Students affected by historic Red River flooding

As the Red River continued to overtake projected crest levels and threaten the cities of Fargo, N.D. and Moorhead, Minn., members of the Luther community watched with bated breath to see what effects the river would have on the community.

Anna Quick (‘10) found out about the flood on national news while on spring break with her roommate and mother in Mexico. Her parents’ home is in Briarwood Place, a small city south of Fargo in which 20 of 28 houses sustained main floor flooding. Her brother traveled home to help her father protect their house.

“We kept getting texts in Cancun that said, ‘We are still fighting,’” Quick said. “If they wouldn’t have I don’t know how bad my house would have been.”

By increasing the dike around the house and pumping away the leaking water, Quick’s father and brother were able to limit the damage to their home. During a power outage, they were not able to keep up with the leaking dike, so the house accrued some water in the basement. In Briarwood Place, the preservation of Quick’s home was fortunate.

“Basically, my whole neighborhood is a lake,” Quick said. “I saw one of my neighbors on The Today Show. They heard their dike break and within five minutes had five feet of water in their main floor. They had to be airlifted off their house by a helicopter.”

“Officials told my brother and dad to evacuate and that they wouldn’t come get them in the middle of the night,” said Quick. Her father and brother continued the struggle to save their home.

“It was frustrating to know I was on a beach relaxing as my brother and dad were fighting to save our house,” Quick said. “There was nothing I could do about it except pray.”

When they arrived back in the Midwest, Quick returned immediately to Decorah while her mother was taken to her home in a tractor.

Alex Olson (‘11) also lives on the river in Southwood Drive. Like Quick, his house was one of the few fortunate ones to sustain only limited damage in a neighborhood full of losses.

“My dad stayed up all night every night,” said Olson. “He was up for about a whole week to pump water every night. We didn’t get any water in the house.”

Olson was also away from home when the flooding started, on tour with the Luther College Symphony Orchestra.

“My parents called me when I was in Atlanta and told me they were probably going to lose the house,” said Olson. “Authorities told them to be ready to evacuate. My mom told me that some houses filled completely from the basement to the main floor.”

He was then responsible for telling his older brother.

“It was the most stressful thing to call my older brother and tell him we were going to lose our house,” said Olson.

Being unable to assist in the effort to save his house was frustrating.

“It was really difficult,” Olson said. “There was one day on tour when I just about lost it. My father, mother and younger brother were there to fight for our house. I wanted to be there to help. It sucked.”

Even though Olson himself couldn’t be there, hundreds of volunteers helped his family sandbag. Quick also said her family received assistance from others.

“Everyone has been helping each other,” Quick said. “I guess they even had too many volunteers.”

The flood also affected schools in the area. Moorhead’s Concordia College, one of three major institutions in the area, canceled classes in order to help with sandbagging and eventually closed the school.

Amy Kelly, Concordia College’s media relations director, said that the college had been closed since March 27. The college shut down its water and sewer so it would not impact the city’s facilities.

Concordia did not take on any floodwaters, though there was some minor seepage, according to Kelly. Concordia reopened Sunday, April 5, with classes resuming on Monday April 6.

Before leaving, Concordia students contributed significantly to the massive number of volunteers in the area. The two other major institutions in the Fargo-Moorhead area were on spring break when the flooding started.

“Prior to classes closing, we had classes cancelled in order for students to assist in sandbagging,” Kelly said. “Concordia students were the first line of defense. We are extremely proud of how our students reacted to the flood.”

The flood also affected the touring schedule for Luther College’s Cathedral Choir, slated to perform in Moorhead last Friday. Dr. Sandra Peter, an alumna of Concordia and assistant professor of music at Luther, directs the Cathedral Choir and had scheduled a stop on the choir’s tour in Moorhead at the Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd.

“Right when we were finalizing details for the concert, everyone had to begin sandbagging,” Dr. Peter said.

Dr Peter made an early decision to cancel that portion of the tour.

“It was absolutely the right decision at that time,” Dr. Peter said. “There’s a point at which you know you can’t burden a community and ask them to host you. As it turns out, everything else was cancelled as well.”