We hadn't gone far on our trip when we began to see the results of flooding.
We began seeing sandbags lining the Interstate to keep the water off the roadway.
Soon we began to run into detours.
The first disaster was ME!
I couldn't help with the food preparation,
because I couldn't get too far away from the Port-A-Potties!
I began to wonder why I had come!
While I was resting and recovering from my bout of intestinal flu in my "room" in the back of the church sanctuary, my team-mates were busy preparing hundreds of meals to be delivered by the Red Cross and the Salvation Army.
After the food was delivered to displaced flood victims and the relief workers, the empty cambros were brought back to the disaster relief headquarters for sanitation... ready to be filled for the next meal.
Over 18,000 meals were prepared by our team in one week! The cambros were amazing to keep the food piping hot until it was served. Breakfast was fixed for the relief workers. Lunch and dinner were prepared for distribution to shelters, relief workers, and delivered to some homes by the Red Cross and the Salvation Army.
The smell of coffee and the cooking of breakfast began shortly after 5:00 A.M. For the first three days, I couldn't stand the smell of food. Because of that, I was quite happy to be able to spend a day in the laundry unit. Relief workers were limited in the amount of clothing they could bring because of limited cargo space in travelling, so a laundry service was provided. Bags of dirty clothes began appearing at the back of the "laundry camper" before 8:00 AM, and returned clean before the end of the day. With close to 75 relief workers, it made quite a bit of laundry!
Piles of dirt and sand could be seen throughout the flooded region. Some of the piles were ground levees that had been made to try to keep the flood waters out. Other piles were made from the removal of sand and dirt from the houses that were flooded. This removal was called "Mudding Out" and was done by one of our disaster relief teams from Kentucky. Often, the walls had to be torn down all the way to the two by fours in order to preserve the house structure.
It's hard to believe that a river that now looks so calm could be the cause of all this destruction. Over 4100 homes were destroyed - almost one fourth of the total population of Minot, ND! Cold weather comes soon to this town close to the Canadian border, and much more work is needed. Please pray for the disaster relief workers and the people of Minot.What a week!
It was a lot of work,
but so worth the JOY in being able to SERVE!
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