SBTC Disaster Relief - 2011

Minot, ND Set 43


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We spent a night enroute in Jamestown, ND and got to see the world's largenst buffalo. The park in Jamestown, ND also had this pretty little plains church.
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We checked in at the North American Mission Board's (NAMB) Command Post at the North Hill Baptist Church (SBC) in Minot, ND. We were put to work immediately assessing work requests by a good friend of many of us, Darla Ponath, the operations officer for part of the period we were working there. She is from the Canadian Convention of Southern Baptists located near Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
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Our first introduction to the flood damaged area were street sides stacked with debris from nearby homes. Debris included everything from sheetrock to flooring to appliances.
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The material also included many nails pulled from the sheetrocked walls. I picked up a number of them in my tires during the 3 weeks we were there. We had to fill out an assessment form on each home we checked. Freda is completing the paperwork on this work request.
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The damaged properties included this church located along the Souris River that ran thru the middle of down town Minot. This home was one of the few that we couldn't complete because of the foundation damage that had been incurred.
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More debris on the street. The Souris River was still high but not at flood level.
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This bible was outside one home opened just as we found it after the flood to Psalms 68:9. 'Thou, O God, didst send plentiful rain.' A typical home interior before cleanup work has begun.
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Some cleanup has started on the first floor of this home but the basement ckeanup has not yet begun. Almost all homes have basements and the home-owners do not usually clean them out. One of many ceiling fans and this one didn't even get wet in the flood.
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The home-owner had already started cleanup on the first floor. Again, they had not started on the basement. That type work was left for our people in most cases. We found the people in Minot were a very industrious lot and were doing as much as they could within their capabilites and limitations.
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Freda Berry was counciling with a very pleasant elderly woman while Gayle Berry was doing the damage assessment on her home. Her home was rated a priority 1 even though she didn't want the highest priority. She felt most other homes should be done before we did hers. Before we finished our tour in Minot, the 'old girl' had gotten way more than her share of nails in her feet.
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This Texas mud-out crew was busy cleaning out the basement of the home when we came by. He had the very hard, unpleasant task of filling up the buckets with heavy, wet debris from the formerly flooded basement.
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The Salvation Army had crews and trucks on site to pick up hot and cold food and drinks from our feeding unit and deliverying it to the cleanup areas. This Salvation Army truck was out looking for customers for their very valuable free food and drink delivery service.
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This Oklahoma Baptist Disaster Relief Unit was taking a lunch break using the services of the Salvation Army support truck. The food service at the command post area was provided by Arkansas / Kansas Baptist Disaster Relief Teams rotating in each week. They also provided food and drinks for the Salvation Army Mobile Units.
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The Arkansas / Kansas Feeding Unit is ready to start feeding the personnel in the command post area at the North Hill Baptist Church. Another beautiful day and the food was plentiful as well as tasting good.
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The Shower Unit at one of our sleeping areas was provided by the Montana State Southern Baptist Convention Disaster Unit. The Ohio State Southern Baptist Convention provided one of many mud-out units that were on site one week at a time.
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The Oklahoma State Southern Baptist Convention supported our effort with several mud-out units and cleanup crews including this one. We did get to take a short break one beautiful afternoon to visit the Minot Scandanavian Heritage Center. It was in the higher part of town and was not affected by the flooding of the Souris River. This typical house was built entirely of wood; no nails or screws, only wooden pegs.
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Freda even got to have a very short conversation with Hans Christian Anderson, the Danish children's story writer while at the Scandanavian Heritage Center. He wasn't very talkative for some reason. And the sun sets over the lovely city of Minot, North Dakota completing another volunteer assignment in our lives.
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