Church members keep after flood relief work

A Whitefish church is planning two trips to Minot, N.D., this year to help with disaster relief.

St. Peter Lutheran Church has sent three groups, led by volunteer Warren Ellis, to Minot over the last year and a half to help clean up after a devastating 2011 flood.

The volunteers have been involved with “muck and gut” efforts — stripping flood-damaged houses down to the studs so they can be rebuilt — and, more recently, in reconstruction and finishing work.

“Each time we’ve gone over there, we’ve finished between seven and eight homes,” Ellis said. “It’s been really good.”

But there is still a need for volunteer labor, even though it has been nearly two years since the Souris River flooded Minot.

In June 2011, about a quarter of the city’s 40,000 residents evacuated. Homes, schools and businesses were destroyed when the river poured into town.

For most people, the flood is just a memory.

But for more than 100 families whose homes were lost, the flood might as well have been yesterday. They’ve spent more than a year and a half in temporary housing.

“They have a trailer park set up. They call it FEMA-ville,” Ellis said of the community of mobile homes set up by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“The police are out there every day because people, they’re frustrated,” Ellis added. “It’s the frustration of trying to get out of there and into your house again. You’re crammed into a trailer too small for you and your family ... There’s a lot of attitude, you might say.”

The beginning of the end could be in sight for those families; a volunteer center estimates there are about 140 homes left to gut and restore. But that number changes constantly, Ellis said.

“At one time they said there were 87 homes left to do. Now there are 140,” he said. “People just keep coming out of the woodwork saying, ‘We need help.’”

The need is greater than ever; as of Jan. 1, the federal government began charging rent for its temporary housing in Minot, Ellis said. Many of the people still living in the trailers are handicapped or retired and are living on fixed incomes. They’re still paying mortgages on homes that are uninhabitable.

“How are they going to get the money to fix this thing? That’s where volunteers come in,” Ellis said.

The volunteer effort is coordinated by Hope Village, a nonprofit volunteer center working with churches, ministries and disaster relief groups. Hope Village relies on volunteers to work in Minot for as long as they’re needed.

“I personally have committed myself to Minot until it’s done,” Ellis said. “I will go back two weeks every year until it’s finished.”

Ellis said that commitment is shared by many volunteers he has taken to Minot. Every time he goes to North Dakota, about half his crew is made up of returning volunteers.

Ellis plans to return to Minot June 23 through 29 and Sept. 29 through Oct. 5. He hopes to take more volunteers and donations with him.

Every trip to date has been completely paid for, he added. There have been no out-of-pocket expenses for volunteers. Donations beyond what are needed for the trip stay in Minot for continued flood aid.

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans has volunteered an incentive for donors this month. For every dollar donated to Minot through March 31, Thrivent will contribute 50 cents. The faith-based financial services organization will pay up to $50,000, Ellis said.

“It’s a pretty good deal,” he said.

For additional information about the work in Minot, or to find out how to give to the relief effort, contact Ellis at 862-2303, 212-0170 or wwarren@centurytel.net.

Checks marked for the Minot project can be made out to St. Peter Lutheran Church, P.O. Box 883, Whitefish, MT, 59937.

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by email at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com.