Time Well Spent

The Mighty Red River is amazing, stretching over land it only is suppose to 'use' every 100 years, even though this is a repeat from only 12 yrs ago. But seeing it first hand from the dike I helped build, it is crazy AND amazing all at once. It's hard to describe...

Today we visited the house and friends who are watching their sump-pump and praying for the dike to hold and I finally got some pictures (even though they do not do justice) of our time spent on bagging and building. The dike is doing very well, with very little seepage from beneath and the water is starting to recede which is a very good sign.  

This is the dike looking down from the deck, about 10 to 12,000 sand bags . It's about 7 ft high, and the base is about 15 ft wide. 

And standing within 2 ft of the dike, looking out. You can see where the water has gone done and left ice in the bush waiting to melt. 

Through this dike making process, one fellow Salem-ite said "I wonder if they would take all the hours volunteers put in and totalled it up, if the Gov./State would then decided to make a permanent flood wall for the F/M area?" thinking that making a flood wall would be cheaper in the end.  That got me thinking and talked to Jim about how much time we as a couple spent on the dike building  Jim: started on Friday 3/20 and ended Friday 3/27  and totaled 42 hrs of sandbagging & dike building and worked 23 hrs at Wanzek (and might have a rotator cuff injury). Lexie: started on Sat. 2/21 with an assignment of childcare/house wife and ended on Thursday evening sand bagging with a total of 25 hrs. (This doesn't include travel.) Now times this by many, many volunteers and you get lots of sand bags and large dikes that are going to hold this Might Red River back! 

Again, it just amazes me, how so many people from the F/M community has come out to serve and is serving each other and so much is done and is continuing until this Might Red River recedes.  And in the end, it is Time Well Spent.