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.
