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GRAND FORKS: HIGH & DRY?
MAY 26, 1997
TRANSCRIPT
Congress still hasn't passed a disaster relief bill to help Grand Forks, North Dakota. But despite citizens' frustration over federal and local financial red tape some re-building has begun. Fred De Sam Lazaro of KTCA-St. Paul-Minneapolis reports.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Along the sidewalks of Grand Forks snow and flood waters have been replaced by mountains of soggy garbage. Even at the current rate of 5 million pounds a day, it will take the city weeks to clear it all.
A RealAudio version of this segment is available.
May 5, 1997:
The Red River didn't stop when it left North Dakota. The smaller communities of Southern Manitoba, Canada, were also consumed.
April 30, 1997:
An anonymous donor announced that every household hurt by the recent floods in North Dakota would receive $2,000 check.
April 22, 1997:
One of the casualties of the flood and fire that demolished 11 downtown building in Grand Forks, N.D. was the local newspaper. But the staff of the paper was determined to prove that it, like the town, would survive.
April 21, 1997:
Fred de Sam Lazaro reports on the flooding of Grand Forks, ND.
April 11, 1997:
Fred de Sam Lazaro reports in the flooding in the Upper Great Plains.
Browse the Online NewsHour's enviromental and weather coverage.
OUTSIDE LINKS
Grand Forks Herald
KIM HOLMES, Restaurant Owner: You drive down the street and you see the devastation and everybody's life is on the curb.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Restauranteur Kim Holmes says the fact that so many people are in the same boat keeps him from fretting too much about his own losses. In late April, Holmes saw his livelihood consumed by the flood. The Maryland native moved here 10 years ago and bought this gourmet restaurant called Sanders 1907. He paid off the loan last October. Workers have hauled out most of the debris from Sanders 1907. Holmes, who lived in the apartment above the restaurant, did not lose any personal property. Steve McCue, an architect friend from Boston, came by to offer his expertise in redesigning the restaurant.
KIM HOLMES: We're just taking the sheetrock down around the boiler and watch your step here--right back here was where my walk-in freezer and cooler were, right here. But until the city tells me where I can be and what I can do, I don't want to put a penny in here because, you know, I don't know if the building next to me is going to be torn down or the building behind me. I just don't know, and they don't know.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: What neither city officials nor the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers know yet is the final design of a flood control project that's being drawn up. Sanders is just on the line of a proposed permanent dike, but Holmes recently bought another restaurant, Lola's, which he's likely to lose to the dike plan.
KIM HOLMES: My dream restaurant--six months--and then shot to hell.
HAROLD STADSTED, Contractor: I think the important thing now is if a city makes a decision that you can come back in and put it together for a short period of time,
you know, a number of years, then the important thing is to--when we put the booths in, put ‘em in so that they'll come back out again if you move ‘em to another location--same with the bar.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Contractor Harold Stadsted said this place can be back in business in a couple of months. And he advised rebuilding for just the short-term. Any flood control project is expected to take two to three years before it reaches this site.
KIM HOLMES: How far from the wall are we going to have to cut the dry wall?
HAROLD STADSTED: Doug is trying to get ahold of the health inspector. We painted this with waterproof paint, and so we need to get together with them to find out whether we actually need to replace, or if we can pull baseboard off and disinfect from behind.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: That ruling by the health inspector would be crucial, a difference of thousands of dollars and key to a decision on whether to rebuild or walk away.
KIM HOLMES: Boy, this breaks my heart.
VERN SANDER, Homeowner: Monday I had my insurance guy over. My house was a total loss. Tuesday I had the FEMA man over. My house was a total loss. John Smesick brought up about taxes. Am I liable? Do I have to keep paying city tax on my property I cannot live in? Good question, huh?
WOMAN: Good question, yes.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: The hunger for information about taxes, rebuilding plans, assistance programs prompted Holmes and hundreds of others to attend the weekly city council meeting. Many were losing patience. Jerry Hahn wanted to know when a program to purchase uninhabitable homes would begin.
JERRY HAHN, Homeowner: My house payment is coming due in a week. Is there anything you can do with the banks and tell ‘em the stuff to help us with that? I can't--I passed up two other houses in town that I can't afford--if I know--can I--can I be in the buyout?
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Linda Gustafson complained about a lengthy delay in getting a trailer home. These are offered under the Federal Emergency Management Agency's program.
LINDA GUSTAFSON, Homeowner: I have a family of four. I haven't seen my children for a month. They want to come home but they don't have a home to come home to.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Marian Hastings, who owns a downtown bakery, said she'd run out of money.
MARIAN HASTINGS, Business Owner: Now, you do have money in a fund which I think should be public knowledge in the Grand Forks Herald. You have gotten money from the target renter. UPS supposedly gave us a $325,000 check. I know someone that sits down there and opens the mail. You have money sitting in the checking account. The infrastructure is being paid by the federal government. Your angel fund supposedly gave money to people that needed it immediately. What is happening to the money in that account? How much is there? How much more red tape, how many more days, how many more weeks, how many more months before you decide how you're going to release that money?
MAYOR PAT OWENS, Grand Forks: We need to meet this week. We need to get together. We have a committee put together to set up some guidelines that have appropriate people that will make sure that it is immediate needs of people. And we will bring it together. I'm not exactly sure what's in that fund at this point, but it's been coming in quite steadily, and we will get together, and we will see what's in there, and we will let you know what's going to happen with it.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Mayor Pat Owens promised action in a few days, and she urged people without housing to seek temporary shelters. But on big ticket concerns, like the housing buyout program, she and city councillors said they'd have to await action in Washington.
TOM HAGNESS, City Councillor: Until we know what Congress is going to approve we're not going to put the rest of the citizens, including yourself, in any further debt than we are without knowing. We don't want to promise you something that we don't have.
KIM HOLMES: They've paid their taxes and done everything just bingo bango bongo right along the line here. And they want answers, and the city council sits up there and they look like they don't know what they're doing, but they can't get any answers from the federal government.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Kim Holmes had hoped to get the latest on flood control plans, on how this so-called dike line would affect Sanders restaurant.
KIM HOLMES: Right there is my building.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: But he decided to sit tight.
KIM HOLMES: I think there are lot more needy people and right now diplomacy is what's going to work.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Unlike many fellow residents who said they weren't sure they could or would stay, Holmes is committed to staying in Grand Forks, so despite the uncertainties, he continues to map out his own rebuilding plan and some news has been encouraging.
KIM HOLMES: Hey, the king is here. Long live the king.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Health inspector Richard Clockman arrived the day after the council meeting. He approved the request to disinfect the walls at Lola's restaurant, a substantial savings over building new ones.
KIM HOLMES: My wife has a sauce company, and we lost all our sauces down here. And most of my wines were down here, approximately five to six thousand dollars in wines were lost. We have--we had an extensive wine list of about fifty/sixty bottles of wine, varieties of wine.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: An hour later at Sanders restaurant a visitor from the federal Small Business Administration brought sympathy, application forms, and the hope of federal relief money, although in loans not grants.
KIM HOLMES: And is that money I pay back?
SPOKESMAN: Yes, sir.
KIM HOLMES: Okay. He'll be a big help. I mean, I did have flood insurance, so the difference from what--if they figure it's a $200,000 loss and I get $150,000 or $130,000 from my insurance coverage--that's my coverage--then they'll fill in the difference. They figure it takes $200,000 to put this back together. They'll kick in the difference between what the insurance gives me and--but that's not a gift; that's a loan.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: However, not long after the bulldozers have cleared the last remnants at the old Sanders, Holmes will be back in a new one. He recently found a vacant spot in an area that escaped the flood.
KIM HOLMES: It's in a strip mall--all against my grain--however, like I said earlier, I have to do something. I just can't sit around waiting for two years for the city to decide what to do about Sanders. Well, here we go. My nature is to just roll up my sleeves and go after it and do what it takes to make it right. Check with me in 10 years and see how I feel. I might be ready to find an island somewhere, but right now I think I need this town and I think the town needs me. I mean, I'm going to take all this stuff. This is a little bit too cute for me. I got to butch it out a bit.
FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Called Sanders 1997, this new place is scheduled to open in early June and stay open at least, he hopes, until Sanders 1907 is rebuilt.
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