturated with clay and sand. I did not eat a whole lot, because most of my meals came from the back of Red Cross trucks. I went five days without showering, and the same period without washing my hands. I was repulsive, but dedicated.

For weeks, this permeated our discussion to an unbelievable extent. Anyone - friend, foe, near, or far - would talk about the crest prediction, the height of the contingency dikes, the number and weight of sandbags, etc. Now, on the other hand, a sudden hush has come about the area. No one wants to discuss what happened. If a speaker decides to lecture about it, members of the audience will get up and leave. If anyone attempts to bring it up in conversation, friends shudder and have a countenance of disgust.

It is hard to talk about, yes. I understand. However, I feel it is imperative for us to keep others in our thoughts and prayers. As an ex-psychology major, I hope I learned something about the field. We cannot keep pretending it did not happen, and we need to talk about it to help ourselves move on. Repressed memories hurt more than regular memories, and we can stop that from happening. It was an intense two weeks, and we are not done yet. Let's keep fighting!

P.S. Can you believe I wrote this entire post without using the word "flood?" Oh wait, I just did! Darn.

"3.5 million sandbags...that's a lot of sand!"

This website, written by a fellow sandbagger and blogger, is absolutely hysterical. I hope you take the time to look at it and that you get as much of a kick out of it as I did!

Visualizing the 3.5 million sandbags

The sun was shining high and I walked barefoot down the road

I finished a ridiculous amount of homework in the last few days, so I thought I'd be all clever and do something fun tonight...clean my closet! Little did I know what fun it would end up being.

I started by pulling out all the random things that have been layered along the floor of the closet. I found quite an assortment of items - most curiously, a plastic bag which was tied shut. Quite odoriferous, I was terrified of this bag. When I opened it up, I realized why. When I went home for our impromptu flood break, I kindly packed my Red-River-coated clothes. They were absolutely repulsive, and I am forever indebted to my parents for washing them for me! However, I forgot to clean something...MY SHOES!

In this plastic bag were my running shoes. Well, they will certainly never be running shoes again. These things looked awful - they were coated in about a bajillion layers of sand, clay, mud, and grossness. I did not know where to start.

I decided to take them down to the wash bin in the laundry room and tackle the big guys. I started by lathering them with laundry detergent and taking my scrubby to them. When I filled my left shoe with water, I promptly turned it upside down to dump it out. The water that came out was black. This is after washing them, mind you. I decided this would call for desperate measures.

I'd heard a rumor about washing shoes in the washing machine. I turned to the internet and found lots of handy articles about the best way to go about this. However, I did not have the nerves to actually put my shoes in the school machines (they already make a thumping noise and sound like they're murdering your clothes...sometimes they even flood! and we don't need any more flooding). Right now, my shoes are sitting outside just looking disgusting. I'm sorry for anyone who may walk by.

Hopefully the cleaning fairy will appear and in the morning, I'll look outside to see sparkly clean shoes. I am dying to go running again!

Didn't it rain, children?

You might find yourself wondering, "Jeepers! How much more can this girl possibly write about a FLOOD!?" Well, SURPRISE, there always seems to be more one could say about a flood.

Today, Team Evap reunited for another sandbagging adventure. Unfortunately, most of the team was at home for Easter, so we were only six strong. However, we were a mighty six.

We headed toward Rivershore Drive. As its name insinuates, this place is creepily close to the river. Or the river is creepily close to this place. Anyway, we had a lot of work to do. After the first crest, the river had ripped through several of the neighborhood's dikes (many of the houses had over six feet of water in the basement). The National Guard promptly rebuilt the dikes and then added a 7-foot clay dike right down the middle of the street. I felt pretty bad for the homeowners on the wrong side of the dike - shows how much faith the city has in the sandbag dikes.

Regardless, sandbagging today was a much more pleasurable experience than I had a few weeks ago. The overall sentiment was much more relaxed and easygoing. We were still racing the river, but nowhere near the extent we had in the past. I appreciated losing the anxious, rushed feeling.

One of the campus periodicals compiled the following facts about the flood. I found them highly entertaining. You will presumably find them entertaining as well!

"The number of sandbags that volunteers in the state have filled as of Wednesday was 4.3 million is [sic] equal to:

• The height of 1,720 Empire State Buildings if the bags were stacked one on top of the other.
• A vertical stack of single bags would reach from sea level into space.
• Placed end-to-end, the bags would stretch from Bismarck to Oklahoma City.
• The weight would be equivalent to about 360 Boeing 747's.

The 10,920 miles of [clay and sandbag] dikes equate to almost half the distance around the world as well as twice the distance from New York to California.

The 10,245,000 gallons of water pumped equates to more than 16 Olympic-sized swimming pools."


Some crazy facts, eh? I also appreciated many of the articles in "The Concordian" this week. I think my favorite part was the "Gadget of the Week," which is always an up-and-coming hot technological item. This week, the staff featured the Sump Pump! Wonderful.

Oh, happy day!

Lower predicted second crest = way super happy.

...and make them into monsoons!

The Optimistic Ottoman has for sure been empty these last twenty-four hours. Speaking of which, I can't believe I have only been back for a day! Seems like ages... Anyway, I digress - back to the Optimistic Ottoman.

My professors have all been telling their students not to worry about homework due at the end of the semester because we probably won't be here anyway. It was crazy! I was expecting everything to be normal when we returned, but I guess not. Chances are pretty high that we will have a second evacuation. I haven't the slightest idea what that would entail; perhaps the semester will just end?

In that case, I would be heading over to the Negative Nook. I am really sorry to say it, and I feel selfish, but that would ensure that the flood is really ruining everything. So many events, concerts, exams, papers, etc. have been cancelled. I am honestly feeling as though I'm not learning as much this semester as I could.

However, I am super fortunate for all of the faculty and the community that will be leading me towards the Happy Hallway yet again. It is such a wonderful feeling to see the difference we are making in peoples' lives. I am looking forward to the day when this is all over and we can say that our efforts paid off. Happy Hallway, here we come!

Oh deep river, I want to cross over into campground

This is a letter written by a fellow sophomore Cobber named Adam. It is to be published in the last issue of our campus newspaper this year. The Concordian is devoting the entire issue to the flood - I'm expecting it to be quite a tear-jerker, kind of like this letter...


Dear Flood Fighter,

I just wanted to write you and tell you how proud of you I am. No one told you that you’d spend a week filling, passing, and stacking. That’s not why you came here. But that didn’t stop you.

When you heard the news of the flood, you didn’t shrug and look the other way. You spent the weekend filling bags. And when the college was scheduled to have class the Monday after, you didn’t just go along with it. You took the time to write emails to the administration, pleading with them to allow you to become responsibly engaged in the world the best way you knew how.

When the mist turned to rain, you didn’t let it extinguish your spirit. You stood in the mud, passing bags, not caring about the mess on your shoes. You didn’t just ignore the mud: you wore it as a badge of honor. You smeared it on your face and clothes and let it become the new trendy accessory. When the rain turned to snow, you didn’t care. You added extra layers, hand and foot warmers. You gave gloves to those who didn’t have them. You didn’t let the freezing temperatures freeze your desire.

As the week progressed, you somehow made manual labor the cool thing to do. “Are you bagging today?” you’d ask. But if the answer was, “No,” you didn’t judge. You felt bad for them, and encouraged them to get out and do anything they could.

You bagged on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. You bagged houses miles from town belonging to people you didn’t know, all for the greater good. You bagged for your friends and complete strangers. It didn’t make a difference to you, Flood Fighter. As long as they needed help, you were there.

You bagged, passed, and stacked until your muscles ached, and when they ached, you bagged, passed, and stacked some more. Not until your arms and back screamed for mercy did you finally call it a day. And when you did, you knew you were only resting for another day of the same.

It wasn’t just a day-in day-out battle for you, though, Flood Fighter. Some days you worked for hours on end, came home for a nap, and rose again with the moon for another shift. You filled the Fargodome and Sandbag Central to capacity so they had to turn people away. You showed up in such overwhelming numbers at all times that they didn’t know where to send you. And when the busses stood still, you took it upon yourself to find someone who needed your help.

Flood Fighter, you have gone above and beyond. When your community needed you more than ever, you answered the call and then some. You poured your heart and soul into every last bag along with the sand. And when they finally evacuated you to some other part of the world, you didn’t turn a deaf ear to the valley. You watched anxiously as the news covered the flood. You checked every day to see when you could get back. You bagged in other parts of Minnesota and North Dakota. You refused to forget.

So thanks again, Flood Fighter, for all you’ve done. You’ve shown that our mission isn’t just for show. You mean it, and you’re not afraid to prove it with your blood, sweat, and tears. As for now, Flood Fighter, get your rest. We’ll need you again for the next fight.

Flozzard?

I thought this was an April Fool's Day joke...but it was posted today, and it's for real. Haha!

"A "Pillow Fight post-Flozzard Fargo Moorhead" is scheduled for 4 to 6 p.m. Saturday at the US Bank Plaza in downtown Fargo. The event is scheduled in conjunction with International Pillow Fight Day."

http://www.areavoices.com/springflood/?blog=47939

My world is a flood / slowly I become one with the mud

The predictions for the next few weeks are absolutely, terrifyingly, heartbreaking. I've been avoiding the news coverage at all costs, hoping to avoid any bad news. Last I checked, we were doing well - a second crest was expected, but it would be manageable. Now I'm looking forward to the end of the school year with a bit of hesitation and apprehension. Will I be sitting in my music theory class working on what now seems a silly composition? Or will I be out fighting the flood, filling sandbag after sandbag?

I came across this clip on CNN.com: http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/weather/03/30/fargo.slideshow/index.html. It is fascinating, curious, and intriguing. I really appreciate the description of dike building and the intricate details of filling a sandbag.

Each sandbag goes through a long life process. Here are the steps.

1) Person One brings sandbags, sand, shovels, cones, workbenches, etc. to sites.
2) Everyone sets up the site, creating all sorts of nifty tools.
3) Person Two takes an empty sandbag from a pile, opens it, hands it to Person Three.
4) Person Three holds the sandbag below a traffic cone.
5) Person Four shovels two large shovel-fuls or three small shovel-fuls of sand into the bag.
6) Person Three hands the sandbag to Person Five.
7) Person Five ties the bag and hands to Person Six.
8) Person Six stacks the bag in a huge pile.

From here, the sandbag goes elsewhere:
1) Directly to a zipper-line, straight to a dike.
2) On a semi or in the back of a truck to be taken to a zipper-line and then to a dike.
3) Etc.

There you g0 - the first few steps in the creation of a sandbag. Stay tuned - you never know, maybe I'll post the steps of the creation of a dike. Goodness knows how riveting that would be...

Mr. Blue Sky, please tell me why you have to hide away for so long!

Sometimes, while I'm at home, it's hard to remember what's going on in F-M right now. I don't know if I forget about it because I'm really forgetting, or if it's because I'm scared to think about it. I have been trying to keep myself as busy as possible and fill my time with as many things as I can. However, when I have down time, I find myself thinking about the flood.

I feel like I have lost a couple weeks of my life to this darn disaster. However, I have gained so much through all of this! Heck, I never guessed I'd be able to look at ten sandbags and tell you which one is filled with the proper amount of sand. Being home has been an adventure. I've been graced with the presence of quite a few friends from high school. I've also been fortunate enough to catch up with a fair number of good friends from Concordia. What they say about our campus being close-knit couldn't be any more true. I miss my Team Evap like crazy!

Last night, I met some friends for the Bishop Allen concert in Minneapolis. They played a rocking show, including their song "Rain." Here are a few lyrics which had double meaning for us last night:

Oh, let the rain fall down
and wash this world away.
Oh let the sky be grey
cause if its ever gonna get any better
it has got to get worse for a day.

Morning, where am i this morning?
Now its really pouring,
crawling up this shore
and I walk the neighborhood
and the umbrella does no good
and I guess its in my blood.
I couldn't stop the flood!

Sharing

Several of my friends have sent out notes that I think are worthy of posting here. Sometimes I find that others are far more capable of expressing my feelings that even I am. My friend Paige wrote this message. I don't necessarily agree with each of her words, but it captures the essence of many students' feelings this weekend. I hope you take the time to read what she has to say:



There are feelings right now that I can't put into words, but I am sure going to try.

People call us lucky: two spring breaks, two weeks off of school, time to spend at home with our families when most others are returning to the daily grind.

What they don't understand, what no mere note can relay, is the fear. The intense, inexplicable fear that comes with our status as refugees.

Yes, I said it, refugees. We were at war--in a place where fear was running rampant; people were (and are) loosing everything they own. Always the threat of loss of life, by human error or environmental fury. In a mental state of constant battle with this unstoppable beast, the Red River. Knowing there's no stopping it, but trying to thwart its insatiable hunger.

Now we've been kicked out. Any chance we had of influencing the path of destruction, of changing the course of events, taken away from us like a blanket from an infant. This thing we've been grappling with, using every ounce of strength--physical and mental--in an attempt to beat back the mighty Red; now we can do nothing but watch from afar, praying with everything we have left that those who somehow found a way to remain can keep up the fight. No way to return to our Home--while it may not be our primary home, for eight months it is the place we lay our heads, the place we study, the place we fall in love, the place where our hearts are broken. In some small way, our souls are tied to this place, and now it is in danger. In terrible danger, and there's nothing we can do about it. We are truly a displaced people.

No one knows what we will come back to. It may be a campus as untouched as the one we left, with the added bonus of functioning sewer systems. It may be a campus that has been ravaged by floodwaters, everything wet and damp for at least the first floors. It may be a campus that lost sewer integrity, and everything, of everyone's, is contaminated with bacteria and sludge...

...They key is fear--of the known; river, sewer systems, time--and of the unknown; graduations, belongings, friends. Some may choose to stay away until after Easter, thus leaving us with holes in our hearts where these friends should be.

The ever imminent threat of utter and complete devastation has been weighing on our minds in ways that no one who has not gone or is not going through it can possibly immagine. While they may think they can, it is something that truly is too horrific for the mind to craft on its own....

...We want to go back. We want to watch the dikes ourselves. We want to help plug the leaks. We want to have the feeling of some small measure of control. We want to be allowed home. We miss our friends, our routines, our homework, our professors, our beds, our roommates.Please pray for the dikes to hold. Pray for calm winds in the coming storm. Pray for safety of all those still volunteering to watch for leaks and breaches. For the Oak Grove Lutheran School. For the students and families who've been displaced.

I can show you that when it starts to rain, everything's the same

The longer I'm at home, the less weird it seems...well, sort of. Every now and then (okay probably a bajillion times a day) my brain freaks out and wonders, "Wait! What the heck is going on?" I get a little confused about where I am and why I'm here. I keep having spasms where I think I should be doing homework, studying, practicing, or whatnot. Oh well! It's getting better though.

I'm also starting to feel less guilty about enjoying my break. I've had the awesome opportunity to see quite a few of my friends while I've been home. Concordia's crazy strange breaks usually don't coincide with anyone else's, but this impromptu spring break is at a normal time! I am, however, getting a little irritated with all of the people who say, "Oh! It must be great to have a surprise break - no school for two weeks!" I'm sorry to say it, but I miss school a ridiculous amount. I love learning, I love class, I don't even really mind homework. I'm planning on heading back to school as soon as that silly campus reopens. :)

We've heard mostly great news about F-M lately though. The river crested a day earlier than predicted at between 1-2 feet lower than expected. Our dikes, for the most part, have been holding up well! A picture of my piano professor's house even made the front page of CNN. Whoa!

I'm yearning for more information about Concordia so I can figure out what on Earth is going to become of the rest of the semester. Academics are a little unnerving. I've heard from a couple profs, but not a whole lot. I'm eagerly awaiting Pammy J's update for the college in the morning!

Paul Bunyan Telephone Company

This morning, the Fargo Forum referred to Concordia students as "refugees." Okay, so I know this situation is devastating and terrible, but refugees? Really?

Our lovely newspaper also reported that a farm north of Grand Forks has relocated sixty of its cattle to West Fargo. I'm fascinated and intrigued by all of the animal shelters and funny evacuation centers that have been set up.

Fargo has supplies for 30,000 evacuees for a week - I find that appalling. Concordia had a lot of students without places to go (I was fortunate enough to have transportation, housing, etc.) so they sent students to the Language Villages (a year-round language camp sponsored by Concordia). I feel helpless enough as it is, but I can't imagine what it would be like to be stranded in Bemidji without friends and family. They do have internet, however. And I'm proud to announce that "Paul Bunyan Telephone Company" is providing them with cable televsion. Doesn't that sound like a joke? Nope, it's real. :)

And Noah thought his flood was big?

These last twenty-four hours or so have been absolutely ridiculous. James and I tried evacuating yesterday before dinner, but got stuck in a blizzard before we even made it to Fergus. We turned around, headed back to Moorhead, and joined our friends in some more last-minute, late-night sandbagging efforts. However, after making it to North Fargo, we received word that campus was evacuating immediately. James and I were fortunate enough to already have our bags packed - we got right back on I-94, which was thankfully cleared up.

Anyway, we ended up in St. Cloud to stay at my uncle's house for the night. This morning, we woke up early and drove down to SE MN. We received an e-mail saying campus is expected to reopen on April 6. Impromptu spring break? Guess so.

I know the flood is nowhere near done - the crest is predicted to arrive on Sunday afternoon. I still have up to ten days of hiding out in Rochester. However, I've learned a few interesting things and had some crazy experiences in the last week.

I never thought I'd

- Eat out of the back of a Red Cross truck for a week
- Be labeled a flood "victim" and evacuate
- Be able to (easily!) lift bags half my weight and consider this part of a normal daily routine
- Wear handbell gloves while filling sandbags
- Wake up in the morning and dress myself entirely from the dirty clothes hamper
- Go for a week without showering, washing my hands, flushing a toilet

Oh mister sun, sun, mister golden sun. Please shine down on me!

I am proud to say that I have never been particularly materialistic. Physical possessions have had little meaning in my life thus far. The few things I deeply care about carry sentimental value, and even then, I've avoided boasting about their importance.

However, on Sunday, I realized the imminence of the flood concern. We still didn't realize the devastation that was yet to come, but we knew that a flood would shortly be arriving. After consulting with a few friends, I realized that every Target, Walmart, and shoe store in the area was completely sold out of rainboots. I turned to the internet, and saw that stores were pretty much sold out of my size even online (I wear size five...)! Anyway, I decided to settle for some boots from Target. I ordered a size six and paid twenty-five dollars for them, including shipping. That's pretty cheap I guess, but it's a lot for a college kid.

My boots arrived in the mail TODAY and I couldn't be any more stoked. They're a bit big, but that doesn't matter! I'm so pumped to have dry feet. Whether rain, mud, or snow, nothing will get through these boots.

Best twenty-five dollars I've ever spent.

Let's go build a dike, up to the highest height.

1) Today was a crabby day. Last night, the city of Fargo announced that only 500 volunteers would be needed today. 95% of the dikes had been built to the level needed - 42 feet. However, around 11:30 a.m. this morning, the engineers announced the new, higher prediction for the crest would mean all of the dikes would need to be raised to 43 feet. This was devastating and heartbreaking news. Entire new neighborhoods that were previously considered safe would now need to start sandbagging. The existing dikes needed to be widened in order to be built taller. So much work to be done!

2) On a lighter note, I look and smell awesome right now. When I woke up this morning, I walked right over to my dirty clothes hamper and pulled out todays outfit. I wore a bajillion layers of clothes - more than I thought possible. I topped it all off by wearing yesterday's shirt inside out. I thought that might make it better...but PSYCH! It was still gross.

3) Joke of the day: How do you make an apple into a squash? Put it on the ground and step on it.

4) Minnesotans are the best! At our last site today, the homeowner, Jan, was the nicest lady in the whole world...for real. Inside her house, she filled her bathtub with hot water and let us take turns coming inside to thaw and soak our feet. She had heating pads plugged in around her garage with chairs next to the outlets for us to warm up for a few minutes.

5) Today's "Punk'd" moment: BLIZZARD! My dorm woke up this morning to a courtyard that looks like something from the book of Revelations. Eight inches of snow! On our way to our first site this morning, we got stuck in the snow and had to get out and push the car. Fargo-Moorhead is under a "no-travel" advisory. Won't be too much of a problem since many of the interstates and big roads are closed - some due to flooding, some due to snow. However, we were able to battle the snow.

No matter the precipitation, we're going to fight.

One day, I hope to tell my grandkids, "We beat the Red River."

It takes a whole village

If I could envision the end of the world, this is what it would look like: Thousands of homes near destruction, a ridiculous blizzard, people coming from all over to try to stop it, and a flood close to engulfing the whole city.

I woke up feeling like death this morning, and looked out the window to see that Fargo-Moorhead looks like death as well. This has been the first morning that I didn't wake up on top of the world, optimistic to save the town. I'm going to go out there and do it anyways though!

I'm wearing my long underwear with two pairs of pants. I put on a pair of socks, then a plastic bag on each foot, and another pair of socks - just to make sure the water doesn't seep totally through. I'll be wearing winter boots, hat, scarf, and hat!

Team Evap is still going strong.

Bring it on, Red.

What the heck, flood?

We didn't have room in the truck for all of us, so the guys decided to follow us running!

This GIANT hill of mud was fun to slide down.

Not so much fun to carry sandbags down.

We were a bored while waiting for a bus on Monday.

So we started creeping...as you can see here.

"What the heck, flood!?"

I went to bed at 9 p.m. tonight but woke up at 10:00 to a text message from our campus emergency notification system saying we actually don't have class tomorrow.

Over three hundred students joined a Facebook group saying they would send e-mails to Dean Krejci requesting to have class canceled tomorrow. I didn't join the Facebook revelution, but I certainly sent a polite request to Dr. Krejci. Evidently our requests worked!

Anyway, I've been wide awake since I woke up at 10:00 p.m. I guess my body's just not quite used to going to bed so early...crazy! I posted pictures from yesterday, so I hope you enjoy them. :)

Concordia = letdown

After seven hours of sandbagging!
James, Anna, Andrew, Seana, Lucy, Stephen

Walking around to random houses asking if anyone needs help.
In the distance on the right you can see one of the many sandbag-filling sites.

Our first site today: Rachel's uncle's friend's house.
This is the first section of our zipper-line to pass sandbags along.
It extended three times this length around the back of the house.
The pile of sandbags to move was as tall as me and a block long...

Here's the partially-constructed dike.
We extended it the length of the block...yowsers!

Random thought of the moment: Trying to eat was interesting tonight. We were in so much pain that we could barely pick up our plates to carry them through the dinner line.

Anyway, Concordia decided not to cancel class tomorrow. I am thoroughly disappointed. Though I'm not sure it would have been the best idea, I certainly would have sandbagged all day tomorrow if class wasn't being held. Bummer. I guess Team Evac vs. Red River will be put on hold for a while - it will have to be up to MSUM/NDSU (oh and we met volunteers from St. Cloud and Bismarck today!). So I suppose best of luck to them! Wish we could be out there fighting too.

I posted some pictures to lighten the mood! Well, sort of... :)

As I went down to the river to sandbag

I'm not even sure where to start with this one - it hurts just to type. My fingertips, wrists, elbows, etc. Oh well! This morning, we seem to have hit what we're referring to as the "Pain Threshold." We're in so much pain that it can't possibly get any worse, so we'll just keep chugging along.

Team Evac started the morning with breakfast at 8:15 a.m. We were twelve members strong. As a group, we headed over to Rachel's uncle's friend's house in southern Fargo. Soon, we two busloads of high schoolers arrived to help us - over 120 of us total. In the next four hours, we built a dike along the entire coul-de-sac. We formed countless zipper-lines and emptied zillions of truckloads of sandbags, it was intense!

At this house, we started to witness the emotions that are accompanying the flood. The houseowner, Jay, was one of the most upbeat, fantastic people I have come across in ages. He eventually took control, and we learned how much easier it is to have one person doling out directions than for everyone to shout out their own suggestions. We also noticed that the age difference among volunteers at this site was a difficulty. I'd guess the youngest volunteer was eight, and the oldest was sixty. Those at each end of the spectrum tired quickest and consequently grew grumpy and crabby. By 1:00 p.m., Team Evac decided to leave the site. We realized the negative atmosphere was bringing us all down and a change of environment would be best.

We drove back to Moorhead and parked at Concordia. By now, we were down to six people. We decided just to start walking towards the river and find somewhere to help. Each house we stopped at was incredibly grateful and put us to work. I was impressed to see how each person in the community was able to help. Many houses set card tables at the end of their driveways, piled high with water bottles and sandwiches. While sandbagging from 9-4 today I ate more food than I probably eat in two normal days. For the most part, everyone we met was ridiculously kind and grateful. I made so many friends today, and I really wish I would have another chance to talk to these people again!

However, today was an awesome affirmation that I have the best friends in the entire world. The bags we worked with today were filled with twice as much sand as the ones yesterday. I was unable to carry these myself, and if someone handed one to me I would either fall over or drop it. My friends helped me figure out a way where I could team up with someone else or they could just skip me in the line when a heavy bag came along. Even when I dropped bags, never once did I hear a single word about the inconvenience I was causing. I'm so thankful for my patient friends!

Anyway, we all came back to campus exhausted and took quick showers. I didn't even make it to my room before I decided I needed to just take off my clothes in the hallway. Thank goodness we don't have co-ed dorms! When I finally did shower, I realized the water smells even worse than yesterday...gross. They've asked us to either not shower or take quick ones though, so I even turned off the wather while washing my hair. We've also been asked to avoid flushing toilets and to not wash clothes...Mmmm!

Anyway, MSUM and NDSU have already cancelled class for the rest of the week, and I will honestly be embarassed if Concordia doesn't do so as well. I'll keep you updated and will post pictures later!

Infloodenza Virus?

A few random thoughts:
Heading out at 9 a.m. tomorrow for another day of sandbagging.
Having a sauna, movie, and back massage party tonight.
I'm starting to understand why my parents always called my rolled-up jeans "flood pants."

The flu is going around and a bunch of my friends are vomiting. The sewers are all starting to overflow onto the streets. Prexy's Pond is drained and thus a pile of mud. I feel like this is God's sick and twisted idea of a joke. "Let's see how many disgusting things can happen all at once!"

:/

Sandbag Central

Concordia cancelled classes for Monday and Tuesday, so we went out volunteering all day today. We started out with breakfast at 10:00 a.m. James and I quickly realized we'd be needing gloves and bandanas so we went to Walgreens to get supplies for the group. By the time we made it back to campus, we had thirteen more friends coming with. We headed over to Park Region, where Concordia was shuttling students to Sandbag Central at MSUM. There, we registered with FEMA and got in line for the city busses to take us to sites. Over five hundred students were waiting in line with us, so we weren't actually able to make it to a site until noon.

Once we arrived at our first site (a grocery store parking lot), we started making sandbags and loading them into trucks to deliver to houses. Our system was great by the end - we had sixty people, so it took a while to get the groove. However, we had all sorts of lines to pass the sandbags along, knew just how many shovelfuls of sand we needed in each bag, etc. We filled countless trucks, it was crazy.

One family came and asked if some of us could come help build a dike behind their house. My group of friends (we called ourselves Team Evap, hoping the water would evaporate) piled into the back of the family's pickup and headed out. We drove a few minutes, and arrived at a house a several blocks from the river. However, the river was literally in their backyard. They were racing to finish the dike before tonight - when the water was expected to hit their house.

Before we started, we figured we'd head to the backyard and come up with a plan. We walked about five feet into the yard and realized no grass was left. We were already ankle deep in mud and the ground was sloping downwards. We all slid down the hill toward the river and laughed about how quickly we had gotten dirty.

Anyway, we had to build a wall out of plywood and then line the entire wall ten feet tall with sandbags. Volunteers from our previous site delivered probably twenty pickups of sandbags, which we stacked and stacked and stacked. Our family was super nice - the grandma brought us all kinds of food! Mostly cookies, fruit, and hamburgers (okay, maybe not best for the vegetarian, but it's the thought that counts!).

After six hours, about half of us just gave in. We were shaking and starting to drop bags because we were so exhausted. The granny gave us a ride back to campus and we're all presumably crashing in our dorms right now.

I think tonight I'm going to head over to MSUM and ask if there's anything I can do to help that doesn't involve heavy lifting. Those sandbags are 30+ pounds each - a little ridiculous!

Anyway, I volunteered to do all of my friends' laundry, so I'd best head out and do that. Oh dear!

Above, I posted a couple pictures from yesterday. I'll try to keep uploading them as they come. Pretty scary that the flood level is so terrible today and the crest is still four days away!