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April 18, 1997
Episcopal News Service
Jim Solheim, Director
212-922-5385
ens@ecunet.org

97-1742
Episcopal church in Upper Midwest responds to floods and blizzards

by Jack Donovan
       (ENS) Flooding followed by blizzard followed by more flooding
has led to the declaration of federal disaster areas in many counties in
North Dakota and Minnesota. Most severely hit is the area around
Whapeton, North Dakota, and its sister city, Breckenridge, Minnesota.
Through a grant from the Presiding Bishop's Fund, the Episcopal
Diocese of North Dakota is bolstering relief efforts during the worst
flooding in history.
       "It defies description," said Rev. Charles Cherry, pastor of St.
John the Divine in Moorhead, Minnesota, who is staying with relatives
after being evacuated from his home. "I came home to find the water
rising and then it started raining and then it turned into a blizzard and by
midnight we had sub-zero temperatures. It was surreal." In the storm's
aftermath, approximately 45,000 people were without electricity and two
Fargo television stations were forced off the air. The area's only blizzard
and flood-related fatality occurred when a woman and her young
daughter died of exposure after their car slid into a river that had washed
away a levee.
       But warmer weather does not necessarily bring relief to an area
that has had continuous snow cover since October. "With all the snow
gradually melting," said Bishop Andrew Fairfield of North Dakota, "the
problem is not so much the river flooding, but standing water coming
overland. The land is so flat out here. When you fly over it, all you can
see are rectangular fields of water and ice." While there are no official
estimates about the cost of flood damage, Fairfield said that half of the
houses were under water in the river valley around Whapeton and that
area shelters were full.

Grants are a godsend
       Calling the $25,000 emergency grant from the Presiding Bishop's
Fund for World Relief "a godsend," Fairfield said that he sent $5,000 of
the grant to the American Red Cross, which, along with the Salvation
Army, has seen to immediate needs for food, shelter and clothing. He
said the remainder of the grant would be used to assist people whose
insurance and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grants
do not cover the damage done to their homes. 
       Earlier this winter, when unabated cold caused fuel bills to
skyrocket in the middle of the state, the diocese received a $20,000 grant
from the fund to fortify a food bank that serves the Standing Rock
Reservation west of Fargo. Fairfield said he also received $2,000 from
Bishop John Smith of West Virginia, North Dakota's sister diocese,
which he used to respond to an emergency call for flood relief from the
Salvation Army.
        "Some of us in Fargo are living fairly normal lives," Fairfield
noted, as a radio in his office reported that a school one half mile from
the diocesan house was about to be evacuated. Outside his office
window, he said he could see flatbed trucks hauling bulldozers and earth-
laden dump trucks rumbling towards the dikes.
       Other lives, however, were far from normal. Cherry was keeping
in touch with his congregation by phone and considering the loan of a
truck from a parishioner so that he could make house visits. The director
of the local zoo, who took a boat out to Cherry's house to rescue animals
that Cherry had adopted when the zoo flooded, called to reassure him
that the flood waters had not yet reached the first floor of his house. 
       "Right now, the prospects are good," he said. "The radio says the
river has gone down one half inch in the last few hours. But the mayor
reminded us not to be complacent."

--Jack Donovan is communications assistant for the office of news and
information.