March 15, 2004--GRAND FORKS, ND LIVES!

April 17, 1997, the entire cities of Grand Forks, ND and East Grand Forks, MN were completely evacuated. Suddenly, places no one had ever heard of were on every major television and radio program in the country. Mayor Pat Owens, dressed in her Red Cross donated garb, was being interviewed daily. Traffic leaving town was thicker than that of Los Angeles at rush hour.

People watched, tears filling their eyes and their hearts reaching out from their pocketbooks and their hours of volunteerism, as it looked like the end of the cities. The flood waters from the Red River of the North and the 8 major blizzards melted soon overtook every house. Then, as ironic as it might seem, the entire downtown district seemed to be on fire. It began with the historic Security Building, then the wind carried the sparks to buildings far and wide. With the public water supply having been cut off from the flood, the Coast Guard was called in with helicopters to suck the water that roared through the streets up and then back onto the blazing buildings. It was almost two months before the people were able to return to see if there was anything salvageable of their homes.

Now, seven years later, April 17 will be cause for celebration—not of the flood and the fire that filled your screens with the horror, but with the survival of the tough people of the area. Mayor Owens, who has since moved to Florida, will be there to help kick off the events of the day at the Grand Cities Mall.

Well-known author Janet Elaine Smith, who has eleven published novels, including bestselling Dunnottar and her latest, Par for the Course, wrote a detailed account of the events—but more importantly of the survivors of the flood—and it was "self-published" soon after the flood, by going to Kinko's and making one copy at a time to send out all across the country and even as far away as England, Scotland, Norway and Holland. Smith (along with her husband Ivan and their three adult children) lived through the flood, was evacuated with the rest of the city, then worked as a volunteer at the Grand Forks Air Force Base, which became a temporary home to many of the "refugee."

iUniverse Publishing heard about Smith's book, The Flood of the Millennium (The Real Story:The Survivors), and they came looking for it for publication. It has just been released, so it is available in time for the upcoming memorials to the flood. The book can be ordered from amazon.com, bn.com, or can be obtained at your favorite local bookstore. For more information about the book, go to http://www.janetelainesmith.com


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