Where to Take the Little Ones?
By Dan Gunderson
May 14, 1997

Listen

When residents of Grand Forks and East Grand Forks started coming home to clean up, and businesses began reopening, they discovered a critical component was missing. Nearly all the childcare facilities in the cities were flooded. The resulting lack of day care threatens to slow the communities' recovery. Minnesota Public Radio's Dan Gunderson reports.

A month ago there were 280 day care facilities in Grand Forks and East Grand Forks serving five thousand children. Now there are 30 - with room for 325 children.

SFX KIDS SCREAMING

Four adults try to supervise a couple dozen kids playing in the parking lot of St. Thomas Aquinas church in Grand Forks. Play stops and all the kids are rounded up each time a car enters or leaves the lot.

A double-wide mobile home set up in the parking lot is one of three temporary day cares funded by the Fargo Catholic Diocese.

HE'S HOW OLD? HE'S ONE. OK, JUST TURNED ONE, SO HE'S GOING IN WITH YOU GUYS.

Sherry Palmacino and Kathy Foy ran day care centers that were flooded. They were recruited to quickly get the temporary facilities operating.

(SHERRY) WE MUST SAY IT'S A CHALLENGE TO SAY THE LEAST. WE'VE BEEN DOING SOMETHING. GETTING SOMETHING TOGETHER HERE.

(KATHY) IT'S HARD; WE KNOW THE PARENTS WANT IT DONE AS FAST AS THEY CAN BECAUSE THEY NEED THE SPACE, BUT I MEAN WE'VE DONE THE BEST WE CAN BUT IT'S AT BEST A CHALLENGE. I'VE NEVER DONE IT THIS FAST BEFORE.

State and local officials have waived rules on the number of children allowed in each day care and expedited fire and health inspections to allow the temporary day cares to open quickly. Bruce Netter is a disaster response expert on loan from the Miami Catholic Diocese. he says Minnesotans helped Miami recover from hurricane Andrew; he's happy to return the favor. Netter says to open the day cares, a process that often takes months, has been compressed into about a week.

THERE'S A LOT TO DO, BUT WE'RE TALKING ABOUT OUR KIDS, SO WHO AMONG US WOULDN'T DO EVERYTHING THEY POSSIBLY COULD DO FOR THEM?

Netter says the day cares plan to run 24-hours-a-day as soon as enough staff can be found. Services will be provided free until July at most temporary facilities in Grand Forks and East Grand Forks.

Bruce Netter says the rules on how many children each day care can have are temporarily waived. He says children's safety will always be foremost, but he wants parents to know if they get too stressed there is a place to drop their kids.

THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH GOING OUT WITH YOUR HUSBAND OR WIFE AND JUST CATCHING A BREAK. IF YOU TEND TO YELL AT EACH OTHER AT NIGHT BECAUSE YOU'RE STRESSED OUT, THAT'S ALSO A GOOD REASON TO DROP OFF YOUR KIDS.

The City of Grand Forks Park and Recreation Department is also setting up temporary day cares at several of its locations.

Spokesman John Saley says getting day cares and summer recreation programs running is a priority for his department.

WE HAVE PEOPLE WHO USED TO TRIM TREES AND PLANT FLOWERS MOVING DAY CARE EQUIPMENT AND SANITIZING DAY CARE EQUIPMENT. HELPING GET SOME TEMPORARY DAY CARE CENTERS SET UP.

Finding locations and equipment not contaminated by floodwaters is a challenge. Most day care equipment and toys covered by water will need to be destroyed.

The day care at St. Thomas Aquinas started with toys from the Salvation Army. Officials are hoping donated equipment will allow them to set up a playground. Until then, some creative solutions are needed. Bill Serb is associate pastor at the University of North Dakota Newman Center. He's organizing a mountain of sandbags for the kids to play on.

IF CHILDREN SEE PILES OF SANDBAGS BEHIND THEIR HOUSE OR ON THE STREETS NOW, THEY THINK BACK TO THE DESTRUCTION AND LOSING THEIR HOMES AND TOYS. IF WE CAN HAVE THEM PAINT SOME COLORFUL SANDBAGS AND FILL THEM WITH FRESH SAND AND MAKE IT INTO A PILE THEY CAN GOOF AROUND IN, THEN THEY'LL THINK BACK TO: HEY! I MADE NEW FRIENDS AND WAS IN THIS FUN PLACE SURROUNDED BY CARING PEOPLE. IT'LL KINDA DE-TRAUMATIZE THEM.

It will be months before the day care situation returns to any semblance of normal in Grand Forks and East Grand Forks. Some day-care operators say the disaster has clearly pointed out the importance of day care. They hope as the communities rebuild, businesses and city leaders will continue to make day care a priority.

Go to Flood of 1997.