Looking Forward to the Flood

By Cindy Gomez
Editor

As we drive around the streets that resemble a labyrinth of high snow walls, the looming sense that the snow will melt is palpable. People are buzzing about how much snow we’ve had, and the inevitable consequences we face: flooding.

Last year’s record flood kept children from school, businesses closed, and the cities of West Fargo, Fargo, and Moorhead came almost to a halt. Homes were damaged, and people were displaced, again.

Yet for all the pain and damage that the floods cause, we cannot help but notice all the good they do for our community. Of course, the fear of damage and loss to our community is great, but we are used to this routine. In fact, we in the Red River Valley seem to thrive in this adversity.

So, this year, instead of sucking in our breath at the thought of the flood, we propose taking the “silver lining” approach. Instead of fretting about the disaster that will befall us, no matter how much we don’t want it to, why not spend time taking note of all the good things that happen when it floods.

Flooding doesn’t just turn our communities upside down, it changes the the entire structure of our community. During the flood, traffic is re-routed. There are parts of the city we are forced to see, that we may never otherwise venture into. People travel around studying the massive amounts of water creeping higher and higher. Everyone begins to help, everyone! Students who are normally crowding the campuses and frequently getting in the way of drivers are instead out en masse, filling sandbags. The HPR highlighted the many homeless men and women to save homes. This year, they will certainly be fighting shoulder to shoulder with all the community to keep our homes safe.

Not to sugar coat the heavy gauntlet that will drop on us, but there are some benefits that come from disaster. Our cities garner national attention from flood stories, and the nation sees our resolve. People become more innovative and resourceful, inventing more effective ways of fighting floods, and even gadgets to help fill sand bags. The entire community scrambles to provide those in need with clothes, food, and shelter. The rescue teams, police, fire fighters, and city works folks are put through the rigors. We have some of the best-prepared emergency response plans, and perhaps the most rehearsed.

People look sleep-deprived and haggard, muck around in wet mud-caked boots for weeks at a time. But what a workout we get! It’s probably the best workout ever, a self-imposed marathon that we all enter and finish.

Sure, it is going to stink (literally) to clean up the mess after the flood. But, it will be sweeter because we’ll be close to those we love, working as one body and for the same purpose. If we can be together through this, isn’t it worth looking forward even to the adversity that we will face? Bring it on!

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