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!  

• Shawn - 5 years old
• Cameron - 4 years old
• Heather - 2 years old
• I was 2 months pregnant with Cortney AND feeling very sick!

 I knew I had to leave but had no idea how long we would be gone.  Lunch was approaching so I grabbed (3) bananas and out the door we went with only the clothes on our backs!   Traffic was heavy as everyone was getting the message from the radio and from neighbors what had happened.  There was no panic from the community only obedience!  I was impressed by how orderly people were evacuating and heading to higher ground.  How high did we need to be - how much water would actually come?  We did not know.  In my mind’s eye, I could see a little extra water running down the gutters of our streets - yet, I also wondered how long Bob would be separated from us?  None-the-less, we headed for higher ground.

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)