Still Gutting & Mucking Homes - KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

Still Gutting & Mucking Homes

Following the flood, much of the work gutting and mucking was complete early on, but not all.
Tonight we meet a team still knee deep in the chore --- and the smell that never went away.

Among the debris and destruction left in the wake of the flood, there was a distinct odor left behind.
The sour smell of decay, stagnant water, interrupted basements and septic systems.
Some have described the smell as a transport to the flood of 1969, a smell that never left the recesses of memories and may also be true of the flood of 2011.
(Charles Johnson, Deloycheet Development Corporation) "I mean those smells are really kind of eerie, you know?"
(Ture Thibodbaux, Deloycheet Development Corporation) "It gets smelling pretty bad. Especially when you get behind some of that stuff that is still a little damp from the water."
(Charles Johnson, Deloycheet Development Corporation) "I found some food down there. It was smelling so bad. I know that I'm doing it for a good reason, to get people back in their homes."
Charles Johnson and True Thibodbaux work for the Alaska company Deloycheet.
Thibodbaux is a Minot State University student here from California, while Johnson is an engineering student from Mississippi and came to North Dakota looking for work.
(Charles Johnson, Deloycheet Development Corporation) "I take this personally because my grandmother was impacted by the flood following Katrina. Seeing people up here all the way in North Dakota affected by a flood, I feel like I'm giving back in a way."
(Ture Thibodbaux, Deloycheet Development Corporation) "I'm happy that, even though it's a year later, it's cool to see people moving into their houses and staying in the community."
In Minot, Jennifer Thorgramson, KX News.