As many of you may know, I’m a midwestern gal. I grew up 75 miles from Fargo and went to college in Moorhead. I have plenty of excellent memories from the Fargo/Moorhead area and have family and friends that still live there. And with my parents visiting from Minnesota, we’ve been pretty glued to the news trying to get updates, keeping our fingers crossed and hoping for the best. But now there’s a snowstorm coming today with up to 14 inches of snow and gusting winds.
WTF, Mother Nature?
But here’s the deal, these people will survive. Even if it does flood and homes are lost, these people will survive. You know why? They genuinely care about their community and their neighbors. The mayor was on CNN last night and said the reason he didn’t call for a mandatory evacuation like some of the federal offices were recommending is because they are not like other communities out there. They are all in this and they are in it together. And that might not make sense to an outsider, but I totally understood what he meant and it’s true. These people are taking shifts with their neighbors to keep each other and their homes safe. They are all pitching in. They are sore and tired, but they won’t stop. The AP photos are all ariel shots of the houses surrounded by water, but I was looking for some more “real” ones and found these on the Facebook group “Fargo Moorhead Flood Information” among over 400 member submitted pics:
It’s the definition of community and teamwork. Think of standing outside in single digit temps tossing a frozen turkey sandbag down a line of people this long. Would you do it?
And then there’s these guys who define yet another trait of the midwesterner. No matter what the circumstances, it’s OK to laugh, drink beer……and fish.
My dad asked me the other day if we knew any of our neighbors. I was embarrassed that I only knew Hugh (who is only there 4 months in the summer) and Peter & David (who we refer to as our gaybors). Otherwise we lovingly refer to the rest of them as “alcoholic”, “serial killer” and our newest neighbor “hillbilly”. Let’s hope there’s no flood in our town or we are in serious trouble.
**update**
Here are some more great pics on Boston.com. Thanks for sending them, Paula!
so true – thanks for an excellent post from one former fargonian to another
Hey Maria,
thanks for the positive words on what we are going through around here! the blizzard yesterday and today is not a welcomed sight, but hey we will keep on keeping on! Sandbagging in waist deep water during a snow storm is not what I call a great time, but we will continue………… keep your fingers crossed!!
My mom just sent these comments from the Boston Globe photos. Amen! (although a Hollywood benefit would pretty cool!)
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Just a personal observation…as I watched the news coverage of the massive flooding in the Midwest with the levee’s about to break in Fargo, ND, what amazed me is not what we saw, but what we didn’t see…
1. We don’t see looting.
2. We don’t see street violence.
3. We don’t see people sitting on their rooftops waiting for the
government to come and save them.
4. We don’t see people waiting on the government to do anything.
5. We don’t see Hollywood organizing benefits to raise money for
people to rebuild.
6. We don’t see people blaming President Obama. (Except for Don Marchant, post #30)
7. We don’t see people ignoring evacuation orders.
8. We don’t see people blaming a government conspiracy to blow up
the levees as the reason some have not held.
9. We don’t see the US Senators or the Governor of North Dakota crying on TV.
10. We don’t see the Mayors of any of these cities complaining about
the lack of state or federal response.
11. We don’t see or hear reports of the police going around
confiscating personal firearms so only the criminal will be armed.
12. We don’t see gangs of people going around and randomly shooting
at the rescue workers.
13. You don’t see some leaders in this country blaming the bad
behavior of the North Dakota flood victims on “society” (of course there is
no wide spread reports of lawlessness to require excuses).
Posted by Bill Baxten March 27, 09 01:56 PM
i would totes bail you out dude.