TETON ORAL HISTORY PROGRAM. Ricks College Idaho State Historical Society History Department, Utah State University TETON DAM DISASTER

Transcription

1 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII TETON ORAL HISTORY PROGRAM Ricks College Idaho State Historical Society History Department, Utah State University TETON DAM DISASTER Sandra Armitta Isaacson Reed Interviewed by Mary Ann Beck June 9, 1977 Project made possible by funds from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation Idaho State Legislature through the Idaho State Historical Society and National Endowment for the Humanities

2 II1 I MITI UlTIIIIIIIII1 ATIIIIII1 IIIIII I 1 IIIIII II II I I I I I I I I I II I I I I I I I I I II I IIIIII:I UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY & RICKS COLLEGE HISTORY DEPARTMENTS COMMUNITY IMPROVEMENT THROUGH LOCAL HISTORY ORAL HISTORY PROGRAM INTERVIEWEE AGREEMENT You have been interviewed in connection with a joint oral history program of the History Department, Utah State University, Ricks College, and the Idaho State Historical Society. The purpose of this oral history program is to gather and preserve information for historical and scholarly use. A tape recording of your interview has been made by the interviewer. A verbatim typescript of the tape will be made and a final typed and edited transcripts, together with the tape will be made and a final will then be filed in the Milton R. Merrill Library Special Collections, David 0. McKay Library at Ricks College, and the Idaho State Historical Society in Boise. This material will be made available according to each of the depositories' policies for research be scholars and by others for scholarly purposes. When the final transcript is completed, a personal copy will.be sent to you. * * * * * In view of the historical and scholarly value of this information, I SitridiDrti., do hereby assign full (please- print full name) and all rights of this material to the Merrill Library at Utah State University, to the Library at Ricks College, and to the Idaho State Historical Society at Boise, Idaho, for scholarly purposes according to each of the institutions governing policies. /1 SOO2CAM ( 1. 7(r- LIntervieweels Signature? Date

3 TETON ORAL HISTORY PROGRAM Ricks College Idaho State Historical Society History Department, Utah State University TETON DAM DISASTER Sandra Armitta Isaacson Reed Interviewed by Mary Ann Beck June 9, 1977 Project made possible by funds from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation Idaho State Legislature through the Idaho State Historical Society and National Endowment for the Humanities

4 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY & RICKS COLLEGE HISTORY DEPARTMENTS COMMUNITY IMPROVEMENT THROUGH LOCAL HISTORY ORAL HISTORY PROGRAM INTERVIEWER AGREEMENT In view of the historical and scholarly value of this information contained in the interview with S r,h (l1-0 PYTY) p I, (name, please print) (interviewer, print) knowingly and voluntarily permit the Milton R. Merrill Library at Utah State University, the David 0. McKay Library at Ricks College, and the Idaho State Historical Society at Boise, Idaho, the full rights and use of this information. if r it, 42'4e,;4 interliewer s Signature r\ 77 Date

5 ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEWEE: INTERVIEWER: Sandra Armitta Isaacson Reed Mary Ann Beck DATE: June 9, 1977 TETON DAM DISASTER B: Mrs. Reed, where were you born? R: I was born in Holbrook, Arizona. B: How long have you lived in Rexburg? R: I've lived here for about two years. B: Would you spell your name, please? R: Sandra Armitta Isaacson Reed. B: How old are you? R: I'm 23. B: Do you have a family? R: Yes, I have a husband. B: Were you living and married at the time of the flood? R: No, I wasn't, I was living alone. B: What was ycur address at the time of the flood? R: I lived at Queen Bee Apartments. B: What is your present address? R: 7th North 5th West. B: What do you do for a living? R: I'm a student and a housewife. B: How long have you lived in this area? R: I've lived here for about two years. B: You lived in an apartment, right? R: Yes.

6 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII REED -2- B: Did you support or oppose the construction of the Teton Dam? R: Well, I wasn't here at the time that it was built but since my father is a county agricultural agent I know that dams are important to the agriculture of the state but I don't feel that the dam was constructed right. B: Did you or any of your friends have any premonitions of the Teton Disaster? R: No, we did not. B: Where were you and your friends when the Teton Dam broke? R: We were downtown shopping. B: What were your first reactions when you heard that the dam had failed? R: Well, I didn't really believe it. I just thought it was kind of exciting. B: Did you see the flood coming? R: Not until it was already here and I was in the middle of it. B: Would you like to explain? R: Do you want to hear the whole story? B: Yes. R: We heard that the dam had broken and the flood was coming and to get out of town; so we did. We got an old lady's dog because she was out of town and we took our car and went up on the hill where the water couldn't reach us and we waited for a long time. It never came and we got tired of waiting and we didn't know whether to believe if it was true or not. We went back downtown to my friend's apartment and we were eating dinner and I looked out the window--it was in a basement apartment--and I could see the water was rising up on the windows. We decided we had better leave and that's when we saw the water. B: How hot was it that day? R: It was pretty warm. It wasn't real hot. It was pretty warm. B: Were there quite a few people on the hill waiting for the flood?

7 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII REED R: Most of the people were up at the college and not way up on the hill where we were. B: How many miles were you from town? R: We were still in town but we were up on the hills in town. B: When you heard that the Teton Dam had failed, what preparation did you and your friends do to save their property? R: Well, since my friends didn't really know whether to believe it or not and since we didn't know how much time we had we didn't really try to save anything. We just left. B: In vacating the area where you were, tell what happened to you and your friends. R: Soon as we saw the water on the windows we decided we had better get in the car and leave. Without saying anything we all went and got in the car and drove out through the water. We barely made it. The car wouldn't have made it out through the water if we had waited just five more minutes. B: How high was the water? R: It was about a foot and a half. B: What did it look like? R: It was all muddy. It wasn't violent yet because it was just barely coming in. It was just kind of rolling in. B: Did it look like a river? R: A calm river. B: Did you have any unusual or miraculous experiences connected with the flood? R: Just getting out. We had police cars all around yelling at us to get out. B: Tell me about the policemen and the water. R: There was someone down by Village Apartments in their car and the car was getting flooded with water and this police car went down there to try to help them. While he was there the water rose up on his car and he couldn't get out either so they all had to swim out.

8 REED -4- B: Did you see any animals trying to escape the flood waters? R: I didn't but a couple of my friends went back in the flood to save this lady's dog and they swam through the water and got the dog out. B: Where did you and your friends stay during the first two or three days after the flood? R: They stayed in my apartment because my apartment didn't get flooded. B: Did they continue to stay there during the cleanup? R: Yes, part of the time there and the other part at the school. B: How soon after the flood were you able to return to your home? In other words, was your home in the flood? R: My home wasn't hit but my friend's basement apartment was hit. You couldn't go back because it was totally destroyed. B: How did he get back to his own apartment and what was his first reaction when he viewed the destruction along with you? R: When we went back, all we could see was a basement full of water. We couldn't really see anything in it and there wasn't much you could do about it. He just looked at it and didn't say much. B: Tell me about the walls caving in. R: When the water went into the basement apartment there was a lot of pressure and it knocked the walls that divided the different rooms in. It knocked the refrigerator and the freezer over and they were in the other room. Everything was just mangled and awful. B: The walls caved in? R: Yes. B: What was the damage you suffered as a result of the flood? R: The only thing I lost was my purse with $ in it.

9 I REED -5- B: That was the most cherished item you had lost? R: Yes, I didn't lose anything else. B: What did you think about and how did you feel when you watched the flood waters rolling through the area? R: When it first came it was kind of exciting because it was new. After the flood waters had gone it was really sad because everything was ruined and a lot of people were left homeless without anything. B: How did you and your friends go about cleaning up their apartment? R: Since it was a basement apartment and I'm a girl and they were guys they wouldn't let me go in and help. I watched and they got a pump and they pumped all the water out. They carried all the debris and mud out with a shovel. I don't know if the place has been fixed up or not. B: What were some of the problems they were confronted with? What problems gave you and them the most frustration? R: The mud, soot andall the water that was in the way. B: Could you describe the mud and the smell in the air during that time? R: You couldn't walk anywhere without sticking. You'd have to wear boots. You'd go out in clean clothes and come back all muddy. B: Did you receive any help in cleaning up your property or your friends? R: Yes, there were some people that helped us pump the water out of the basement and after they helped us we helped them. B: Did you personally suffer any vandalism or other forms of lawlessness? R: Some of my things were stolen. One of my friends had been keeping them for me from the flood. B: What kind of government aid did you receive immediately after the flood? R: I didn't ask for any. B: Did HUD or the volunteers come in?

10 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII REED -6- R: No, I didn't need them. B: Did you receive any assistance or your friends from the L.D.S. or other church groups immediately after the flood? R: Yes, from the church. We got food because there weren't any stores. We lived off the food they gave us. B: Did you receive or your friends any assistance from the Red Cross or from any other private or independent organizations? R: One of my friends got some shots from the Red Cross to prevent him from getting any sicknesses, but that's all we got. B: Did you deal with any government agency in recovering your money that you lost in the flood? R: No, I didn't. B: Did you have any dealings with the county or state authorities and law enforcement officers during the flood? R: In a way I did because my mother was worried about me and she couldn't get in touch with me. There weren't any phones and they weren't letting anybody into the area and so my uncle, through the police department, was able to get in touch with me. They let him come in and get me and take me out. In that way the police department helped. B: Where is your uncle from? R: My uncle is from Sandy, Utah. B: Do you feel that any who assisted in recovery operations took advantage of you or the government, especially in getting a lot of money without really earning it? R: Yes, I think some of the people did. I don't know if they intended to at first, but they got money for the things that were destroyed and then they used it for other things that they didn't really need. I didn't think that was right.

11 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII REED -7- B: Do you know of anyone that took advantage of the government? R: I knew one girl that had some things destroyed and she got reimbursed for it. She spent all the money on gifts and presents and just little knickknacks and stuff and nothing that she really needed. She didn't really need to ask the government for that kind of money. B: Without divulging any names, do you know of anyone who filed fraudulent flood claims? R: No, I don't. B: Do you feel that the flood was divine punishment or a man-made disaster? R: I can't really say because I don't know. It could have been divine punishment and it could have been man-made. You just can't say. B: Do you feel that the dam should be rebuilt? R: Yes I do, but in a different place. B: How has the Teton Disaster changed your life? R: It hasn't really done anything to change my life except maybe it affected the people that I live around and in that way affected me. B: What did you think about the Appreciation Day they had this weekend? R: I think it was a good thought. I didn't attend it but I feel that the people that helped put so much of their time and effort into helping that the people of Rexburg should show an appreciation for what they did. B: While you were on the hill waiting for the flood what were the attitudes of the people? Were they happy or sad or-what? R: You mean how they felt about the flood? B: Yes. R: I talked to this one older couple that had lived in Rexburg for a long time and the lady was watching her house go underwater and she told me that there was 30 years of work, food, storage and everything that was just being washed away.

12 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII REED She was really calm about it. She realized there was not much she could do about it. I think everybody just accepted it and took it from where it left off. B: Do you think the people of Rexburg and Wilford and Sugar City had enough warning before the flood hit? R: As far as I know, nobody knew too much about what was going on because there was no official report on it. One of my friends called the police department (about 11 o'clock) and asked.if the Teton Dam had broken and he said, "No, don't worry about it." I heard a lot of people say that the only way they knew was from their neighbors and it got around more from gossip than from official reports. I don't feel that was right because I think a lot more things could have been saved if there had been more warning. B: How do you think Rexburg could have prepared for a disaster like this? R: This is one place you really wouldn't be prepared for flood damage. They were pretty well prepared with food and everything. Maybe everybody should build their houses on the hill. B: How long did you stay after the flood hit? R: I was only here for a few days because my uncle came to get me because my mother was worried about me. I came back for school the next semester. I came in on the bus. When I came into town, it didn't look quite the same as it did before the flood. There wasn't any mud or dead cattle or anything like that, but there was the water level on the houses and everything looked dingy and dusty and just kind of dirty. There was a few water puddles. I don't know if they were from a rainstorm or left over from the flood but it didn't look too bad. B: Did the flood have any effect on the enrollment at Ricks College do you think?

13 REED -9- R: If it did it didn't have too much because they had to turn a lot of students away because they didn't have any room for them. B: What comments have you heard on the Bureau of Reclamation? R: I haven't heard too much about them but as far as I know they kept all their commitments and haven't done anything wrong. B: Thank you very much, Mrs. Reed.