Who's Back? - KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

Who's Back?

Eighty percent of the homes most heavily damaged by 2011 flooding are repaired and currently being lived in, or are very close to being habitable.

That according to a visual survey conducted by the city of Minot.

Record Mouse River flooding in 2011 caused main floor damage to 2,716 homes in the valley and the survey says 2,100 of those homes are - or are soon-to-be - back to a livable point.

Jennifer Thorgramson takes us to the valley to see the progress at the Woodbeck home - a home we first showed you 16 months ago.

(Amy Woodbeck, Minot Resident) "When we moved in, we said it was going to be our forever home."

Stagnet water stood in the street in July 2011.

Outside his flooded home, Eric Woodbeck reached for the door knob, and it fell off in his hand.

(Amy Woodbeck, Minot Resident) "It was just like it had whirlpooled in here. The force of the water must have been amazing. It was unbelievable the stuff we had found in the places we found it."

Over a year ago, the Woodbecks walked us through the relocation of the butcher block, one of a number of things the flood water had rearranged.

Today, like the Woodbeck's, the butcher block is back where it belongs.

(Amy Woodbeck, Minot Resident) "The butcher block from before had fallen to its side and spilled some of its contents then moved all the way over here to the stove. The countertop looked like there had been a fire. It was dirty and nasty and brown. Much more like there had been a fire than a flood."

(Eric Woodbeck, Minot Resident) "We moved home the weekend of Veterans Day last year to a gutted main floor and we lived in our upstairs."

(Amy Woodbeck, Minot Resident) "We got running water in the kitchen on January 16th and I've never been so happy to see running water in a sink before. It's crazy how you remember these dates in your mind."

There are reminders.

Some are scars.

(Eric Woodbeck, Minot Resident) "We don't use it as much because it's not the way it used to be. It will be though. Soon."

And keepsakes frozen in time.

6495 clock

The "I'm Back" sign stands proud outside the Woodbeck home.

Eric says the same is true for much of the neighborhood.

And a survey conducted by the City of Minot says its true for 80 percent of the Mouse River valley.

(Amy Woodbeck, Minot Resident) "It was odd. It was surprising how overwhelming it was. But thankfully, we had each other, and our families and our friends to lean on, without them I don't know what we would have done. It's been amazing."

In Minot, Jennifer Thorgramson, KX News.

Early-on after the 2011 flood, the number '4,100' was frequently quoted at city press conferences as the number of flooded structures in the valley.

That number refers to detached garages and other structures as well as homes.

The number of HOMES that had main floor flood damage in Minot is 2,716.