This whole disaster reminds me of one that I went through in 1997.

[WeRQ4U]

And as I write this, I'm getting a little teary eyed thinking about it. That year I was a freshman in college at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks. During that winter we had about 100 inches of accumlated snowfall due to 8 major blizzards, the last of which threw freezing rain and sheets of ice at us, knocking out power to the entire region.

Then, in the Spring, the snow began to melt and the water began to rise. The Red River, which flows through Grand Forks and East Grand Forks, runs NORTH. Grand Forks is close to the Canadian border. Therefore, all of the snowmelt ran into the river and up to Grand Forks. The city's dikes couldn't handle it all.

The University was closed to assist homeowners and businesses with sandbagging. I remember being trucked from site to site. I remember the looks of gratitude trying to mask feelings of futility and fear. We worked like that for about 3 days. It didn't help. The dikes broke and water poured into the city. It spared NOTHING. Flood stage is 28 feet. The river crested at 55.

Every home near the river was destroyed. The downtown was inundated. The University was engulfed. The national guard was summoned to patrol and control. We were evacuated that friday and I was forced to go home. I felt aweful about it. I got to run home while my neighbors suffered. Then one of the most horrible things happened. DOwntown caught fire. Firefighters couldnt' get to it. And the cities hydrants were without pressure. I remember sitting on my couch at my parents' home... crying uncontrollably as I watched it on the news. I could not believe that my home was being destroyed. I didn't think that they could ever recover from something like that. But it did, people. It did.

With tremendous tragedy comes a realization about humanity. When something like this happens, survival and renewal become common denominators. People begin to band together, regardless of differences, to rebuild what they once had. Homes were replaced. Streets were repaired. And HOPE was restored.

Obviously, the tragedy that the Gulf Coast has experienced is much more severe than they isolated experience the people of ND endured. But the same thing will happen with New Orleans and Gulf Port. They will find a way, somehow, to get back a little of what they used to have, and a LOT of what they may not have had too much of before.....compassion, love and community.

Here are some pictures and articles about GF in 1997. If you want to see what it was like for those people invovled, just click. If not, oh well. I'm not trying to marginalize the Gulf Coast's struggle, only trying to relate. After all, what else can I do? My thoughts are with them.

http://www.draves.com/gf/gfindex.htm
http://nd.water.usgs.gov/index/flood.html