Bismarck, let’s discuss your 2011 flood tragedy as a whole after driving through Minot and visiting friends living in FEMA trailers. I did that on a recent Sunday afternoon, a year after the sirens sounded and a summer of flooding inundated the Mouse River Valley. Yes, there were some homes in Bismarck that were lost. In Minot there were some 4,000 housing units impacted by the flooding devastation.

Hundreds of homes were simply uninhabitable and hundreds more are gutted waiting to be rebuilt. Hundreds of homes where the homeowners do not have the funds, the insurance or the wherewithal to begin to rebuild. Hundreds waiting to find out what can be done. Hundreds of rental units/houses where the landlords walked away and left tenants homeless. Countless families of all demographics who lost every single thing. Businesses, churches, schools were also devastated or destroyed.

The friends that I visited live in a FEMA trailer that is not even in what was considered a flood plain. They had 5 feet of water on the main level, which is a good 4 or 5 feet above ground level. They have had to gut their house to the studs and are in the process of rebuilding. It is a whole different world up there than here down along the Missouri River.