Just a few months after flooding irreversibly changed thousands of peoples' lives in the Red River Valley...some are telling their stories for posterity. MPR's Hope Deutscher spoke with two people who are gathering individual stories of struggle, despair and recovery...for very different reasons.
The Red River flood of 1997 was a major flood that occurred in April and May 1997 along the Red River of the North in Minnesota, North Dakota, and southern Manitoba. The flood was the result of abundant snowfall and extreme temperatures. It was the most severe flood of the river since 1826. Water spread throughout the Red River Valley and affected the cities of Fargo and Winnipeg…but the greatest impact was in Grand Forks and East Grand Forks, where floodwaters reached more than 3 miles inland. Damages in the Red River region totaled $3.5 billion. As a result of the 1997 flood and its extensive property losses, the United States and state governments made additional improvements to the flood protection system in North Dakota and Minnesota, creating dike systems.
Transcripts
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ELIOT GLASSHEIM: A collection of student artwork that was must have been in someone's basement and slides of artwork that are just ruined.
HOPE DEUTSCHER: North Dakota museum of art staff member Eliot Glassheim stands by a table, just inside the door of the museum, piled with crumpled, dirty, and streaked items people have donated from the flood, torn yellow rubber waders and a trumpet found in the branches of a tree.
ELIOT GLASSHEIM: A mantel clock from someone's grandfather who died at age 93, been in the family for many years, and they couldn't bear to throw it in the pile with rotting food and molding clothing.
An old school book that's just smelly. And the covers was once a nice leather cover, and it's gone. Photographs, people's photograph albums with people's faces half smudged, half visible.
HOPE DEUTSCHER: Behind each object is a story. Many of them, Glassheim says, are being gathered into an Oral History Project. In time, this will be combined with flood memorabilia and video footage of the disaster, which Glassheim says is one way the museum can give back to the community.
Historians have already talked to about 75 people. They are hoping to talk with. 200 flood victims from the entire Red River Valley. Glassheim says, shortly after the flood, some people simply wanted to forget, while others wanted to share their stories of survival.
He says, by recording these tales, the museum is ensuring they won't be lost. Glassheim says, the interviews are offering a form of therapy for some.
ELIOT GLASSHEIM: The water did what it wanted with us. And we tried our best to put all the human ingenuity to hold it back. And it didn't work. And it just overwhelmed us and did what it wanted with us. And somehow talking is a way of getting back into control of your life.
And as a community, we think maybe talking will be a way of the community feeling that it's back in control of its life.
HOPE DEUTSCHER: The museum is still collecting flood-related items and interviews from across the region. New York artist Barton Benes make a collage of the mementos to be presented next March in an exhibit commemorating the one-year anniversary of the 1997 flood.
ALICE FOTHERGILL: Most people were just totally denying this could ever happen. These neighbors, they didn't buy flood insurance. Others down the street didn't, and they were just sitting out.
HOPE DEUTSCHER: Researcher Alice Fothergill reads from one of her interview transcripts with a woman from Grand Forks.
ALICE FOTHERGILL: Even on the last day we left, they were just sitting out in front of their house, sunning themselves in their lawn chairs, and I don't think they brought a single thing up from the basement.
HOPE DEUTSCHER: Fothergill is working on her doctoral dissertation about women's experiences during disasters. She says, most disaster research has focused on the community or the head of the household, but not women. She wants to find the answers to certain questions.
ALICE FOTHERGILL: What was their sense of loss? What does a home mean? What does keeping a family intact mean? What are people's perceptions of the event? And there are a lot of complexities that a simple survey misses.
HOPE DEUTSCHER: Fothergill hopes to interview 30 women from various backgrounds. Teachers, nurses, housewives and bank tellers have already shared their memories of the blizzard, evacuation, the flood, and cleanup. Fothergill says, it will take her a couple of years to complete the interviews and conduct a broader-based questionnaire of more women.
Diane Tandeski's family lived in the Lincoln Park neighborhood, one of the most severely damaged areas of Grand Forks. They were forced to flee when the Red River swept through town. When the Tandeski's returned, they found their home destroyed.
DIANE TANDESKI: It was like the roof of your house being off and some big 300-pound guys throwing your furniture in these rooms because it was twisted around and upside down. And then taking these big hoses of mud and water and hosing it down. That's what it was like.
HOPE DEUTSCHER: The family now lives in a tiny two-bedroom apartment in Grand Forks. Diane Tandeski volunteered to participate in Fothergill's research because she felt her family's stories needed to be told. She says, visitors find it hard to believe what actually happened.
DIANE TANDESKI: And they look around and they go, oh, this doesn't look like there was a flood there. You go, well, I'm going to take you to an area that you will see. And I'll take you inside my home, and then I'll show you pictures, what we took pictures of, how we found our home inside.
And it was like, once you could get the door open, it was like a tornado.
HOPE DEUTSCHER: Alice Fothergill says the women's memories are amazingly clear.
ALICE FOTHERGILL: They can tell me very specifics about that Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and what they ate while I was going to take my kid to gymnastics. Oh, and I had just decided I needed some milk. But then I heard on the radio, right down to minutes.
I got up at 6:00. I checked the radio immediately. Or I sandbagged until 3:00. So those events are very, very detailed.
DIANE TANDESKI: And it was like a war had broke out. All these camouflaged people, the helicopters were flying, the fire trucks were down there on their bullhorns telling people to get out right away immediately. And the police were knocking at the doors. And to look left and right down my neighborhood, it was a sheer panic.
HOPE DEUTSCHER: The research project is examining how and why labor was divided between men and women. Fothergill says, in a disaster, the traditional roles are skewed.
ALICE FOTHERGILL: There are lots of stories of women doing very heavy physical work, doing sandbagging, doing dike patrol, pulling sheetrock off walls.
HOPE DEUTSCHER: Fothergill says, she hopes her research will be of use to other communities.
ALICE FOTHERGILL: Whether that helps with state officials and city officials preparing their communities, whether it helps Red Cross, whether it prepares some of the mental health workers or just gives people a sense of what to expect. And also sometimes I think that it helps. It will validate people's feelings when a disaster strikes.
HOPE DEUTSCHER: Fothergill says, it will take her two to three years to complete her research. Both the North Dakota Museum of Art and Fothergill continue to look for people to tell their stories.
In Morehead, I'm Hope Deutscher, Minnesota Public Radio.