Breckenridge Hopes Worst Is Over
By Dan Gunderson
April 13, 1997

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As the Red River crest continues to roll north, the people of Breckenridge Minnesota hope the worst is behind them. The National Weather Service says the Red will likely have a second, slightly lower crest in Breckenridge some time this week. Minnesota Public Radio's Dan Gunderson spent Sunday in Breckenridge and found people cleaning up the mud and ice, and struggling with the flood of emotions the disaster left behind.

THE BRECKENRIDGE MAYOR CANCELED the daily morning flood strategy meeting so people could go to church.

SFX: SINGING.

At Grace Lutheran Church In North Breckenridge, weary parishioners filled the pews.

Reverend Ernest Bartels tells the people the disaster they've just been through is a great example of how helpless they are in the face of natural forces.

YOU KNOW, WHAT'S HAPPENED THESE LAST DAYS AND WEEKS HAS BEEN ALMOST MORE THAN SOME AMONG US COULD HANDLE. THIS FLOOD AND ALL THAT WENT WITH IT REMINDS US OF HOW HELPLESS WE ARE BY OURSELVES. WE NEED SOMEONE GREATER, STRONGER, MORE POWERFUL THAN OURSELVES. HIGHER THAN OURSELVES TO DEPEND UPON WHEN EVERYTHING ELSE IS SHIFTING AWAY FROM US. WE NEED OUR GOD.

As people leave the church they walk past stacks of sandbags piled near the front door - a reminder of the many battles waged in this town in the past two weeks.

SFX BIRDS

A hundred feet from Jim and Sandy Olson's backdoor the Red River looks peaceful and serene as it sparkles in the brilliant spring sunshine, contained by a permanent earthen dike A few days ago the river overcame the dike and the Olson.'s best sandbagging efforts.

WE TRIED, BUT IT'S TOUGH TO FIGHT MOTHER NATURE. WATER IS SO DEVASTATING. YOU FEEL SO HELPLESS. WHEN ITS COMIN' THERE'S NO STOPPIN' HER. SHE'S GONNA GETCHA.

Jim Olson owns four houses here. He has tenants in three - all had basements full of water. Olson estimates it will cost him $100,000 to repair them. He has no flood insurance. Still, he claims things are looking up.

SHE'S GOIN PRETTY GOOD. (LAUGHS) 24 HOURS A DAY. FINALLY GOT SOME SLEEP LAST NIGHT. I LOOKED IN THE MIRROR AND THOUGHT I BETTER SHAVE. DIDN'T EVEN KNOW WHO I WAS LOOKIN' AT. (LAUGHS.)

SFX: SLEDGEHAMMER AND LOADER

Pat Vold uses a sledgehammer to break up the six inches of ice that covers his driveway and back door so a loader can haul it away. Vold hasn't been in his house since the water hit a week ago. In the back yard a ring of ice about five feet up a tree trunk marks the high water point. His children's swingset lies twisted on the ground, crushed by ice.

SFX OPENING THE DOOR.

Vold scrapes away the ice from the back door and pushes it open. The first thing he sees is a basement full of water. Somewhere water is rushing from a broken pipe.

LOOKS LIKE I GOT A BROKEN PIPE. . . OH MAN, THE WATER HEATER'S BUSTED OFF.

Walking up a short stairway to the kitchen, Vold is faced with a thin layer of brown mud everywhere. down a hallway children's toys and books have spilled out a bedroom door where the water left them when it receded.

Vold struggles with his emotions as he stands in what a week ago was a spotless house.

OH WELL . . . OH WELL. (WHATTA YA SEE?) LOTTA MUD AND A LOTTA CLEANING. . . GEEZ, LOOKIT THIS. . . IT WAS WHITE. (THIS WAS WHITE CARPET?) YEAH. (NOW IT'S CHOCOLATE BROWN.) WELL. . . NO BIG DEAL. I'LL LIVE. THATS THE MAIN THING.

Vold has flood insurance, but he expects it will take months to get his home livable again His wife is eight months pregnant. He's nervous about not having a home for a new baby.

SLEDGE SFX UNDER

Back outside he attacks the ice with a vengeance, sending shards of ice flying through the air.

SFX WHISTLE UP AND UNDER QUICKLY.

As Wilkin County Sheriff Tom Matejka walks up the steps to city hall, the noon whistle blows - an hour late because no one has had time to make the change to Daylight Savings Time. The sheriff says in his 21 years as a county cop he's never had a week as traumatic as the last one. The low point he says was at midweek when a 29-year old woman and her daughter were swept off a county road into a flooded stream.

HER AND HER DAUGHTER CRAWLED OUT THE DRIVER'S WINDOW AND SWAM TO SHORE AND TRIED TO WALK PROBABLY A QUARTER MILE TO A FARMSTEAD. THEY GOT WITHIN PROB'LY 150 YARDS OF THE FARMSTEAD, AND THAT SAME CREEK MEANDERED NORTH THERE, AND IT WAS FLOODED, AND SHE COULDN'T GET ACROSS.

In the dark, soaked with icy water, in ten-degree temperatures, Pam Wagner and her three-year-old daughter Victoria died.

SHE CARRIED HER CHILD MAYBE A MILE ACROSS THAT PLOWED FIELD, AND SHE WAS LOOKING FOR SHELTER TO GET HER AND HER CHILD TO SAFETY. SHE TRIED HER BEST, I TELL YOU. SHE HAD SOME DETERMINATION THERE TO LIVE AND KEEP HER DAUGHTER ALIVE. I'LL TELL YOU IT TUGGED AT A LOT OF OUR HEARTS THERE WHEN WE FOUND 'EM SO. (CHOKES UP.)

Sheriff Matejka says he knows the tears will flow. But not now. There's no time to feel the pain until the water goes down. And there are no more crises to respond to.

Matejka says keeping busy is the best way to cope with the disaster that's left his county a shambles.

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