Introduction

Were we ready for a flood of historic proportions that could spill over the banks, break the levees, and devastate a large portion of two cities? That was the question I left you with in Part 1 of this story. It was the question that occupied the forefront of my mind and worries on the evening of Friday, March 20, 2009.

Again, let me provide a brief context. I apologize that this story is told from a single perspective, though I will try to shed light on the experiences of others and their diligence and faith. It has been a whirlwind. Many others in our Fargo-Moorhead LDS community have been affected and involved far beyond the scope of my limited efforts. To them I give tribute and recognition—their efforts have been heroic and inspiring.

As an example, only this morning I telephoned several individuals and families in our Fargo 2 nd Ward that are more severely affected by the flood conditions in the Fargo area. One family, the Richard and Heather Budge family, has remained steadfast in their home in a small development a few miles south of town, threatened by the possibility of overland flooding from a swollen tributary of the mighty Red River. I asked Sister Budge if they had enough food and water and she replied, chuckling, “Of course, Brother Brotherson! I am a good Mormon mother!” Another sister north of us in a small town is cut off by the floodwaters, and is running four pumps continuously with her neighbors to pump out the water seeping and threatening them—“probably another six weeks,” she commented.

But let me take you backwards again in the story, to the third day of our gathering storm and the events that unfolded from that point forward.

Earthen dike along Oak Street N at 8th Avenue N, Fargo, North Dakota. View is to the north, toward Mikkelson Field. Red River stage (at Fargo): 40.8'.  Donald Schwert.

Day 3 – Saturday, March 21, 2009

Red River Flood Stage – 19.24 feet

The frantic declarations of city officials and the rapidly growing sense of crisis loomed large on Saturday morning, March 21, 2009. It was clear by television and radio announcements that the projections for a significant flood event were suddenly of immediate significance.

Fargo, North Dakota and Moorhead, Minnesota are “sister cities,” in a sense, separated by the mighty Red River and a state line, but united in geography and history and common humanity. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints here is small in population. Fargo serves as the center of a geographic stake that covers one of the largest areas of any stake in the continental United States, covering parts of three states. The Fargo ND Stake stretches from Bemidji, Minnesota on the north downward to Sisseton, South Dakota, west to Aberdeen, South Dakota, and then far northward across central North Dakota toward the Canadian border and encompassing cities such as Jamestown, Devils Lake, and Grand Forks, North Dakota. This great rectangle covers a vast part of the Red River Valley, a flat agricultural plain stretching for hundreds of miles. There are around 2500 members in the Fargo ND Stake, with the stake center located in Fargo and two Fargo wards and a branch that include between 800 and 1000 members of the LDS faith.

The Fargo 1 st Ward serves primarily north Fargo, a thin band of Fargo homes along the Red River, and the Moorhead community eastward into Minnesota. The Fargo 2 nd Ward serves primarily south and central Fargo, the city of West Fargo, and stretches anywhere from thirty to fifty miles south, west, and north to encompass outlying towns. The Fargo 3 rd Branch (YSA unit) covers Young Single adults throughout the region. The unit leaders in each of these wards and branch were shifting forward into “high gear” by Saturday morning as the flood projections loomed.

In the history of Fargo-Moorhead, as I noted in Part 1 of this story, the highest recorded flood crest occurred in 1897. A “normal” operating level for the Red River is 12 to 14 feet with an almost casual water flow of 4 to 6 miles and hour. Because the geography of the valley is so flat, when the Red River or its tributaries rise beyond their banks the water sweeps overland and can cause great destruction. When the river reaches 18 feet it is considered to be at “flood stage.” The highest recorded level in history in 1897, 112 years ago—40.1 feet—22 feet higher than “flood stage.” The next most recent flood high occurred in 1997, 12 years, at 39.57 feet, flooding out portions of the city of Fargo and all of Grand Forks, causing billions of dollars in property damage. When the Red River moves at flood stage, the water can flow at 16 to 20 miles per hour with great chunks of ice the size of small cars smashing everything in their path.

On Friday evening, I and others had been pondering the question of whether we were prepared as individuals and families for the coming events. Also, we were dwelling on the readiness of our LDS faith community and the preparedness of city, county and stage officials in the Fargo-Moorhead region. Were we ready?

Amidst a heavy snowstorm, reporter Karen Pauls of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation records the reactions of Fargo citizens to the ongoing flood. 14th Avenue N. and Oak Street, just south of the earthen dike at El Zagal Golf Course.  Donald Schwert.

Saturday morning brought the news that we had entered “flood stage” on the Red River —19.24 feet. But the news was far more alarming. Originally, city and county officials had estimated that we might have a “flood crest” in the middle of April and thus have three to four weeks for continued planning and preparation. Weather conditions shifted dramatically and suddenly we were facing a flood crest by the end of March. Two factors raised enormous concerns. First, the projected flood levels were now anywhere from 37 to 39 feet – among the highest recorded flood levels ever on the Red River. Remember that the 39-foot level in 1997 devastated the communities along the river. Second, the time window for preparation had been cut by a half to two thirds—we had a week to ten days to be ready for the flood crest.

The city official who had been given the responsibility for coordinating preparation of sandbags so that we might build dikes and levees was sobered. The first estimate was that we would possibly need 1 million to 1.5 million sandbags. They had been unsure if it would be possible to make that many sandbags in the 3-week time period—much less a week to ten days. We had hoped to make 50,000 to 100,000 sandbags a day. Now what would we do?

Individual families, church leaders, and city and county leaders were thus in a state of concern and action on Saturday morning, March 21. As I sat at my home and made plans, a phrase from my past occurred to me: “When the time for action has arrived, the time for preparation is past.” Were any of us really prepared?

Saturday was our “dry run” in the Fargo 2 nd Ward for the week to come. With our Bishop out of town, Brother Cook and I had formulated a brief initial response plan. First, we would encourage members to focus on individual and family preparedness for the flood conditions, such as sufficient amounts of food, water, and clothing, as well as plans to leave their home or area if needed. Second, we would identify LDS members and/or neighbors in areas of “high risk” and target them for assistance in preparing for the flood conditions. Third, we would respond to any call for volunteer efforts set in place by city officials and do all that we could to be active and contributing members of our community.

In the first “test” of this plan, our efforts came together beautifully. Sister Clark, a single mother in our ward, lives a couple of miles outside of Fargo on the Sheyenne River, a tributary to the Red River that flows only a few feet from her back yard. Fortunately, Sister Clark is an independent and prepared mother who had surveyed the circumstances and gotten her plans and preparations in place. She ordered a couple tons of sand to be dumped in the corner of her yard, a couple thousand sandbags, and then contacted her home teacher (Brother Rick Adams and his son) to set up a work crew to assist her. Our task? To fill thousands of sandbags and build a solid sandbag-and-plastic dike around the back perimeter of her home in a matter of hours. Quorum leaders jumped on organizing a priesthood response and we set the task for noon on Saturday.

Saturday morning I donned my outfit that would be the same for the next five to six days—a pair of work boots, jeans, a work shirt, a pullover sweatshirt, work gloves, and a shovel. I'd only change briefly into Sunday clothes the next morning. I loaded my two boys, ages 12 and 14, into our vehicle and we set off for Sister Clark's home. When we pulled onto the dirt road where her home lies, it took me several minutes to find a place to park—it was invigorating.

The sight of an LDS priesthood work crew should be common and familiar, I suppose, but to me it is always a thrill and a miracle—men united in faith and effort and good-natured work to accomplish a common purpose in serving others. Perhaps eight to ten of our Aaronic Priesthood young men ranged about the yard, moving equipment and carrying sandbags and throwing snow on each other. Another 15 to 20 Melchizedek Priesthood bearers worked in unison, slowly building a growing sandbag dike on the perimeter of the home. Sister Clark moved among us, checking the dike and filling sandbags.

On that Saturday afternoon and in this place, these men were not doctors, professors, business executives, plumbers, or such—they were Latter-day Saint men. Building a large sandbag dike around a home is no easy task. It typically requires thousands of heavy sandbags weighing thirty to forty pounds each. Each bag must be filled, passed along a line to its location, and then placed like a brick in the growing pyramid of the sandbag dike. Our group worked as a cohesive unit on the variety of different tasks, some men and boys filling bags with sand, shovels ever moving, while others loaded bags into a truck bed or moved them along a line of men and boys for placement on the dike. A sandbag dike cannot be built like a standing wall, but instead must be about three times wider at the base to withstand pressure from water, and so it is built like a pyramid. This takes time and effort and care.

Ben Woods, a medical student, walked back and forth throwing sandbags into the back of his truck and then ferried them through the mud to where they could be placed. He still wore his surgical scrubs, green, and lines of tiredness from long shifts at the hospital. Yet he had come to serve.

The sight of these men and women working, serving, shoulder to shoulder and through all hours would become a familiar one to me in the hours and days ahead. I would see the potential of not only Latter-day Saints, but an entire community and region, united in service and effort and love. It is nothing less than awe-inspiring. This Saturday work party at Sister Clark's home was a small window on the great drama that was just beginning to unfold in our Fargo-Moorhead community.

And yet, I would like to return to the question: Were we ready? Our initial plan, which combined a simple formula of individual and family preparedness, ward and priesthood service in response to specific needs, and community involvement, seemed to be an effective and positive plan. More elements of our preparedness and response plan would come to the fore in the days ahead, but these essentials seemed to be in place.

Earthen dike along Oak Street N, Fargo, North Dakota. View is to the north, toward Mikkelson Field. Red River stage (at Fargo): 40.8'.  Donald Schwert.

Day 4 – Sunday, March 22, 2009

Red River Flood Stage – 21.64 feet

Sunday morning dawned bright and early. We had already discussed plans for our worship schedule as a bishopric and decided that we would go ahead with a regular schedule of meetings. The Fargo 1 st Ward was meeting on a shortened schedule and then asking members to prepare for volunteer efforts. Since our sacrament meeting begins at 9:00 a.m., I had to be at the church quite early for planning meetings.

Brother Jerry Cook and I met, despite the absence of our bishop, about 6:30 a.m. and spent 45 minutes focused almost solely on flood response concerns. We discussed meeting schedules, member needs, resources, and planned responses. This allowed us to decide what information we needed to share with church members on that morning and what critical plans needed to be communicated with other ward leaders. We solidified our three-pronged response plan and added an emphasis on identifying vulnerable members, as well as keeping in touch with all members through our home and visiting teaching efforts.

Our ward council meeting began at 7:30 a.m. and it was a relief to work through items of concern with these leaders and get their wise suggestions. They brought forward names of individuals and families in need of help, and shared suggestions for response and planning. Soon, however, even these strategic efforts began to undergo upheaval as the chaotic rhythm of the developing flood began to take shape. Sister Shay Seamons, our steadfast Relief Society president, was well aware of members in need and volunteered to handle communicating with many ward leaders and members. Our impromptu communication plan would need to be formalized and solidified in days ahead, as it became clear quickly that accurate and reliable information is critical to have during a developing crisis.

Earthen diking at S. Terrace and Elm Street N, Fargo, North Dakota. Dike in the foreground is a contingency dike lining Elm Street, should any the temporary diking in the Oak Grove Neighborhood fail. Red River (frozen) is visible in the distance. Red River stage (at Fargo): 40.8'.  Donald Schwert.

Updates on the well-being of ward members began flowing in before our meetings started at 9:00 a.m. Sister Charlene Nelson, our stake preparedness specialist, wisely chose to remain home from our Sunday meetings with her children because water threatened their rural home 25 miles away. We quickly organized a contingency plan to send a group to assist her in moving belongings if needed. The homes of two other member families were identified as being at high risk in flood-prone areas close to the Red River, and so we began to investigate options of providing assistance in the days ahead.

Our meetings were surprisingly calm and peaceful, with our attention divided between urgent behind-the-scenes updates on members at risk and community warnings and the spiritual processes of interviewing youth for temple recommends or counseling with members. In our sacrament meeting and all other meetings, we emphasized the points we had wished to make about preparing in individual and family settings, assisting ward members in specific circumstances or bringing them to our attention, and responding to the community call for volunteers.

Since the Fargo-Moorhead area has fought floods on a number of occasions in previous years, and the city officials have proactively planned to stockpile resources and emergency response mechanisms in case of flood, we felt confident in their volunteer plans and our ability to contribute. The two additional member homes we felt to be at immediate risk were located south of Fargo in areas along the Red River. One belonged to Sister Heather Budge and her four children, with their father Richard serving on an assignment overseas in military endeavors. The other belonged to Sister Sue Anderberg and her husband Dave. Our services ended at noon.

While we completed a few additional tasks, a group of members returned home and gathered equipment and then went immediately to the Budge home to assist with sandbagging efforts. Again, this good sister had prepared and had both sand and bags delivered to her home for the coming flood preparation. Temperatures had dropped, but there in the snow outside the home our Young Men and Young Women worked to fill and place sandbags. Brett Seamons, the home teacher, directed placement of bags and construction of specific areas to protect the home. It was interesting, as a ward leader, to participate but also to stand back and watch the example of LDS Church members in action following the counsel and guidance of basic gospel principles. I did not need to direct things; indeed, most there were far more knowledgeable and better suited to direct the efforts on the ground (however, I did wield a pretty mean shovel).

Flood just after crest along temporary earthen dike on top of 2nd Street N, downtown Fargo, North Dakota. Red River stage (at Fargo): 40.8'.  Donald Schwert.

Sister Budge had followed counsel on preparedness and had been prepared, both with sufficient food and water in her home, as well as the specific materials needed to protect her home against the flooding. She and her children had done the first wave of the effort in filling and placing sandbags. Her home teacher, Brett Seamons, was well aware of the situation and largely organized and directed the response to meet needs in sandbagging her home property. While our labor was needed as ward members, it was rather remarkable to simply wield a shovel and otherwise watch and provide support as a ward leader while the ward members showed up in force and worked together in preparing that home for the rising waters. Again, within several hours the job was completed.

This simple experience, similar to that of the day before, reinforced my testimony of President Harold B. Lee's observation, that we do not need a raft of new programs but that we often simply need to the put the priesthood and the basic principles of the gospel to work in our lives in meeting great challenges.

Soon after I reached home late that Sunday afternoon, things began to move even more quickly as the race to beat the advancing schedule of the rising water began in earnest. First, the river had now reached nearly 22 feet and was projected to advance quickly, with a possible crest in 7 to 10 days. Also, the crest was now projected at a level between 39 and 41 feet—an all-time high. That gave us a week to prepare. Second, the city officials stressed the immensity of the flood threat and dropped a bombshell—we needed to make not 1.5 million, but 2.5 million sandbags. We had expected three weeks to make 1.5 million—this now seemed almost impossible.

The reaction to the announcement of these items in our ward and in the community was immediate. Three universities and some smaller colleges all exist in our area. Concordia College (a Lutheran-sponsored private university of 2000 students) and Minnesota State University-Moorhead (state university of 9-10,000 students) made announcements that they were canceling classes and releasing students for the week to assist in volunteer efforts. My own university, North Dakota State University (state university of over 12,000 students), also shortly followed suit. The local public schools announced that students from 9 th to 12 th grade would be asked to come to school the next morning, but then allowed to volunteer in community sandbagging efforts and be organized at the school for all-day service. We had counseled our own LDS members to check their work schedules and availability and turn out in force to volunteer in whatever tasks the city suggested were needed. Again, home teachers and quorum leaders acted quickly to assess the potential needs at the Anderberg home and develop plans to provide assistance if possible. My job was simply to delegate and stay out of the way.

Flood just after crest at downtown Moorhead, Minnesota. View is to the south from the bridge on Main Avenue. Flooded houses in the Woodlawn Park neighborhood are visible in the distance. Red River stage (at Fargo): 40.8'.  Donald Schwert.

Spiritual Observations and Lessons Learned

As the flood fight moved ahead and intensified, the opportunities for reflection were few and far between. Sunday night was my last night of sleep for some time and it was relatively short—hundreds of others were at that point now working through the night and nearly 24 hours of each day. My own spiritual observations and lessons learned, though limited, were valuable to me. As I talked with other members, I found them learning profound things and sharing remarkable examples of faith and spiritual insight. I enjoy family history and hope to soon interview many of our members and leaders about what they have learned, but in the meantime, may I share just a couple of examples of things learned.