McCook Lake: One month after the floods

NORTH SIOUX CITY, S.D. (KELO) — It’s been a month since southeastern KELOLAND experienced devastating floods that left dozens of people homeless and ruined crop fields all across the countryside. McCook Lake by North Sioux City was one of those areas hardest hit.

Even though the water has receded, frustrations remain high because the recovery is slow going.

Last month, the devastating floods around McCook Lake were gutwrenching — families watching their homes and everything they’ve worked for getting destroyed.

“I think people are calming down, waiting to see what’s going to happen with FEMA,” flooded homeowner Renae Hansen said.

Hansen, whose home also flooded, says they are also wondering what’s going to happen to people’s property.

“Are the people going to be able to rebuild, there are so many questions that the community has and they are just waiting for the answers,” Hansen said.

The Red Cross says at one time they had as many as 500 people displaced, including children. They finally closed the last shelter and that’s a good sign, but it’s going to be a long time before some families get to return home.

“We are a month in, I think they are looking at several months if not a full year to see where they are at as people look at rebuilding their homes and how long that takes,” Katie Webster with the American Red Cross said.

Webster has been at McCook lake for several weeks now.

At one time, the Red Cross had 11 shelters set up for people to go to. But now it’s main focus is to continue to reach out to families to see what their needs are, including financial assistance or other resources.

“That could be anything from documents that need replaced and how to navigate through that helping them get medications that they might have and also just mental health,” Webster said.

They have volunteers set up at the fire station ready to assist anyone needing help.

The Rubida’s have a burning desire to help, but not by choice.

Their farm fields were covered in about two feet of corn stalks and the only way to get rid of them was to rake as much off as they could and burn the rest.

“In order to replant next year, because we’ve lost everything this year, we have to clean the ground off, clean all the stalks off to even disc or cultivate or plant or anything,” Kathy Rubida said.

They say it’s going to cost them time and money.

But they aren’t alone, other farmers in the area who also got flooded are having to do the same thing.

“It’s a mess and this is just the start we may have to do this several more times,” Rubida said.

The lake remains closed, but this past weekend, the Game, Fish and Parks opened it up so residents could retrieve their boats, docks and other motorized vehicles that washed away in the floods.

Like this dock, it doesn’t belong here. It floated down the water and rested right here.

“The lake is unsafe there are three homes in the lake, there’s a lot of debris retaining walls and there’s a car the lake is unsafe, you don’t want to be out there you just don’t know what you’re going to hit,” Hansen said.

So for now, as they wait for FEMA to decide how much money each homeowner gets, several organizations including the Izzac Walton league are doing what they can to raise as much money as they can.

“The monetary donations that are coming in down the pipeline are just over the moon,” Hansen said.

Those donations will go directly to homeowners to use for whatever is not covered by FEMA.

“There’s a lot happening behind the scenes to try and help these folks get through this horrible time; they all have to get new sheetrock, new plumbing, new electricity, new appliances, I mean there’s so much new that they need to recover so the recovery isn’t over,” Hansen said.

The Red Cross says they have 400 volunteers assisting homeowners with all sorts of resources and transportation if someone needs it.

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