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Editor’s Note: With winter approaching and housing scarce, North Dakota residents face mountains of cleanup from seven weeks of flooding that have led to the worst disaster in state history. In Minot, a city of 40,000, the flood has destroyed 4,100 homes. In nearby Burlington, more than a third of the town of 1,100 was under water. The catastrophe left 8,000 to 9,000 people homeless in central North Dakota. This is the fourth update.

By Barbara Dunlap-Berg*

4:00 P.M. ET August 30, 2011 | MINOT, N.D. (UMNS)

Homeowner Amy Morse (right) discusses flood recovery options with case manager Joyce Solberg inside her home in Minot, N.D. The walls have been stripped to the framing and the finished flooring has been removed. UMNS photos by Mike DuBose.
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“This is our little house,” begins Amy Morse. Guiding visitors through her living room, dining area, kitchen and bedrooms, one might think this is a proud homeowner giving a tour.

That guess is partly right. Morse is a proud homeowner. Sadly, little remains of her home after massive flooding hit Minot, N.D., in late June. As she leads her “tour,” she reflects on what was.

“The (Mouse) River is two blocks that way,” Morse says. She describes how when it overflowed its banks, it was not in mouse-like proportions.

The floodwaters filled the finished basement and catapulted into the upstairs. Downstairs, the deep freezer toppled over. Boxes left impressions on the ceiling.

“There was actually hardwood floor under the carpet,” she recalls. Now the house is a mere framework of swollen timbers, and the hardwood floor is no more.

And now Morse and her husband, Jess, must rely on the help of strangers, including volunteers trained by the United Methodist Committee on Relief.

“We had just gotten a brand new roof, driveway and foundation,” Morse says. Now the roof is sagging, debris covers the driveway and the foundation is buckling. Replacing the foundation would cost $21,000 because it would require major excavation.

The Morses had just taken out a second mortgage on the house, which they purchased in 2007.

Her husband, a mail carrier with 18 years’ experience, is still recovering from back surgery two years ago. After the flood, the Morses were not sure how they would muck out their house.

Amy Morse (left) shows case manager Joyce Solberg some of the family china that she and her husband were able to salvage.
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However, First Baptist Church is on his postal route, and he mentioned the situation to someone there. A few hours later, members of the congregation showed up at the Morse home. They removed the upstairs insulation and gutted the basement.

“I almost cried,” Amy Morse recalls.

An uncertain future

But, others who showed up at their home were not there with good intentions.

“You wouldn’t believe the scavengers,” she says. “They opened my (storage) chest and took whatever they wanted.”

Morse was quite sure she and her husband had moved china that had belonged to his great-grandmother to higher ground, but it was missing. The church volunteers dug through the mountains of waste at the curbside until they found all of the dishes.

“Miraculously, not one piece was broken,” Morse says.

The Morses are not sure of what the future holds. For now, they are living in a camper parked beside their soaked home, which now bears a “For Sale” sign. Jess Morse has requested a job transfer.

The garage is full of items they managed to rescue. Amy Morse lists a few — “my graduation teddy bear, the microwave my dad gave me, the china that dried in the baby pool.” She points to a large, heavy tool chest that floated far from its original place.

Pointing to the garage, she says, “This is our storage area. I need to find a storage unit.”

Building materials gutted from inside the home of Jess and Amy Morse line the street in front of their house.
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Gazing at her wrecked home, she adds, “We like our house. We love our neighbors.”

However, even with both the Morses working, the financial picture is dim.

Amy Morse tallies the figures for case manager Joyce Solberg, an UMCOR-trained volunteer, who is helping the couple sort through the mess. House payment, second mortgage, camper, truck, car, a little credit-card debt, medical bills and child support from a previous marriage all add up.

Jess Morse has not been able to shake the cough that has plagued him since the flood. “We call it the Minot Hack,” his wife explains. “We wore masks when we were working in the house. However, soon, the temperature was 93, and the masks were too hot.

“His route is in the ‘war zone.’” They call it that because most houses are empty now. He has to walk greater distances to wherever people on his route are living temporarily.

‘We could be so much worse off’

Amy Morse does data entry for ING Life Insurance.

“I started working in a new department in February,” she says. “In May, they gave me a laptop so I could work from home during a blizzard.” That proved to be a godsend.

Her company has allowed her to work from her camper as she contemplates her future. That has helped a great deal, she says.

The couple’s camper isn’t winterized, so they will be getting a trailer provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Amy Morse goes to the camper and retrieves her camera. “I took pictures of the house before the flood.” She gives a pre-flood tour via the camera lens. The “before” and “after” comparisons are staggering.

Yet, she maintains a sunny disposition.

“Five years ago,” she says, “I dealt with the death of my dad in an accident.” She took two weeks off from work to teach her mom how to write checks, use a computer and get ready to sell the family house.

Going through that tragedy, she realized she could get through anything.

“We could be so much worse off,” she insists.

“If our house sells, our house sells. Our next 18 months are kind of up in the air. At least we have a home and FEMA.”

*Dunlap-Berg is internal content editor for United Methodist Communications, Nashville, Tenn.

News media contact: Heather Hahn, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.