mattf #2 said:
What city are you talking about? It wouldn't be Grand Forks would it?
Yup, I was 13 at the time and deliverd newspapers during the winter of 96-97 and all but one of the 8 blizzards and that was because the delivery van got stuck. On April 19th it felt like a scene from a doomsday movie. The water started to some through the storm drains because the one way valves where jammed open and the dikes where failing. Just then the "air raid" sirens start going off, any doubt is now gone, it is time to haul *ss. The sirens don't stop, they just kept going. My family got everything we could out of the basement, loaded what we could carry into the pickup and the car. I had left my shoes at a friends house the day before and all I had to wear where water boots. (Better than snow boots I guess.) By this time, the water is to the top of the curb and is starting to creep toward the house. There is a risk that our small car won't make it through the water. My dad rips off the air intake duct from the car, giving the engine a few more inches of clearance before it would suck water and stall. He and my brother (12 at the time.) get into the pickup and I get into the car with my mom. Since the pickup has a higher engine and we are sure it will make it, my dad goes first and tells my mom to drive in the wake as close as she can. If the car stalls, get out and hop on the back bumper of the pickup.
We had to make it to South Washinton street, about two blocks away. It was originaly just a highway so it is raised several feet compared to the rest of the city. It has now become a dike that is preventing houses to the west of it from flooding above ground, though basements are still flooding and there is limited flooding through the storm sewers. We make it to Washington Street and go south to get out of town. Dispite over 50,000 from Grand Forks and tens of thousands of other people leaving, traffic moved rather quick. The large number of minor roads and gravel roads probably helped this.
We head south for awhile and then turn west to get to my uncle Ed's house. (He lives in the middle of the state. Before we left, my dad placed a quick call to my uncle saying the dikes where failing and we where heading his way. Soon after that, the telephone exchange downtown was flooded and went dead. We are taking some of the two lane highways as are many people. For several hours there are cars as far as the eye can see. Only when we got close to my uncles house did the number of cars start to taper off.
I lived at my Uncles for over a month, then went back to help clean up. While we lacked flood insurance, we did have sewer backup (We had pluged all the drains, but one of the plugs failed.) so we got some insurance money. Lived on Red Cross food for quite awhile. The stuff smells kind of nasty, but doen't taste that bad. We also got $1000 from the "Angel Fund" and that helped alot. We where lucky that only our basement flooded. Was just a few inches from flooding the main floor.
Didn't mean to get long winded, but it ended up that way. I am still living in the same house.
This is all that is left of the Lincon Drive neighborhood.
/49 FEET???? HA!!!!
//Come hell and high water, the Herald delivers.
///Neighbor has a Lincon Drive street sign in his garage that I want to swipe. They have become a collectors item.
