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

Transcription

1 TETON ORAL HISTORY PROGRAM Ricks College Idaho State Historical Society History Department, Utah State University. TETON DAM DISASTER Elaine Robinson Interviewed by Christina Sorensen July 14, 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 A UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY & RICKS COLLEGE HISTORY DEPARTMENTS COMMUNITY atrovement THROUGH LOCAL HISTORY ORAL HISTORY PROGRAM INTERVIEWER AGREEMENT In view of the historical and scholarly value of this information contained in the interview with Et ne Rcbisnsc-Nn, I, Christina rn~~~~ (name, please print) (interviewer, print) knowingly and voluntarily permit the Milton R. Merrill Library at Utah State University, the David O. McKay Library at Ricks College, and the Idaho State Historical Society at Boise, Idaho, the full rights and use of this information. OW-((ii- ±Litri C. -(77-Lcrocf-V Interviewer's Signature 14 a< Li,/ Date

3 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, e, 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;2e,41,:. _-. 2? / IntervieWee's Signature 14 "Sc. ici-7-7 Date

4 MIIIIMMUMMINNIIIIMMUMMINNIIIIMMUMMINNIIIIMMUMMINNIIIIMMUMMINNIIIIMMUMMINNIIIIMMUMMINNIIIIMMUMMIN ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEWEE: Elaine Robinson INTERVIEWER: Christina Sorensen DATE: July 16, 1977 TETON DAM DISASTER S: Elaine, would you please spell your name. R: Elaine Robinson. S: Thank you. Elaine, how old are you? R: Thirty-six. S: Where were you born? R: In Chinook, Montana. S: Where do you live now, your current address? R: We're in Roberts, Idaho. S: How long have you lived here in Roberts? R: Four years. S: Do you have a family? R: Yes. S: How many people are in your family? R: We have two little daughters. S: Now, prior to the construction of the Teton Dam, were you living in this area and did you have any feelings one way or the other in favor of the building of the dam? Were you opposed to it? R: I was aware that it was being built but we lived os far away I wasn't pro or con really. S: Now, on the day that the dam failed, do you remember where you were when you first heard the news and what your reaction was?

5 -2- R: Oh, yes. I was at home and my family, my mother and father lived in Ammon and we were going to have some kind of a family get together that day and I heard them talking about it early in the morning saying that there was a crack. At first I couldn't figure out where the Teton Dam was. I had, really, no idea where so I wasn't concerned about it until just before 11:00 when they said that it was going. My husband said no way was I going across that river bridge because I wouldn't be able to get back. I was at home and we listened all day and all night on the news because there was so many along the river from our ward that we knew that would be hit by it if it came this far. S: What was your reaction when you finally realized that it was serious and heard the reports from Rexburg? What was happening? Did you really believe that it would come as far as Roberts? R: I did, for some reason I really did. One of my counselors at the time lived right here in Roberts and we had a widow lady that needed some help, you know, with a garden and I can remember she went over there to plant her garden that Saturday and I called her and I said, "Laura, please go in and get your supply out of your trailer house." They had their whole year supply down in their basement. I said, "Please leave your garden and go get your supply our of there." I said, "I'll come and help you, we'll do anything we can." She said, "Oh, it's not going to come across the tracks." Of course, most of the people here didn't believe that it would come across the tracks. So she planted the garden and of course, the garden was lost and os was her food storage. My husband didn't believe at first that it was quite as serious as it was. So on Sunday morning, bright and early we got up and we went down to the river to see what we could do to help evacuate some of them. Even our friends that live right next to the river, that are built down there

6 -3- on Bear Island, they didn't believe it either. It was too late for them to save anything when they realized that it was going to hit them. S: So it was Sunday then, when you first actually saw what happened here in Roberts? R: Yes. S: What was your impression? What did it look like and what was your impression when you first saw it? R: It was unbelievable. You couldn't get anywhere near the river. We went down to the county - line bridge to look at it first and there was no bridges left, the water was going over the canal bridge and it was nearly the top of the county line bridge. It's a new bridge that hasn't been there very long. We parked upon the hill and my husband kept saying, "I just can't believe this, I just can't believe it " The people were stunned, sitting there, just watching it. So we drove down as close as we could get and walked out towards the bridge and there were, of course, policemen out there guarding it to keep people away and they were worried then that it would go. All the people that lived in those houses that we knew, we didn't know where they were. We couldn't find them. They packed up that morning and left just as quickly as they could when they saw the water coming. So we drove towards the Marden Wells farm and they were still trying to get their cattle and horses out and we helped them. Then we drove towards the Roberts area and you couldn't get anywhere near it. The overpass was just loaded with the people from Roberts. They were moving up away from the water. See, the water didn't come to Roberts until that morning, until Sunday morning. It didn't start going over, I don't remember the time but it was early Sunday morning. So we thought there's nothing we can do after that. That was several hours later and we just went home. S: What did the water look like? Now, was it muddy or

7 -4- R: Very muddy. And it smelled just terrible, you could see the dead animals coming down' through the river. S: That's what I was going to ask you about, you mentioned helping the men move the animals. Did you see any animals and what was your reaction to the ones that were alive? R: They were scared of the water. This group of animals that was over at Marden Wells, they could not get them out of that field. They could get them just so far, close to the gate, you know, then they'd run back. know these people thought they were going to lose their cattle. I don't think they did. I think they eventually got them all out of there. They were very frightened, you could hear, I don't remember where it was, but a group of animals that was caught by the water. You could hear them crying, bawling. There's no way that you can help them. The smell and the look of it, I don't know it's just like being in a nightmare, a dream that you can't wake up from, watching that water rolling around coming higher and higher. It hadn't reached it's highest at that point. Very frightening. S: Now Elaine, at this time, what was your calling in the Church. I was president of the Relief Society. S: So what happened next as far as what sort of things you became involved in, in the recovery process. Could you sort of trace the steps that you took in that position and then whatever else came up with the Red Cross? R: Well, the Keith McMurtrey family came out to our home about 5:00 Saturday evening and told me that Bishop Del Ray Holm had sent them to find me because the people needed help. A good share of the people of Roberts were involved in it. Del Ray has a radio phone that he can call out to Terreton to a business. They're co-partners in business and he radioed out to him because there was no other' communication. At this time, there was absolutely no help from outside of Roberts area. The people from the Terreton-Hamer area

8 -5- gathered together everything that they could think of and sent it in. There was food made up then, sandwiches, salads and desserts. When I come over here that evening, when you pull in, the only dry spot in Roberts is on the Texaco lot. The people are all standing there and at the time, I don't think they really realized what had happened. It was still so new. There were a few women crying but it was, I don't know, it's hard to describe what you could see standing there. They had some boats and some of them were going out trying desperately to recover some of the things that they left. Cause when they were told the water was coming, nobody had believed, it and nobody had prepared, I think only one family out of all of Roberts that I know of believed it and took some of their food storage. They went with what they had on. Most of them had their night clothes on. There were a lot of them standing out there, they had taken their cars or their campers or whatever and a lot of them parked out within a mile of the Roberts Texaco on the hill. Anyway we got some of this food together and passed it out and they were still so stunned they wouldn't even eat. There was a lot of canned goods, these people in Terreton must have known what we needed. There was fresh water which we didn't even think about, there was diapers for babies, there was baby food. We had a lot of babies here. Elmer and Deanna Wilde have a home just over the freeway and this is where a lot of the food items and the clothing were taken because there was no where here we could put it, there wasn't anything. There was two elderly couples that parked their little campers on the lot. _They started making sandwiches and stuff out of their little campers for these people. I stayed there till about 11:00 that night until they finally had to tell people to please go. Go somewhere and go to sleep, for awhile. There was nothing we could do. Water wasn't going down at all. It stayed at its very highest for a long time. I got up the next morning and came by 8:00.

9 -6- The most frustrating thing about it was, there were no phones, no way to let anybody know you needed their help. The people must have thought, the ones that were out of Roberts, the few that were out in the farm areas, must have thought well, they don't need my help, I won't go in because very few of them came in that first day or so. There we were trying to feed 500 people on nothing and still at this time nobody knew that Roberts was hit. There was a bread man that came Monday, I think, and he let us have all the bread that he had on his wagon and the canned goods that these people from Terreton sent out, we made the sandwiches ourselves, 500 at a time. Anyway, I guess, -still on Monday I didn't realize what a disaster was and what I was involved in. Finally about Monday night, my one counselor that lives out by me came to see what was going on. There we were in 90 degree weather and mosquitos you wouldn't believe and the filth and no toilets and no water, no soap to even wash your hands and, of course, all of were given tetnus shots. The county nurse got there quite soon, I don't remember what day, but it wasn't until Tuesday that finally some outside help come in and the Red Cross finally came on a Tuesday. Then, I can't remember what you all the communication system, of course, the National Guard started coming in. S: Civil Defense. R: Civil Denense, yes, they finally come in set up a base so they could communicate with the outside world. The people still were standing there day and night. Some of them never went to sleep. Of course, they had to patrol, we had so many widows and widowers here in Roberts and I know one of the first things that we did was to try to find them all, because we couldn't account for everybody. Of course, the Red Cross, that's what they first start doing is trying to find out. People calling in and it wasn't, I bet, a week some of the people didn't know if their relatives were dead or alive. I remember

10 INIIIIMMUMMINNIIIIMMUMMINNIIIIMMUMMINNIIIIMMUMMINNIIIIMMUMMINNIIIIMMUMMINNIIIIMMUMMINNIIIIMMUMMIN -7- we had one young girl, Ruth Wells. Her duty was to find out where all these widows were. She was a junior in high school, I think, just finished her junior year. We wrote down all the names, you know, and she hunted for hours and days. Hunting to make sure these widows were accounted for. We have several that are quite ill and one that I can remember, bless her heart, she had left her medicine and she had quite a severe heart problem, she had to have oxygen every so often, especially when she gets upset. They put us under marshall law, nobody was to come in or go out. Even the people that lived here. They locked them out of here. en I came, they tried to keep me away. I said, you either get fed and leave me here or I'll go home and you can starve. That's just about what it amounted to. They wouldn't let this little lady go, the water was still quite high and they wouldn't let her go in and get her medicine and her oxygen. She became hysterical so I went and got the county nurse and I said she could die right here if they don't help her and they said it would be worse on her if she went in that boat and saw what happened to her house. Because when they left, the water wasn't in here and this is what scared them the most and I said if you don't let her go, it will be worse. So they did, they got some people together to get her and brought her in and got her oxygen. But some of these little ladies that tried to come across the freeway to be fed, they turned them away. They told them they couldn't go across there. So I'd take food out across that way to feed some of these people that they wouldn't let in. Being under marshall law was, I think, one of the hardest things at first. It was really hard, the whole thing was really hard. It wasn't until about Wednesday that I finally got some help and some food in there. We were still just using some canned goods. There was no cooler, there was no heater, they ate what came out of the cans. What we could just take

11 -8- out and give them. One of the men drives a schoolbus and he had taken one of his school buses out across the freeway. He told me he would bring it in and set it on the lot and we could put our food in there to keep it out of the sun and things. This is what we fed out of. These people in the campers after a couple of days became quite tired they were up day and night trying to help. So they left and took their campers and went out across the desert somewhere. About Wednesday I can remember seeing Theola Simmons, she's the Stake Relief Society President, somehow she didn't realize how serious it was either and when I saw her I thought, oh it's like heaven, you know, I finally have- somebody to help me. She felt so bad to realize that we didn't have any food or water. I'm sorry. =Anyway she went home immediately, I think this is about Wednesday, and the water was starting to go dawn in places. They still couldn't get into their homes, nobody could, but they were trying desperately to get some of the stuff out that was at least not hurt by the water. Theola went home and got together more food and some help, there was still no phone, there was no way to call out. I remember telling my husband and he was quite upset to think I didn't have any help. There were a few that would come around. I just don't think they realized. It wasn't until Thursday that they were finally able to take us and put us into a building all this time we were out in the outdoors, feeding them. I can remember that very day, they said that we could have the junior high school, that whatever kind of law we had here, I don't remember if it was the National Guard or the Red Cross. It was probably the Red Cross that told them we had to have a building. They had this set up. It was Carl Nielson of the Red Cross that had asked me, Well, he asked the mayor, that Tuesday when they first came here, who he could put in charge. The mayor told him me. I don't know why, he did't know who I was. I mean, he

12 -9- knew who I was but he didn't know I was affiliated with the church or anything and it wasn't because of that Carl Nielson chose me to do this. Anyway I had to see to it every day that the food was ordered ahead of time through him and all the Red Cross could do for them was to have sandwiches for the noon meal and some kind of a hot dish at night and milk. You wouldn't believe how the kids drank that milk. There was still no where to keep it cool until just before we moved into the junior high. There was a young guy that brought out an old, old refrigerator truck full of food, you wouldn't believe how good it looked, I guess it was from the CB'ers group I had asked him if I could please have his refrigerator truck and he said, well it belongs to my father, I'll go call him and he called through the Civil Defense and he said yes, I could keep it. So that was one way that we kept the food, I'm amazed that people didn't get sick with what we went through those first few days. Anyway on this Thursday, we moved into the junior high and we not sooner got the clothes and food and stuff into the junior high and a storm you wouldn't believe hit. Wind and rain. It was just like an answer to prayers when we, just got us all in there and we were all off the Texaco lot when it hit. Then it was cold and wet and miserable. We waded around in mud that smelled just *terrible. We had to clean up the junior high because it had been flooded. There were some outside volunteers that came in and helped. You wouln't believe the clothes that were donated. The people had no way to wash their clothes so what they would do was go in and get a new outfit on and throw the other one away. That was the only was they could keep clean and it was so filthy everywhere. To set up in the junior high was really great because we had some stoves and refrigerators and they did get electricity back on. We still didn't have communication for a few days. We had Civil Defense in there helping us to communicate. There was still no phones, in fact, I don't think we had one for two weeks and there was

13 still no water and no bathroom facilities. Finally they brought some of those little yellow cans after about a week I remember having to order through the National Guard to make sure I had fresh pure water here all the time for the people to drink and to wash in. The county nurse made us had special buckets to wash our hands to keep us from being sick. I remember some of the people gave us such a bad time and I'd say you don't want to get sick do you? I know they were doing it to tease. I can remember people saying Elaine, how can you do this, come every day? I'd go from 8 until 11. Donna Snarr, my one counselor, and I did work quite a bit together. Once in a while we'd try to trade each other off a few hours. She would come in and =make sure things were ordered and take charge and also a girl from the community church, Randi Lou Ross had helped us quite well, she worked for Broulims and as soon as she was able to open up any kind of a store at all she had to back to work. She did help really great for a few days. It didn't hit me, in fact, for months really did I realize the responsibility of seeing to 500 people. Every need they had for so many days, in fact, we fed these people for two weeks straight, day and night, the only time we didn't was Sunday morning. I can remember coming at 8:00 in the morning and some of the men standing out there saying, why weren't you here earlier to feed us breakfast. I had to make sure that the junior high was locked at night and unlocked in the morning. We chose about four rooms for these clothes, one was the children's and infants and one was the men's and the ladie's, you know, and some toys and things. You know some of the funnest times, I can remember in the evening some of these men and women would come and say, let's go shopping and we'd go to these rooms and it was the only fun time really, that they had. I hear about Rexburg and some of these other areas, that had their church meetings and just getting together. Our people didn't

14 in fact, we didn't have a church meeting for three weeks. There was nowhere to have it and I told Bishop Holm we had to get together, in fact, the only time we ever really got together was the times when we ate. We fed them all day long into the night and I finally had to start closing it down earlier. I just couldn't stay there that late, it was 11:00 at night. When these people asked me how I ever did it, I was on such a high level all the time until I would get home and then I would break down. I had to leave my little girls all this time and it's been harder on them than anyone in our family. In fact, right now they hate for me to leave. They keep remembering back to the time when I would leave them for hours at a time and they say that it's kind of a delayed reaction. I know a lot of these widows are now needing psychiatric help, they don't want to be alone. This just upset them so badly. S: How long did this, did you involvment with the Red Cross and the feeding of this job that you were doing continue? R: Oh about two and a half weeks, I'd way. Two and half to three weeks. When the Red Cross finally had to leave they were really good, it was hard and at one time I went to Carl Nelson and told him I couldn't cope with this. It was too big of a magnitude by myself and he told me that I was doing just fine and that if I left that he just couldn't do it alone. They had volunteers but the part of the feeding and the clothing and the taking personal care of these people was my duty. I though about the stories about the Rexburg area and the thousands of people they fed, but they had the Manwaring Center. I don't think they realize how pitiful it was here for these, people. Of course, there's story after story I could tell you of every day. About the beginning of the second week, the people started trying to move back in, and that's when our church welfare took over. Up until this time,

15 -12- I was ordering the fill-in food from the bishop's storehouse in Ucon and a lot of cleaning supplies, everything that I wanted or needed I could get through the church welfare. If you haven't been converted to the welfare, it's a marvelous plan. There's nothing they couldn't get for you. We started getting beds and dressers and some of these items and some groceries to get them back in their homes and this is what Bishop Del Ray Holm, Donna Snarr and I and some other members of our ward did. Several young boys, the Bishop's two sons and some other young boys would help us, they would drive the truck. We kept a file box of each of these families and we went to visit, non-members alike, we went to visit every one that was hit, we'd go up and down the roads and put their name on this file card. Mark down what they needed, send the boys for a load at the Deseret Industires and they'd come back and we'd go and distribute it. This we did for weeks. After the first month, after June, it got so we didn't have to come in every day. We gave out, I don't know how many beds and dressers. S: Just in talking about this, and in things that other people have said, it comes across, it has been expressed the belief in people in the Roberts area,!that Roberts was neglected to a great extent by all the agencies. You know, than longer than Rexburg and Sugar City and some of the areas. Do you think that this is true and, if so, do you have any opinion as to why that happened, why they were so slow in responding to Roberts? R: I don't think they knew. I think if they had know they would have been here just as soon. For instance, the Red Cross not getting here for two and a half days, I think that if they had know, somehow our communications was poor. Of course, there was no phone system from here to Shelley, probably nothing north and the only communication we had for a while was that little phone out to the Terreton area. Now, I don't know if their phone system was out or not.- I assume that it probably was. I think that's the main

16 MIIIIMMUMMINNIIIIMMUMMINNIIIIMMUMMINNIIIIMMUMMINNIIIIMMUMMINNIIIIMMUMMINNIIIIMMUMMINNIIIIMMUMMIN -13- reason. Yes the people did think and feel. I think because Roberts is a smaller area, course Wilford wasn't very big, but it wiped them off the map. The thing that Roberts had and they didn't was the water for days and days afterwards. They were trying to pump it out of Roberts out across the canal or into the canal trying to relieve it. I can remember this Holcort family down here. I bet it was two or three weeks before they ever got back to their home. They had to cut across the road that goes over to Menan. They had to cut the road out to relieve some of this water that was backed up so bad. It subs here pretty bad and that didn't help, but it wouldn't go down.. Of course, it really did smell because of all the leftovers were here. S: Elaine, in looking back over this whole experience of the flood in the last year, in what way do you think this has changed Roberts as a community, it is has and what certain positive things have you seem happen to the community and maybe what negative things, if any, have you seen? R: In the beginning it was the people sticking together that you noticed. It didn't matter what religion you were because, here in Roberts, the Latter- Day Saints aren't predominate, there are two other churches that are active. The Community Church in very active and there are quite a few Community Church members, but it didn't matter because they all needed the same thing. They all had to be fed. We had assigned out to other areas, such as the Rigby area to bring in the food, you know. It didn't matter where it came from. I kept a list of all the people because Roberts is split in the school. Part of the children go out to West Jefferson, part of them to Rigby. I know it's been quite a heated problem here for many years. They took away their high school and I think a few of the people felt that was wrong. So some of those that go one way think the other way isn't as good as them. So I remember making a list a putting it up on the wall of who brought food

17 -14- and who donated their help and who helped in the kitchen and helped serve, so that they could know that everybody was willing to help us. They didn't care who you were, they were really willing to help and we did have some good volunteers that came in. It took so long for the cleanup and long to get back to normal. In fact, it took forever, I think, for some of the HUD trailers to even come in for these people. A lot of people slept in their cars for days and days, if they slept at all. I think if it hadn't taken quite so long, this unity would have lasted longer. There are still people that had been enemies before that have become friends' through this and I think just the looks of Roberts has really improved. There are so many beautiful new homes and they're trying harder to make it look nicer and when they tore all those old buildings down on Main Street, I think, that really helped too. It's becoming a really beautiful little town. But it will take a long time. S: Do you think that it's taken longer for Roberts than it has say, for some of the other towns, like Rexburg and Sugar City? R: I don't know. I can't compare really because I don't know what they're doing up there. S: Elaine, now that there's talk about the dam being rebuilt and especially about being rebuilt in the same location, do you have any feeling about this? R: I don't know. I know the farmers there really feel like that even though they lost a lot of good farm areas right there close to the dam, they feel like that's the only way they can have any farm ground, because they are flooded every spring. I understand the run-off comes down through their farm areas. It's really hard to know. I hope that something like this would never happen again. You never know, but I know the next time they would build it in the same place but they would build it differently. S: Even when there's been, too, some speculation as to the cause of the dam

18 -15- failing and some people have expressed the opinion that it was an act of divine retribution, whereas other people see it as a man-made disaster. How do you.feel about that? R: That's a good question. I know my little daughter the other day said, "Heavenly Father promised us that he wouldn't flood the world again." She was remembering back and seeing all this water and I said, "Well, honey, it wasn't flooded like it was at Noah's time, this was a very small flood compared to that." I know that there are many things that He does to help us grow and I don't know if I cany say that it was completely man-caused either. Because they were brilliant men that built that, obviously there was a mistake, a law broken somewhere. I don't know if it was one of God's laws or one of nature's laws. S: What sort of spiritual experiences do you feel that you had through this experience? Either specific ones or general, that in some way were significant to you? R: Well, at the time, I felt closer to Heavenly Father, because I think He was about the only one I could rely on for so long. I can remember the need to go to church, and when they had President Kimball come to Rexburg, we were all invited to go, but the people here, most of them had no way to go, it was hard to travel from here to Rexburg. So we listened to it on the radio, I can remember hearing them sing, "Come, Come Ye Saints," and wishing desperately we were there with them or that they could come here. I think this is one thing that our people missed was this togetherness. Having some prayers together at the church as a ward. I don't know, it's just hard to explain, I guess. S: Elaine, as you dealt with people in the community, both LDS and non-lds, did you, and I realize this is just your personal opinion, but did you notice any differences along those lines between how people coped with the disaster and how it affected them? Did you feel that in any was there

19 a difference in how they handled it, whether they were Mormon or non-mormon? Or maybe active or inactive? R; Oh yes, I think so. Of course, being President of the Relief Society, I knew exactly who was and who wasn't. Maybe if I hadn't been so closely associated, but it seemed the members had the greatest hope, they weren't so despondent, so upset maybe. I don't know if the Community Church ever gathered together either, nothing was ever said. I doubt their church was flooded in the basement. I can remember when the items from the Deseret Industries and the Bishop's storehouse coming in. Of course, the Deseret brand is on everything that comes from the Bishop's storehouse and the nonmembers commented on this and they called it our grocery store. We tried to have it stocked pretty much like a grocery store and they were able to come and take it as they needed, not to stock up on but as they needed it and I think they were amazed at how easily we were able to take care of our own. I think they really appreciated it. In fact, some non-members donated. When we would tell them that it was only through donations to our church they had donated to it, to the fast offerings. I think that it could be a great converting tool. S; In looking back on it, then, for yourself, over that experience and the things that you did and just over as you mentioned, sort of aftermath and delayed reactions of the last year, in what ways have you felt this whole experience has changed you and say, your attitudes and your values. Perhaps even your personality or just your general outlook on life. R; I think like most everybody else, you realize that nothing here is of value except you and your family. They lost everything, for some of them, there wasn't a thing left to even hunt for. In fact, I remember meeting Pat Wells on that very first Sunday and asking her what it was that she took with her and she looked at me and she said, "You know we left in such a hurry and the only thing I could think of was my genealogy and my pictures." And I said,,167-

20 -17- "That's not silly." Of everything that you own and they had a beautiful home, very elegantly decorated. She left everything and took these. That was what was most important and her family, and I think saving the genealogy. There's many, many miracle stories you hear about some of the genealogy that was saved. It wasn't destroyed in the water like some of the other things. You know, this is one of the first things that some of even the non-memebers missed was their Bible. I know a little old widow kept asking me, is their a Bible? I lost my Bible in the water. I felt so sorry for her because of all her genealogy, you know, they usually write it in the Bible. As I said, it's the family that you care about the most. It becomes most precious at times like this. Even though we were not in the flood waters, everything that I had I didn't care about it except for these people and my family. In fact, I let my garden go and my house go. My dear husband kept my garden watered and weeded for me as much as he could, in fact, it was probably a month later before I ever got out to look at the garden to see what happened to it. There is one story I ought to tell you, it might be one of your interviews that you should have. There is a widow that lives close over to the river and she has a bachelor son that lives with her and she's homebound, and invalid. Her name is Florence Jackson. We did not know for days that she had stayed there weith her son through the flood and was still there. I remember Bishop Holm realizing this and they packed up food and water. Her sone wouldn't take her out of the home until it was dried out or anything, they stayed there all through it. It was quite amazing, I was a little surprised someonw hadn't noticed that she was gone before. We had to take food and water over to them several times becaus they wouldn't come out of their home. It's right there, right near the river bank.

21 -18- S: Elaine, I don't have any more specific questions that I can think of, but are there any feelings or other thoughts that you have at this point that you would like to express? R: It's hard to express these feeling, I guess. I don't know if we really can understand how we felt. I know, in talking to a woman yesterday, she says I don't want to remember any of it. I don't want to remember what happened, I don't want to write it down, I don't want anybody to even ask me questions. She was one of the ones that seemed to be the most hurt in the beginning. She still is in a HUD trailer, they still don't have a home or anything. I don't know what they're going to do yet. I'm glad I can remember. I was really glad that I was able to have the health and the strength to help these people, but like I said, everybody'd say, I don't know how you do it. Not for months later would I even let myself realize that it was hard, that it was not one of the easiest thing I've ever done. In fact, many times I thought I'd lose my mind. And yet when it's all over with and I can remember back how these people were so grateful. This one dear sweet man would dance me up and down the hall just for fun. He'd say, "Let's have a waltz." And he's one of the ones that didn't get into his home for three weeks and yet he was so happy. I never saw him down. A good deal of these people were happy. I think when they realized they were still alive, they were still here, things were all right really. They realized it could have been a lot worse. They could have lost some of the family or their own life. There were some fun times, some scary times. There's one that's been pretty hard to think about. There was a man that had quite a time if he drank. And he was known to beat up his wife. He had been in a mental institution and he was doing fine as long as the county nurse would watch him and make sure he had this medicine and if he didn't drink. One night

22 -19- he came in and he put his arm around me and, of course, some of the young girls thought this was kind of funny. Well I didn't and he told me that I was almost as beautiful as he was, and, of course, he was nothing to look at. The next night he came in, there wasn't very many in the kitchen area eating at the time, a couple of young men. He walked over and -put'his arm around me and I knew he was very drunk this night and this one young men come up and put his arm around me on the other side and said, "Come on, mom, let's go," and took me out down the hall to get me away from this man. One of the presidents, she's president of the Monte View Ward, she was there helping, her group of women were there serving and cooking in the kitchen and he walked over to her and touched her on the head. I though, oh, this could turn into something very bad, and so I walked in and I took her by the hand and I said, "Come on with me," and took her away down the hall. This man got violently mad, just hysterical, his wife was not with him at this time, and he started screaming obscenities and hollering at this young man that was trying to save me from him and told him that he was going to kill him. Of course, they thought he was funny, and he stomped and he screamed and carried on and went out of the junior high school and I turned around and I said, "You guys shouldn't have upset him," Well, they left and about a half an hour later he came back with his wife and set her down in the kitchen and she was sitting there just rocking back and forth and I know she was afraid of him. She was really scared of him. The women in the kitchen were a little bit frightened what was going to happen and it was late enough in the evening that most of the men were gone. The people down in the HUD offices and the men in the Red Cross were all gone, and, of course, our men from our area were gone. One lady told me that he could do some damage, he could hurt one of us if we weren't careful, so she ran down the block and got the sheriff and he and his father-in-law came.

23 -20- Meantime, this man was pounding on the refrigerator and about knocked it over and was screaming about his wife, I guess. I had hidden because I knew that I was the one that had upset him in the beginning. The sheriff came and it took them quite some time to convince him that he was wrong, and to go with them. They got him out on the lawn and the sheriff wrestled with him and told him to please get into the pickup. He wouldn't handcuff him if he would just get into the pickup and he would take him over to Rigby and he'd be all right. He got in once and just as the sheriff got in to start away, he jumped out and started running. He wasn't a big man but he was aggressive enough, and the father-in-law of the sheriff grabbed him and between the two of them, they wrestled him to the ground and put handcuffs on him. The sheriff came for me the next morning and told me if I wouldn't sign a paper that he had harrassed me that he would have to let him go that day. I was still frightened of him enough that I wouldn't know what he would do to us. So I went over to Rigby and signed a paper and they put him back in the mental institution and I havene't seen him since. When he came out they told him never to come back here and he hasn't, as far as I know of. That's just one of so many things that happened, besides trying to feed the people. S: It must have been very frightening. R: It was very frightening, it took quite awhile to get over it. In fact, I didn't dare tell my husband for awhile. For fear he wouldn't let me come back to Roberts. S: Well, thank you very much Elaine. R: Oh, your're welcome. One of the young men that was with the Civil Defense in our communication systems in the junior high school told me that he had been in many disasters and floods in the East and also had been in the war in Vietnam and he told me that people here were worse than some of the refugees

24 -21- in Vietnam. He'd never seen it so bad, they seemed to be lost and didn't really know how to take care of themselves. In fact, I think this is one of the hardest things, there was no way to take care of themselves. I know he said he really felt sorry for these people.