Flood Fight

The Red River is on a rampage again this spring. We have been flooded twice by this normally placid river. In '79 it unexpectedly filled our basement while we were gone. We had gone out to my sister's, 350 miles west of here, for the weekend. One of my other sisters called on Saturday morning and said, "I have really bad news for you...your house is flooded." We thought she was joking. She wasn't. We came home - the water was within 1" of our main floor. We threw everything into junk piles for the trash trucks to pick up.

In '97 the Red rose again to unprecedented, 100 year levels. This time we hauled everything out of our basement dry, much to the disgust of our teenage daughters who were enlisted to help. ("This is so crazy - we are miles from the river - it'll never flood our house.") It did...dikes broke and all the water gushed across our flat city. We threw only one bed that somehow we had forgotten about after setting it up against the wall to get it later. And we threw carpet and sheetrock and insulation.

Now our city has a dike protection system. We are counting on it this year...everything is staying in place in our homes. This will be the first time the system is tested...so we are nervous but hopeful.

We are praying for everyone in Fargo, North Dakota who are in the flood fight of their lives. Two of my sisters live there and they have been working 'round the clock to build sandbag dikes in their neighborhoods. I can feel their aching bodies and know what is going through their minds. It is an emotional roller coaster of fear and hope. Several of my art students live next to the Red in Grand Forks. They, too, are fighting the waters, as they are outside the protection of the new dike system. Please keep the communities along the Red River in your thoughts and prayers for the next several weeks until the river crests and subsides.

On another note, there are a few days left of my grand opening sale. My website now has an online store! Go to www.jackiesart.com and click on my gallery. Everything is 20% off through the last day of March.