The BIG 18 years old TODAY! ! !
Friday, June 10, 2016
Thursday, June 9, 2016
Just A Thought
11 Things You Need to Say
Before It's Too LATE!
Before It's Too LATE!
- I LOVE you
- Do you NEED something
- I CAN do this
- You INSPIRE me
- My life is GOOD
- I TRUST you
- How can I HELP you
- I'm SORRY
- I BELIEVE in YOU
- I FORGIVE you
- Thank you
Sunday, June 5, 2016
What I Remember About the Teton Dam Flood by Robert E Boice
June
5, 1976 started out like any other Saturday at work in St. Anthony at the
(Delinquent Center) Youth Services Center. It was a warm, sunny day and there
were no cell phones when I got a call from Roberta that the Teton Dam had
broken and if I wanted to get home I better leave immediately and head home. I
took off immediately and like usual I might not have driven the speed limit to
beat the water. I think I was one of the last cars to get through.
Growing
up in California we had what we thought were floods and we would get sandbags
and block the water from doing damage so I raced home to protect our new home
(1 year old) from damage. I found straw bales and put them in the window wells
to help keep the water out. That was all the time I had and I drove to the
Rexburg East Stake Center to meet Roberta. At that time the flood waters had
hit and it was devastating to watch the destruction. We knew we were in trouble
for a place to live. We were invited to eat with Clair Thueson and family. Then
they offered for us to stay in their house. We had Shawn, Cameron and Heather
was 2 years old and Roberta was pregnant with Cortney. The main lesson that was
learned was that things didn't matter the main thing was we were all safe and
the Lord had blessed us again. After a night with them we went and stayed at
Jim Smiths home till we were back in our home.When we were able to get to our
home it was unbelievable the mess that we found. Our new neighborhood had been
wasted. Logs had come through and hit most of the homes. Our house was hit on
all sides by houses that came floating by. Many of the Boise Cascade homes just
floated off their foundation. We started trying to get the water out of the
basement and it was painful. Many people came from all around to help. Finally
we got a pump and had a lot of water out when the sewer started to back up and
come in the basement. We had water four or five feet up on the walls upstairs.
I didn't go to my job for quite a while all I did was work in the house. We
lost many valuable items like an old Bible I brought back from my mission and
things that we had saved for years. We had an old Monarch cook stove that was
in the basement that we put out to clean out and someone took it. It was very
heavy but it was gone.
As
time went on I found Ted Dye to help repair the house. We put a two car garage
and a fireplace in and rock on the front. When it was finished it was beautiful
again. We also put a fence up that looked real nice. After living there a
couple of years we sold it. We paid $26,400 for the house and lot and sold it
for $50,000. We moved up on the hill and paid $68,000 for the house with no grass
or trees.
40 YEARS AGO AS IF IT WERE YESTERDAY / Teton Dam Disaster by Roberta Boice
Today is a SPECIAL day, June 5, 2016. Forty years ago today
changed our lives forever! The Teton Dam disaster happened to us, our
family. We were impacted in a BIG way. Our home lay in the path of a
huge wall of water that carried everything from logs, dead animals,
toxic chemicals, pontoons and topsoil from farms 15+ miles away. It was
a disaster of epic proportions that only happens to ‘someone else’!
It was a ‘normal day’, a beautiful summer afternoon - skies were baby blue with fluffy clouds dotting the sky here and there. Being summer, our windows were all open - lawn mowers were humming in the background punctuated by the sounds of sprinklers ticking away and kids playing in the streets. I had just said my “goodbyes” to my Saturday guitar class as they packed their guitars down the stairs to awaiting cars that would whisk them away to their Saturday activities. I turned my attention to three energy-packed children and breakfast dishes sitting in the sink and flipped the radio on to KRXK - our local AM radio station - not much FM in those days! Normal programming was interrupted by something I had never heard before - a NEWS FLASH! Our normally calm and collected DJ had a very seriously stern voice as he said, “This is an emergency - EVERYONE leave your homes NOW - the Teton Dam has broken and flood waters are heading your way. Get to high ground immediately - LEAVE NOW, you do not have time to collect anything - LEAVE YOUR HOMES NOW!”
Bob left for work early that Saturday morning as he was employed in St. Anthony at the Youth Services Center. I knew I had to call Bob and warn him what had happened and was lucky enough to find him in the office! “The Teton Dam has broken! Tell everyone, spread the word - let everyone know! If you want to make it home, you'd better come NOW and FAST! We are leaving now and heading to the top of the hill by the Stake Center.” I now had to do this alone with our three adorable children and our extremely big St. Bernard, Heidi!
Streets were beginning to be blocked off and highways shut down by police. Travelers coming through our town were now being diverted to “the hill” and the streets were lined with cars, trucks and campers of all sorts and people were lingering in groups talking about what was going to happen. We headed directly for Rexburg Stake Center where I told Bob we would try and meet up with him. So many people, so many cars - how would we ever find each other? I decided to walk, with the kids, to a neighboring home across the street from the church and use someone's telephone to call my parents - Bob and Alice Ward in California to let them know we were safe. I had a ‘feeling’ we would be without phone service for sometime and if this amounted to something more than a little extra water running down our street gutters - they would be hearing about it on the national news! A sweet family (Jean and Jack Rynwand) allowed me to use their telephone and I was successful in contacting my mother. I don’t think she had a clue as what was about to happen and did not take me too seriously when delivered the information - but at least they knew we were okay and out of danger. I asked her to contact Bob's parents that we were safe.
THEN IT HIT . . .by the time I got back to our car at the church, the water started arriving! A WALL OF WATER descended on the valley like a big brown plague - as far as the eye could see, the lush green valley was turning brown. Not only was it turning brown but houses were floating down the valley and everything in it’s path was being destroyed. I immediately thought of all the livestock being effected and the people who were caught off guard in their homes, cars and fishing in streams and rivers. This became “real” - this was frightening. Where was Bob? Where was he? Was he okay or did he get swept away in the flood waters? Was I going to be a widow at such a tender age? What was our future? What were we going to do - what was an entire community going to do next? Who knew!
As the events unfolded before us, I saw Bob out of the corner of my eye! He was here - he was well - he was alive! I was so happy, I cried! We were together as a family as a major disaster unfolded before our very eyes. Smoke and fire arose from the valley below us as the flood waters inundated electrical substations which caused all electricity to shut down and all communication to the area to cease. No cell phones existed at this time- only landlines. There was an erie feeling in the air - apocalyptic would best describe it. As far as we could tell, our home was probably gone - but we would not find out for sure until the next day!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKOVQDJEq5E
(More in weeks to come)
It was a ‘normal day’, a beautiful summer afternoon - skies were baby blue with fluffy clouds dotting the sky here and there. Being summer, our windows were all open - lawn mowers were humming in the background punctuated by the sounds of sprinklers ticking away and kids playing in the streets. I had just said my “goodbyes” to my Saturday guitar class as they packed their guitars down the stairs to awaiting cars that would whisk them away to their Saturday activities. I turned my attention to three energy-packed children and breakfast dishes sitting in the sink and flipped the radio on to KRXK - our local AM radio station - not much FM in those days! Normal programming was interrupted by something I had never heard before - a NEWS FLASH! Our normally calm and collected DJ had a very seriously stern voice as he said, “This is an emergency - EVERYONE leave your homes NOW - the Teton Dam has broken and flood waters are heading your way. Get to high ground immediately - LEAVE NOW, you do not have time to collect anything - LEAVE YOUR HOMES NOW!”
Bob left for work early that Saturday morning as he was employed in St. Anthony at the Youth Services Center. I knew I had to call Bob and warn him what had happened and was lucky enough to find him in the office! “The Teton Dam has broken! Tell everyone, spread the word - let everyone know! If you want to make it home, you'd better come NOW and FAST! We are leaving now and heading to the top of the hill by the Stake Center.” I now had to do this alone with our three adorable children and our extremely big St. Bernard, Heidi!
- Shawn - 5 years old
- Cameron - 4 years old
- Heather - 2 years old
- I was 2 months pregnant with Cortney AND feeling very sick!
Streets were beginning to be blocked off and highways shut down by police. Travelers coming through our town were now being diverted to “the hill” and the streets were lined with cars, trucks and campers of all sorts and people were lingering in groups talking about what was going to happen. We headed directly for Rexburg Stake Center where I told Bob we would try and meet up with him. So many people, so many cars - how would we ever find each other? I decided to walk, with the kids, to a neighboring home across the street from the church and use someone's telephone to call my parents - Bob and Alice Ward in California to let them know we were safe. I had a ‘feeling’ we would be without phone service for sometime and if this amounted to something more than a little extra water running down our street gutters - they would be hearing about it on the national news! A sweet family (Jean and Jack Rynwand) allowed me to use their telephone and I was successful in contacting my mother. I don’t think she had a clue as what was about to happen and did not take me too seriously when delivered the information - but at least they knew we were okay and out of danger. I asked her to contact Bob's parents that we were safe.
THEN IT HIT . . .by the time I got back to our car at the church, the water started arriving! A WALL OF WATER descended on the valley like a big brown plague - as far as the eye could see, the lush green valley was turning brown. Not only was it turning brown but houses were floating down the valley and everything in it’s path was being destroyed. I immediately thought of all the livestock being effected and the people who were caught off guard in their homes, cars and fishing in streams and rivers. This became “real” - this was frightening. Where was Bob? Where was he? Was he okay or did he get swept away in the flood waters? Was I going to be a widow at such a tender age? What was our future? What were we going to do - what was an entire community going to do next? Who knew!
As the events unfolded before us, I saw Bob out of the corner of my eye! He was here - he was well - he was alive! I was so happy, I cried! We were together as a family as a major disaster unfolded before our very eyes. Smoke and fire arose from the valley below us as the flood waters inundated electrical substations which caused all electricity to shut down and all communication to the area to cease. No cell phones existed at this time- only landlines. There was an erie feeling in the air - apocalyptic would best describe it. As far as we could tell, our home was probably gone - but we would not find out for sure until the next day!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKOVQDJEq5E
(More in weeks to come)
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