a record flood

While Zoey and Bryce adjusted to the new hospital in Fargo, we anxiously awaited the Souris River (also known as the Mouse River) to crest.  Inbetween hospital visits watched the news, checked facebook and the news for photographs, and looked at projection charts.  On June 26th the moment Minot had been waiting for occured...the river crested and we watched as our town was transformed.  The Souris River set a new record crest of 1561.72 feet above sea level, three feet higher than the record set in 1881!  About 12,000 people were displaced from their homes, 20% of Minot was under water, and more than 4,000 homes sustained damage.  We watched the screens in horror as images of our town appeared.  Below is a photo montage of Minot from the local news station set to the song "Fix You" by Coldplay.

It was still days before we knew if our home sustained damage.  We suspected that we had some water in the basement but were praying that it didn't get to our first floor.  On July 2nd we finally saw a photograph of our home from the local news station but didn't know what day it was taken.

On July 4th Matt was finally able to get into our home.  There was still over two feet of water in the basement but we could see that the water level was going down.  It looked as the water level had been about four and a half feet high.  Thankfully the damage was contained to the basement of our house.  Matt was only able to send me this one photo but we now knew how much damage we obtained.   

Knowing how much water was in the basement still didn't prepare me for what would have to occure for it to be liveable again.  We had to gut the entire basement down to only the studs and outside walls.  The water heater, furnace, washer, and dryer were also lost and would need to be replaced.  We started making phone calls to get the process rolling.  Only a week after Matt first saw the basement we had the FEMA inspections finished and the cleaning crew began the process of gutting the basement.  The walls we had put up, the floors that Matt had worked so hard to refinish, our new furniture that we couldn't move out of the basement, and the space where we spent many hours relaxing was now sitting in our front law.  The comfortable rooms that we had worked so hard on were now cold and ugly.

We are extremely blessed and our family jumped right in to help us.  Over the last month both our fathers, my mom, and Sean have helped us get the basement to a point where we could live in the house again.  The basement was cleaned, cracks were filled, framing for walls was put up, concrete was removed, and the stairs were rebuilt.  

Over the next week the furnace, water heater, and plumbing will be replaced and we will be able to live in our home again.  We are looking forward to all being in same place and back in our home.
.katherine.