UMCOR responds to "slow disaster" in Dakotas
9/3/1998 News media contact: Tim Tanton · (615) 742-5470 · Nashville, Tenn. By Donna Fisher* Another water disaster has invaded the Dakotas.
Not as publicized or as dramatic as the Red River Valley flood of 1997, this recent invasion seems just as destructive and life-altering for residents of North Dakota's Devils Lake basin and the glacial lakes region of northeast South Dakota.
The creeping water has resulted in federal disaster declarations in 16 North Dakota counties and eight South Dakota counties.
Dakotas Bishop Michael J. Coyner has declared the problem a disaster and has asked the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) for help.
Conference officials have met with an UMCOR staff person, and Upper Midwest Flood Recovery, a conference agency, has been named to oversee the work.
Many people believe the area is returning to the wetlands, said Butch Fangsrud, Upper Midwest Flood Recovery board member.
"This is only the beginning or the middle of the water collection in these basins," he said.
UMCOR and Upper Midwest will need to come up with creative approaches to help area farmers, who are losing their battle with the water and unfavorable commodity prices. Those problems come on the heels of several 1997 agricultural disasters, including a series of severe blizzards that killed hundreds of thousands of livestock, and unprecedented flooding in the Red River Valley between the Dakotas.
In Towner County, N.D., 15 percent of the farmers have left their farms, according to Farm Service agent David Hoover.
"We'll easily lose another 10 to 15 percent this year," Hoover said. "There are farmers that you'd think would be farmers forever. They love farming. They're just browbeaten. It's taken their spirit away."
Devils Lake has doubled since 1993. More than 200 homes have been moved or destroyed. Miles of road, power lines, pasture and cropland have been swallowed up by the lake and the smaller basins that feed it.
"I'm not sure that people realize the stress of the constant presence of the flooding," said the Rev. Keith Nelson, pastor of Devils Lake United Methodist Church. "What really hurts is that they have to pay taxes on land that is under 15 feet of water."
Jim Dustin, the Upper Midwest Fargo warehouse manager, carried a pickup load of supplies to Day County after a heavy rainfall in late April, according to the Rev. Dale Emery, pastor of Webster and Bristol United Methodist churches.
"One very grateful member of the parish said, 'We've given for years to help UMCOR causes. We've cast our bread upon the waters; now it's coming back to us,' " Emery said.
Folks affected by the flooding are weary and resigned. The Rev. Randy Phillips, Cando, N.D., said it's a long process of trying to draw them out.
"When we talk about it together and when we are a community together, it makes such a tremendous difference," Phillips said. He worries about what's going on with families that are isolated and staying that way.
Upper Midwest Flood Recovery Director Nina Martin is also calling for a new approach. "People are struggling with the death of what they once knew," she said. "This is the image we're looking at in terms of staffing."
"People can be praying about the situation, not necessarily asking God to take away all this huge water, but for the people in the church, for me and the other pastors," Nelson said.
"If people are aware they may ask questions, they may take an interest," he said. "Then they start asking, 'What can I do?' "
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*Fisher is editor of Dakotas Connection/Living Waters, newspaper of the Dakotas Area of the United Methodist Church.
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