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Message: <blockquote data-quote="zoops" data-source="post: 169022" data-attributes="member: 790">My main memories of the pre-flood were what seemed like endless hours both making and laying sandbags.  Again I was 14 so had next to no experience with manual labor. I can remember my biceps popping out a bit from all that work.  I'm sure between snow days and sandbagging time we had missed 3 weeks of school prior to the flood.  I can also remember although it was April 18 or 19 when the water got to our house, we still had 3-4 foot snow drifts in our yard.  Lived on the Point area in EGF and was right there working when one of the sandbag dikes failed and water started coming in to neighborhoods.  Basically had been sandbagging for a week or 10 days straight with next to no direct supervision - I wonder how that would go nowadays for junior high kids?  Being young I don't think I really thought houses would actually flood.  Once the dikes failed, we were isolated on the Point because it's naturally surrounded by rivers/tributaries.  The next morning we were picked up by the guard and brought out to an area that was not under water and choppered out, then went to stay in Mpls with relatives for 3-4 weeks.  Was really mad at my parents because they made me go to school when we were down there lol.  Different era as I had really no idea where my friends were for that few weeks.  When we came back the school had a get together and everyone had been all over the place.  We were lucky that only our basement flooded.  My parents did have flood insurance but I dont' think they ended up much ahead since FEMA kind of bailed everyone out (again I was a kid so don't know the details there).  Remember during the clean-up everyone had 5-8 foot piles of debris on their yards as you drove around town.  It took a long time to get everything cleaned up.  I remember the Red Cross and Salvation Army trucks coming around all summer like an ice cream truck would and serving meals right on the street.  Got lots of Yoo-hoo drinks donated and lots of water from Anheuser-Busch in cans.  School got torn down and had to go to school in a steel building with untaped sheet rock for 2 years.It's probably a foolish thing to say, but in the long run it was probably good for the town.  The feds were pretty flush with cash at that time and we got a lot of new schools and infrastructure.  Cabela's probably wouldn't have come without the money they had available.  Most of downtown was pretty much dead prior to the flood and it allowed a lot of new growth. It is amazing when I go back to reminisce about how much the town has changed since before the flood - entire neighborhoods gone where several of my friends grew up.  Obviously there was a lot of heartache along the way.</blockquote>

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