Minnesota Prairie Roots

Writing and photography by Audrey Kletscher Helbling

“Very angry” in flood-stricken Hammond October 11, 2010

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 4:33 PM
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Hammond's damaged city hall is closed and has been moved to St. John's Lutheran Church.

 

IN HAMMOND, Katie Shones steps onto the pavement, points to the spot only feet from the sidewalk that shows just how close floodwaters came to her home. Even though her house, just across Wabasha County Road 11 from the Zumbro River, escaped the raging waters by mere feet, she’s upset.

“I’m very angry,” Shones says. “Obama needs to get off his butt and declare it a disaster area.”

She contends that if this was the Twin Cities, with 80 percent of the houses affected by the flood like the 80 percent in Hammond, something would be happening.

“First it’s grief, then post traumatic stress and now people are getting angry,” Shones continues, her agitation increasing.

“It’s devastating. Winter’s coming. Where are these people going to live?” She’s worried about her friends and neighbors in this town of some 230.

 

 

A flood-damaged home and garage in Hammond.

 

Shones need only look across or down the street, toward the row of water-damaged businesses or to the heaps of ruined appliances or to the piles of tires or to the lined-up trash containers to understand the devastation.

She’s had enough. She wants help for her community. Now.

 

 

Destroyed appliances and more are piled at a collection point along Wabasha County Road 11 in Hammond.

 

 

 

H.C.C. Restaurant & Groceries was flooded by the Zumbro River.

 

 

The partially-gutted restaurant interior.

 

 

The exposed side of the restaurant/grocery, where a portion of a building once stood. The building lies in a heap now in the street.

 

 

The bank in Hammond has temporarily closed.

 

 

Trash cans line the street outside the Hammond Bar.

 

 

A child's toy lies among the tires and other rubble at a collection point in Hammond.

 

© Copyright 2010 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

Jarrett, Hammond and Millville: “the forgotten ones”

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 4:30 PM
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SITTING OUTSIDE the Salvation Army trailer in downtown Zumbro Falls on a sunny Sunday afternoon in October, flood survivor Susie Shones says, “We’re the forgotten ones.”

“We,” she defines, are the nearby small towns of Hammond and Millville and the unincorporated settlement of Jarrett just to the southeast. Up until the Zumbro River overflowed its banks in late September flooding her rental house with six feet of water, Shones called Jarrett home. Today she’s living with a brother-in-law in Millville. Six people in a two-bedroom house.

When the heavy rains came and the Zumbro River swelled, Shones says they were told at about 11 p.m. to get out of Jarrett. The women left and went to Rochester. But the men stayed behind to watch the rising water. At 4 a.m., she says, her husband called to say the water was “going up high.”

Soon they lost their home and her husband’s auto salvage yard, their gun collection, too, an anticipated income source upon retirement.

Today she wonders about her future and feels forgotten.

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PER SUSIE SHONES’ suggestion, I headed south and east of Zumbro Falls toward Jarrett. But once I reached Wabasha County Road 11, I found the road closed. Not wanting to risk a hefty fine for traveling on a closed road, I never made it to Jarrett.

© Copyright 2010 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

A trip to view the fall colors detours in Zumbro Falls

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 4:05 PM
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DEAR READERS:

On Sunday afternoon my husband and I headed east on Minnesota Highway 60 to enjoy the fall colors. We intended to drive to Wabasha, then aim north toward Lake City and maybe Red Wing before returning home to Faribault.

Along the way, we stopped at Holden Lutheran Church near Kenyon so I could snap a few photos. We both appreciate old churches and would have lingered longer except the pastor was in the middle of his sermon and we didn’t want to enter the sanctuary and interrupt.

 

 

The Rev. Bernt Julius Muus, the founder of St. Olaf College in Northfield, was a pastor at Holden Lutheran Church near Kenyon. The congregation was organized in 1856 and this church was built in 1924.

 

From there, we drove to Zumbrota for a picnic lunch at the historic covered bridge.

 

 

The covered bridge in Zumbrota dates to 1869 and is promoted in Zumbrota as the only covered bridge in Minnesota. However, I am aware of another covered bridge, that one in Mantorville.

 

Then we resumed our Sunday afternoon drive, traveling briefly on U.S. Highway 52 before exiting onto Highway 60.

After passing through the town of Mazeppa, we reached Zumbro Falls, a community of less than 200 that was, just 2 ½ weeks ago, ravaged by the floodwaters of the Zumbro River.

We pulled our car a block off main street and parked. I grabbed my camera and notebook. And that was the beginning of the end of our planned afternoon to view the fall colors. Instead, we viewed homes and businesses extensively damaged by the flood. And we spoke to some of the people of Zumbro Falls before driving about five miles further to Hammond.

I am sharing their stories in a series of posts that I hope will help you better understand the devastation from a personal perspective. I could have spent many more hours talking to flood victims. I could have dug deeper. I could have taken more photos.

But I think my stories are emotional enough, deep enough, to convey the frustration, the anger, the resilience, the gratefulness of a community that is suffering.

Typically, I would publish these posts over a several-day span. However, these stories need to be told now. Not tomorrow. Not the day after. But today.

So, please, take time to walk with me through portions of Zumbro Falls and Hammond, where you’ll meet Tracy and Jackie and Susie and Katie. They are strong, opinionated women. I have no doubt they will overcome this present obstacle in their lives.

Yet, even though they are tough as nails, they still need our help, our prayers, our support.

Of all the questions I asked of them, I failed to ask the most important: “Is there anything I can do for you?”

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PLEASE WATCH FOR these posts as I begin publishing them this afternoon. If you have thoughts to share, share them.

Although my Sunday afternoon did not go as I envisioned, I am thankful for the detour from the planned route. My eyes and heart were opened. I saw destruction and beauty—that beauty being the irrepressible strength of the human spirit.

 

 

Beautiful fall colors provided the backdrop for this pile of destroyed appliances and other debris in Hammond.

 

© Copyright 2010 Audrey Kletscher Helbling