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.