Our morning began with an amazing breakfast of french toast, egg bake, muffins, and fruit. From there we were shuttled to Hope Village, a non-profit involved in disaster recovery. The area was full of tents and trailers where volunteers stay for a week at a time to help. We split into 5 groups and were taken to various places around Minot to help with flood recovery.
The intern, who was driving my group, gave us a tour of the flood area. It was shocking. Water came up so high in the city, buildings flooded that were guaranteed never to flood. New neighborhoods along the river were destroyed and thousands of homes were lost. FEMA has only minimally assisted and flood insurance is hardly covering anything. It is so sad.
We were working with an AmeriCorp group on a home that had been taken down to the framing. Our job was to pull out junk from all the framing, like extra nails and staples. I spent most of the day trying to pull up flooring in one of the rooms. It was some kind of linoleum and was super tough. We had to use hammers and crowbars to pry it off.
The day was freezing cold and rainy, which was very unpleasant. I was cold most the day except for when I walked to a nearby gas station for some hot chocolate. I felt like it was winter time...I never drink hot chocolate in the summer.
In two days we shall enter Montana, our third to last state of the trip. I look forward to the beautiful landscapes and Glacier National Park, but most of all I look forward to escaping the headwinds we have been experiencing.
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