In 1999, two years after Lewiston native Thomas Beaulieu graduated from Oak Hill High School, he joined the U.S. Air Force. He was sent around the world, stationed in Italy and Guam for a time, before winding up in Minot, N.D., for the last years of his military service. When he left the Air Force in 2005, he stayed in Minot, a town of about 40,000 people nestled in a river valley, much like his hometown in Maine.
Today, Beaulieu, 32, counts himself among the lucky: His home was spared from the Souris River’s raging floodwaters, which have inundated thousands of homes and left about 12,000 people homeless in the past few weeks.
The river crested Sunday — only the roofs of some homes were visible — and the water remains, slowly seeping out of Minot’s downtown and residential areas.
“I lucked out,” Beaulieu said Tuesday. “My home is about 30 feet higher than the rest of the valley. If I walked out to my front door and looked downtown, it’s all flooded.”
As the river rose and city officials began evacuating homes in some parts of the city, residents displayed an impressive sense of community involvement, Beaulieu said.
“Everyone was out helping each other move,” he said.
People loaded their neighbors’ belongings into U-Hauls and bread delivery trucks, he said, rushing to save as much as possible before the river claimed the town. Of the 11,000 people left homeless by the floods, only a few hundred have been staying in the emergency shelter officials set up, he said. The rest have found room with friends and fellow community members.
“It’s impressive,” Beaulieu said.
During those frantic days, he and three other Air Force veterans who have made Minot home pitched in, going door to door to help families in need, he said.
Now, as the town begins to think about recovery and what to do with the many homes that will be damaged beyond repair, he and his friends are trying to raise awareness of the disaster in their home towns in Maine, Indiana, Michigan and California.
On top of the fact that a third of the city is underwater, the remaining residents must now deal with with broken water mains and contaminated drinking water, Beaulieu said. Many have found it difficult to reach grocery stories, and the few businesses that are able to open are working limited hours.
At this point, “there’s really not that much (the community) can do,” Beaulieu said. “Now it’s just waiting for the water level to go down. That’s the hardest thing: There’s nothing to do.”
The city’s residents would welcome assistance from the rest of the country, said Beaulieu, whose father, Roland, lives in Sabattus.
“Donations would probably be the best bet at this point,” Thomas Beaulieu said. “We definitely appreciate any help.”
Donations to aid the victims of the Souris River floods can be made to:
North Dakota 2011 Flood Relief Fund
P.O. Box 387
Bismarck, ND 58502-0387
http://www.ndcf.net/Flood/Index.asp
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