Help in Face of Disaster

     With extra time comes extra adventure. Since our traveling time was relatively short, we collectively decided to check out the Bismark visitor’s center to get some information on the area. The weather we had feared would slow down our journey was the same weather which was now flooding the Missouri River- flooding the homes of Bismark, North Dakota. So far we have had the fortune of personally missing bad weather, but also talking to people preparing for or recovering from the bazaar weather that has wrecked the whole of the United States.

     We found one such person staring bemoaningly at the murky Missouri. On a faux ship platform, his enormous oil rid mechanic hands fitting his scruffy, sturdy build. He had been up until 0200 helping his sister sandbag in preparation for the additional four feet of water predicted to arrive within two days. The houses across the way were burmed up, but other houses we saw were already flooded, or the burms that were there would soon disappear under the muddy water.

     We were pointed to the local middle school to contribute to sandbagging. What we found at the middle school was not friendly people filling orange sandbags, but angry and wreckless drivers either leaving or getting picked up from school. After the unusually rude Bismarkean driving, we were eventually pointed to the water tower close by. Jumping right in, we helped a group of people fill their trailer bed with sandbags. I became the master bag tier listening to two older men gossip about family and a younger group of men gossiping about family. There is not much to do but gossip about family when the whole of the state capital lives on one hilltop.

     Soon the water invading Bismark will be flowing into the Mississippi River. Follow us as we see the effects of not-so-important North Dakota spill into the livelihood of historic New Orleans. Our trip continues, but flooding remains an obstacle for the near and far future of our trip. To all of those affected by the flooding and tornadoes that are decimating homes, keep hope, and lean on neighbors for support. Our nation has the uncanny ability to unite under disaster. The American identity thrives on camaraderie when all is dismal: when there is a call for help, it is our duty to answer.

-Al Rodgers