By Rebecca Hudson

Review Staff Writer

Last week the rains came in a fast and furious fashion in this area and along with that, destruction teemed across the county as water rose and flooded buildings, streets and farmland. In response to the emergency that loomed greatest in the northern part of the county where the banks of Lake Shetek and the Des Moines River were breached by the rising water, crews began gathering on Tuesday to fill thousands of sandbags.

The center of the sand bagging operation was on the grounds of Muecke Sand and Gravel, located south of Slayton and by the end of the day, volunteers had filled 8,000 bags that were loaded onto flatbed trailers and sent on their way to the northern part of the county.

Early the next morning on the Fourth of July, crews of volunteers were back at the grueling work by 6:30 a.m. But the efforts were thwarted for a short period of time mid-morning, when once again rains began to pour down on the area. Operations were moved inside one of the buildings where bags continued to be filled and folks waited for the rains to subside.

“If we’re sick, that makes them even sicker every time a new wave of rain comes,” said Julie Beers, referring to those whose homes and businesses had been flooded as the rain continued to fall and threatened to curtail the sand bagging efforts. Thankfully the rain was short lived and the more than 100 workers were able to move back out to work at the mountains of sand that had been deposited there by Muecke’s dump truck.

Families worked together as hundreds of bags were filled and tied each hour toward the goal at the end of the day of 20,000 bags in all. At day’s end, there were bags left unfilled and a surplus stack of sandbags stood ready on the grounds should the need for the arise.

As the day wore on, helpers arrived from across the county as well as other counties including a team of fire fighters from Luverne, who lent their muscles to the project, and a family from Tracy who had heard about the need for volunteers in Murray County. “We had a foot of water in the basement in Tracy,” the homeowner said.  “And we heard the call for help so decided to head over to lend a hand.” Garbed in Fourth of July attire, the family joined the rest of the crews and dug into the sandbagging operation.

The workers filled bags that held approximately 3 scoops of sand.    “We call those groaners,”  Jim Siedschlag said with a laugh, describing the larger bags that held 4 heaping shovel scoops of sand.  Whatever the size or weight of the bags, the workers of every age worked diligently and quickly at the task.  Children such as the Rosenbrook boys kept busy tying and hefting the bags that weighed nearly as much as they did.  Everyone did what they could do.

“We can’t say thanks enough to this group of people who came out on their Fourth of July and take time out of their days,” County Parks Director Justin Hoffmann told a television crew.  “It’s incredible.”

Hungry volunteers were offered food provided by Pete and Krista Beerman of the Plaid Moose in Slayton. Donations of food also came from the Beerman’s local church Three, Radio Works in Worthington, and the Murray County Racing Association.  The Hub Drive-In provided root beer floats to the workers as well.

Brad Bergerson and Arl Weinrebe spent the morning assisting with sandbagging efforts at Lake Shetek before arriving at the bag filling site and reported that there was a large scale bucket brigade style operation there getting bags set into place around homes that were rapidly becoming inundated by the flood waters. “One house had water right up to the wall and we were stacking sandbags 5 or 6 deep,” Weinrebe said.  The homeowner had dug a hole on the other side and put a pump in there to stay ahead of the water, he said.  As bagging was taking place, Weinrebe said, the water rose at least 18” as evidenced by the measuring stick that had been put into place.

The last time he has seen water this high was in 1969, Weinrebe said, when he was in school.  “I got reprimanded for skipping school to help out,” he recalls.  “In Currie the water was six feet over the bridge by Joe Schreier’s building.”

It’s likely the sights and stories from the dozen or so inches of rainfall that fell in these parts will not long be forgotten.  Nor will the way the community of volunteers heeded the call and came together from far and wide in a concentrated effort to help their neighbors.