The Down Range Forum
Member Section => Prayer Requests => Topic started by: MikeBjerum on May 29, 2011, 09:00:24 AM
-
This morning we are getting ready for church where I have the privilege of being worship leader again. However, as soon as that is over our day takes a twist that wasn't planned:
Our daughter is home for the long weekend while her husband is working in Oklahoma City and not able to be home until Wednesday. We had planned to take the boat out for an afternoon on the lake followed by a picnic. But that changed quickly this morning.
The kids live on the South Dakota side of the river from Sioux City, Iowa. The Army Corps of Engineers was planning to release water from dams up stream this coming Friday, and with all the forecasts the kids were excited they bought in the highest level of the community rather than building in the flood plain. All fine and dandy until the email from the association arrived this morning stating that the Corps started releasing yesterday (Saturday) and as of now they are expecting the water level to rise higher than the flood plain. As far as we can tell they are still releasing, and after they close the dam they are planning at least two more releases in the next week or so.
It doesn't sound like it will reach their house, but we are rushing down right after church to plug floor drains, check sump, move furniture, fret, pray and help their neighbors and friends that are in greater danger.
As we went over the list this morning I know this is going to turn into a larger "daddy do" list for this time and the future.
Today's amended plan:
1. Church
2. Dinner at the nursing home with mother-in-law/grandma
3. Stop at hardware store for supplies that may be sold out in Sioux City
4. Drive, drive, drive
5. Scramble
South Dakota is arranging emergency sandbagging for the community, but this old fat man is trying to avoid that!
Please remember us as you can today, and more importantly remember those in the area that is already going underwater.
Thanks
Mike
-
Done and Good Luck Mike!
-
Check the classifieds, KPR had some waders for sale.
-
Done.
-
Done and Good Luck Mike!
Yes indeed!!
-
Done....
-
DR's being modest, he and the folks along the Missouri need help as well since the Corps is doing the same thing to them.
Mike, I spoke with a retired botanist I know and he said he cannot remember when the Dakotas were so saturated with water. Sounds like your family is in the path of all that wetness.
Prayers for them, you, and everyone having to deal with this spring.
-
WOW! I pray that all goes well my friend. Remember you are a a "fat, old man" and pace yourself accordingly. YOU are not replaceable, things are.
-
done......
Stay safe
-
Added!
God Bless!
Richard
-
Thanks guys!
A quick note before I head for bed:
We just got home a few minutes ago. Our quick afternoon trip that I thought would get us home at midnight last night stretched into 36 hours, and we pulled in at 12:30 this morning to find we lost a shed door in the wind today - Father-in-law advice of never leaving a shed door open no matter how nice the weather is. Now I have a 13' x 15' slab to put on a new piece of track since it tore the old track right off the front of the shed when it flew. Good news is that it looks like the door will be salvagable!
In the Dunes I installed a new sump pump with all new plumbing and plugged all but one sewer opening. That one is for their water softener and A/C condensate, but I have everything prepared and ready for them to install. Son-in-law worked all night last night to get close to done and rushed home. He arrived at about 7:30 and we hit the heavy stuff - last night and this morning daughter and I got all the small things we could out of the basement, and tonight Kiley and I brought up all the furniture.
I filled my afternoon today putting sump pumps in for neighbors. Once word got out who put one in I was in great demand!
Rumors suck, but we lived through them: Everyone, including the local news, reported this afternoon that tomorrow would start mandatory evacuation. We had friends from home lined up with a semi to (tractor from one and trailer from another) to rush down and load the house out, but we put them on hold when we heard there was an association meeting this evening. NO MANDATORY EVAC YET! They say that excluding a levee breach they would have two to four days notice on evacs.
The Corps are moving in on Tuesday, and two Blackhawks are coming in with special equipment and heavy sandbags. The levies are being raised to handle 1098 above sea level, which is where they expect the river to reach by June 15th after they reach the highest release levels. Today the flow at the dam is 78,000 cubic feet per second, and they will continue to increase every few days until they reach 150,000 cfs on the 14th. We are holding on to the fact that the projected high is 1098, and the kids' house is at 1105.
Thanks for the prayers! And remember everyone up and down these rivers! The Dunes is hurting because others upstream are hurting, and their pain will continue down stream. Also, if you go to a Home Depot thank them for what they do. Everyone in this development is picking up supplies at the Sioux City Home Depot. The supplies do run low, but they take cell numbers and call people as soon as a truck rolls in (every floor employee I worked with had a note pad with cell numbers and what the person needed - we received two calls when loads of totes arrived). They are running trucks between Sioux City and Sioux Falls around the clock, and Sioux Falls is being fed by others in the region. A worker at Home Depot said that they had four semis dedicated to just running up and down I-29 between the two stores bring orders to Iowa.
I'm heading for bed for a quick rest, so I can get some work done tomorrow. Never know if or when the phone will ring, and I want to be ready this time.
Thanks again!
Mike
-
Prayers continue for you and yours also.
God Bless,
Richard
-
Thoughts and prayers with you and your family.
-
Prayers continue for you and yours also.
God Bless,
Richard
Thoughts and prayers with you and your family.
Amen to what these guys said!!!
-
Mike:
Found your text about 4:30 this morning. Prayers continue for your kids and all those up and down the river.
-
Ditto what everyone else said and thanks for the update. Sucks about the door tho. I had an open door barn with no way to close it I always worried about in storms.
For everyone else's info, we had seriously nasty storms move through the eastern Dakotas and western MN last night, including tornado warnings. Some funnels apparently were seen and/or touched down south of here near the ND/SD border along the border with MN. The rain and wind at one point were so severe that I could not see the streetlights 100 yards away. There is moderate damage everywhere here, from limbs down to siding ripped off mostly from commercial buildings, plus power outages.
Hell of a year so far for a whole bunch of people.
-
God bless, hoping for the best.
-
Just read in "today in history", 1985, 40 tornado's through the Northern states 100's killed, 1000 injured.
This isn't the worst year for weather, it just seems that way when it's happening to you.
Sounds like HD has the logistics down pretty good.
You left the shed door open ? FOOL ! It's like the car window, NEVER leave it open !
Want to end a drought ? Leave your car window open over night, guarantees rain .
Advice from a wetter, and wiser TB. ;D
-
You left the shed door open ? FOOL ! ;D
Yeah, yeah yeah :-[
We also left without extra clothes or wife's medications!
This was supposed to be rush down, work hard, rush back, regroup and do what needs to be done. It was one of those drop everything and run, and the shed doors being open on a nice afternoon and evening with no weather in the forecast was like leaving laundry on the line and not lining someone up to feed pets, etc.
At least everything in the shed is ok, and the neighbor closed and saved one door when he came over to unhook the grain trailer in prep to bring us the reefer for moving.
By the way, we have a door on another shed open yet, because it was broken while closed by strong winds a couple weeks ago. In the middle of fixing the framework, and can not get it done between winds.
I am so sick of spring, and wind, and rain, and cold, and mowing grass, and media hype as we try to figure out what is real and what is for ratings >:(
-
Yeah, yeah yeah :-[
We also left without extra clothes or wife's medications!
Let's just hope Audrey doesn't turn up pregnant as a result. ;D
-
The call came :'(
I'm making final arrangements for a truck and quick refresher (length and weight are no issue as I deal with that on a regular basis, but I ain't shifted that big a gear box in a decade). We can get back into the area after 6:30 tonight, so with the line up of others we figure it will be 7:30 or 8:00 when we start loading.
We will bring everything up here and put it in our garage with a dehumidifier, and pray for the best.
-
Just got home. We arrived down there at about 8:30 and friends already had the entire house in the garage and front yard. We backed in set the ramp, and in an hour and ten minutes everything that was going was packed in the trailer. We had a little left over pizza, some hugs and headed back home. The trailer will sit in the yard till Saturday morning, and then we will top our house and garage off with everything.
They are set to the point that we can pull the appliances and little things with the 12' trailer if needed. It sure is nice to have it this far, and now we hope that we can move it all back this fall.
The best thing about this is watching friends pull together to help each other. These people have been emptying basements, sandbagging and moving each other from place to place for a week. All they talk about is the great party they will have when everyone moves back in this fall.
-
Just got home. We arrived down there at about 8:30 and friends already had the entire house in the garage and front yard. We backed in set the ramp, and in an hour and ten minutes everything that was going was packed in the trailer. We had a little left over pizza, some hugs and headed back home. The trailer will sit in the yard till Saturday morning, and then we will top our house and garage off with everything.
They are set to the point that we can pull the appliances and little things with the 12' trailer if needed. It sure is nice to have it this far, and now we hope that we can move it all back this fall.
The best thing about this is watching friends pull together to help each other. These people have been emptying basements, sandbagging and moving each other from place to place for a week. All they talk about is the great party they will have when everyone moves back in this fall.
Some how I doubt FEMA would be giving anyone such warm feelings....even if they did manage not to show up a day late and a dollar short.....and then, of course, there is the possibility of being billed for the service later.
Dump government assistance and keep it local.
-
Some how I doubt FEMA would be giving anyone such warm feelings....even if they did manage not to show up a day late and a dollar short.....and then, of course, there is the possibility of being billed for the service later.
Dump government assistance and keep it local.
We were there working last Sunday and Monday, I attended one community meeting, I have read and watched several media reports, and there was last night. I have not seen and heard everything, but Solus, you are the first one I have seen use the acronym FEMA!
I have seen a lot of sandbagging going on, and I have not seen any National Guard or public employee on house lots. There are large parking lots in Sioux City where sandbags are being filled and piled for residents to pick up, but I still see hundreds of residents with shovels filling, loading and hauling their own.
I have said it before, but it is heartwarming to watch this community pull together and help themselves and their neighbors!
-
This link explains out the rest of the year will be going:
http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/collection_1759913e-992b-11e0-9ee6-001cc4c03286.html#0 (http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/collection_1759913e-992b-11e0-9ee6-001cc4c03286.html#0)
I looked to see when they were taken, and the one of clearing the Highway to the Sun is dated June 15, 2011!
Tuesday they increased the flow at the Gavin's Point dam to 150k cubic feet per second, and that was supposed to be the max flow. Yesterday, when the increased flow reached Dakota Dunes, the levee started to erode. The National Guard spotted it right away, and it was repaired right away.
There are now reports in the paper that they may be increasing the flow even more to protect the dams.
The official reports give interstate reports in little blurbs, but reports from trucking firms we deal with say I-29 is closed from Sioux City, IA to Omaha, NE; 680 around Omaha has issues and spotting closures; and figure on not taking I-29 south of Omaha all the way to Kansas City (it hasn't reached there, but so many highways are under you can't count on getting back to the interstate).
With the snow in the Rockies just getting started on melting and the heavy rains we are getting recently I just pray this will be over before winter hits.
-
This is what the folks along the Missouri River are dealing with right now.
https://picasaweb.google.com/104592539075472798431/TheGreatMissouriRiverFloodOf2011?authkey=Gv1sRgCLLaoO7rm_qp1AE#5618512518227309218 (https://picasaweb.google.com/104592539075472798431/TheGreatMissouriRiverFloodOf2011?authkey=Gv1sRgCLLaoO7rm_qp1AE#5618512518227309218)
-
I am most concerned about one specific home in Dakota Dunes, and for a friend in Ingomar, MT (60 miles east of Round Up), but this is happening all the way from the mountains near Billings, MT all the way to New Orleans eventually. A lot of people will be suffering before this is said and done!
-
Prayers sent to the family.
May they all be safe.
-
It's party time!
Last night we loaded the semi again, and at 10:30 this morning it was back in the Dunes. When we left for home this evening the resettling was about 75% done, and they were headed to a friend's house for some steaks on the grill.
The last few days have seen most of their neighborhood move back in, and the emergency secondary levee is coming out. The people in the lower areas have been told they can start moving back on Sept. 15th.
The rivers have receded to a level that is still above flood stage, but it is low enough that the water is not up against most of the levees. From the looks of the damage on buildings at a marina and city park, and on the fences along the interstate it looks like the water is down about 10-12 feet.
Photos of I-29 on both sides of Omaha show that that road will be closed for months yet. Where the waters have receded the interstate is completely destroyed, and there are many miles that are still under flowing river waters. If the water level continues to drop I think they will be able to get in in spring, but they will need to tear everything up and build an whole new road bed.
We'll deal with that as we travel, but tonight we are just happy to be to the point we are, and the kids are so glad to not have to sleep on an air mattress!
-
Thanks for the update.
Continued prayers go out to you and yours.
God Bless,
Richard
-
Glad to read the update, and that things are sort of moving back to normal. Flood damage is no joke, and glad your family dodged that bullet.
I was not aware I-29 was damaged so heavily, usually the interstates are built up quite a bit over the local ground. We have an area west of Fargo called the lakes region where I discovered just last week that I-94 had to be diked to prevent the lakes from flooding over the road, and they are rebuilding them one direction at a time in 2 places. A state road that was just rebuilt 3 years ago due to flooding - and raised significantly - is back under water worse than before. None of this is from river flooding like Fargo, Bismarck, Minot or M58's family, this is local lake flooding due to excessive water.
-
The following are all of 680 and 29 in the Council Bluffs/Omaha area. The scenes are similar going both north and south for many miles from this point.
(http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e330/m58/image001-2.jpg)
(http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e330/m58/image002.jpg)
(http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e330/m58/image003.jpg)
(http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e330/m58/image004.jpg)
(http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e330/m58/image005.jpg)
(http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e330/m58/image006.jpg)
-
Steaks on the grill with friends...
Such a standard icon of mundane suburbia...
And yet such a significant signpost on the road back to a normal life and a sharing of bounty with friends.....