Almont North Dakota
1906 Centennial 2006
The Flood of April 17, 1950
by Iona Hoovestol
“We
just received word that the water is raising. Your better warn people
to move out or get ready to move,” came a voice over the phone.
“All right, I’ll let them know.
Thank you, “answered Mr. Bakken one Sunday morning in April.
Word was spread around that the water was
very high near Hay Marsh and was moving down. One old timer was heard to
say when they told him, “I have lived here many years and we’ve
never had a flood. I don’t think it will flood now.” He didn’t
realize he was in for a great big surprise. Every one was quite doubtful
that there would be a flood because there had never been a flood before
and it didn’t seem possible in our community.
About noon the ice started jamming under the
Scharff bridge. Everyone was very excited and rushed out there to watch
it. Someone tried dynamiting the jam but it didn’t help. The ice was
jamming more all of the time. The bridge started bending upward in the middle.
Fred Zempel had been visiting somewhere and
was on the other side. He wanted to get his family and car over to this
side but he didn’t know if he could make it across. He called over, “Do
you think I could make it?”
Some answered, “I don’t know,
it looks pretty bad.”
Someone else said, “I don’t know,
I don’t think you should try it.”
He answered, “I think I’ll try
it.” He made it across all right but I think everyone was holding
their breath for fear he wouldn’t.
A little while later Obert Barstad was coming
to town because he stayed in to go to school. coming to the bridge which
was about ready to go out, he was quite surprised. He grabbed his suitcase
and ran across the bridge at a fast rate and stood on the town side and
watched it go out.
It made a lot of noise when it went and everyone
was grieved because the farmers couldn’t get in to town and the people
in town couldn’t get out in the country that way.
Right after Scharff’s bridge went out,
someone said, “Art Feland’s bridge isn’t very good. I
bet that will go too.” So everyone went out to Art Feland’s
Sure enough his bridge was starting to break up and soon was gone. There
was a cable on it but the ice broke the bridge up and it went out.
The rest of the day was spent watching the
water rising. Some people drove up to Tom Olson’s because someone
said his house was under water. Some of the people just watched here in
town especially by Grace Nelson’s because you could see the park go
under water.
No one felt very much like going to bed and
but few people did go to bed. When they decided just a few would stay up
and watch and if it got real high they would drive around town honking their
horns as an alarm. So decided, a few settled down for a while.
About 3:00 A.M., they were honking horns and
causing quite a scramble and commotion all over town. Most of the people
drove on the Almont hill and parked their cars to wait and watch. There
were a few who thought they had better stay at their homes, but most of
them couldn’t have done any thing except probably have someone else
risk his life trying to get them when the water got to high. Fortunately
it didn't’ get that bad.
The water first started coming in by Trovik’s.
Soon the whole town was covered with about three feet or water, more in
some places and less in others.
In the morning sometime, Mrs. Tenius Ramsland was going to make coffee
for everyone. No one had brought any food and they were getting pretty
hungry. As she was making coffee, the water started coming up to the
house so they had to move the coffee up to Fallgren’s. Ed Reeff
had a store and he said, “If we can make it, we can go and get
some things to eat from the store.” So they started out with
a pick up and a tractor and went down for a few things.
Henry Kaelbarer and Glenn Hoovestal had a
boat and were canoeing around town. they called Glen Ullin for one and went
for it. They used it for patrolling in case of emergency because there were
still a few people in town. Also they had to take a few people out of town
that way.
New Salem knew about the flood and called
and said they had a place for everyone to stay. They at first felt a bit
put out because no one came up there. Everyone was to excited and interested
in the flood to leave. The water was running over the little bridge by Oliver
Anderson’s so they couldn’t have gone if they had wanted to.
The efforts of New Salem were very much appreciated though.
About noon it had turned colder and the water
started going down. Some of the people decided they wanted to go to their
homes, so they took a pick-up and pulled it with a tractor and took some
of the people to their homes, but not many could go because all of the basements
were full of water and there were other damages.
All afternoon there were airplanes flying about town. Over the radio
they were making a lot of announcements about it and in the papers were
the pictures and write ups. Almont was really the center of attraction
for a few days.
By late afternoon or evening all the water
had gone and the people were trying to get someone to pump their basements
out.
Every once in a while there was someone running
to the central office to make a call for a pump or a plumber.
The lumber yard had a nice mess. A lot of
their lumber floated away and they even lost their wooden side walk.
A lot of the basements had caved in causing
many families to have to stay some place else for a while.
Part of the store operated by Ed Reeff caved
in. With such a large building it was quite difficult to fix.
Mrs. Ben Olson’s home had water in it
because her home isn’t raised off the ground very far. This happened
to the building where Clint Wright used to have a gas station and several
other buildings.
The transportation across the creek where
Scharrff’s bridge was a boat for a while. This method was not too
good because someone always had to be there. They built a foot bridge across
the creek behind Everett Olson’s home. In this way the farmers could
drive their cars that far, then walk in and get what they needed and walk
back to their cars again without bothering some one else. They then put
in a temporary bridge, but it wasn’t very safe and finally a year
or so later they built a good bridge. It is build up higher so the ice isn’t
likely to jam under it.
The road going east of town used to go on
the South side of the stock yards and bend around the creek, but the water
washed out the road so they had to grade the railroad bed and make that
into a road so the road goes north of the stock yards now.
The school house had a lot of water in it.
The sewer backed up filling the basement with water. There were hard wood
floors and it took a while to get the water out and the floors were practically
ruined. They had to the cement the floors as they are now. Due to all the
mess we had to have our Easter vacation during this time because we couldn’t
have school anyway.
The bridge by John Koba’s washed out
and the road had to be changed there for a while. They soon had that fixed,
but the bridge by Charlie Hoeger’s was so badly damaged and out of
place it couldn’t be driven on so they put a contrivance that people
could ride across on. It had a carriage to sit in and a pulley with which
to pull yourself across. Later they put a temporary bridge in but it didn’t
stay long and finally they built another bridge and straightened the road
some.
Although the flood was never expected, it
came, and it cause a lots of damage. It could have been worse, but there
were no lives lost or anything fatal like that.
Everyone hopes they will never have to go through another one and hopes
no one else will either.