June 18, 2008 - Burlington, IA Flood

We were just finishing up in Oakville and decided to head out of town, get a decent hotel, and get some laundry done. The team was tired and was looking forward to enjoying a good meal and some rest. Rob went out to do some shopping in the nearest city, which was Burlington. Within an hour my phone rang – it was Rob explaining that there was a building right on the Mississippi River that was underwater, and it looked like they could really use our help. I jumped in my truck and headed down to Burlington.

Within a few minutes of my arrival I met Pete Wilson, the factory manager of LaMont Limited. He explained that the water pump, which was almost 40 years old, caught on fire and the basement of this huge factory has subsequently filled with water, just one inch away from the majority of the inventory on the first floor.

I called the rest of the team to get all the equipment to downtown Burlington and within an hour we had our 1800 gallon-per-minute water pump removing the water from the basement.

But that would not completely solve the problem. The LaMont Limited building was under water – the Mississippi River was surrounding the building with water 3-4 feet high. We could pump the water out of the basement but it would just fill back up as soon as we pumped it out. Our only choice was to sand bag around the building…but can you sand bag a building that is already under water? There was only one way to find ouy: Let’s sand bag it.

It would take a small army to walk sand bags through the water one by one and build this wall to hold back the river. The $310,000 trucks were too expensive to risk putting in the deep water and the only piece of equipment that could drive through 3-4 feet of water with sand bags was our CAT skid steers. I decided to take a chance and send one in with the other one on standby with cables and chains in case the first skid steer stalled from the deep waters.

For the next 10 hours, the First Response Team worked tirelessly with some of the factory workers. While the water pump was pumping, we were building this wall in the hopes that it would work. By 10 pm the wall was built, and we were soaking wet. The water pump was still working and by 6 am the next morning the basement was empty.

Guess what? It worked. The wall was built around the factory and no more water was flooding into the basement. I never thought you could sand bag a wall around a building that was already under water and then pump the building dry but we did it anyway and we saved the inventory of the largest factory in Burlington, IA.

As we were finishing up that morning, I kept my eye on the weather reports. I heard of many communities that were nervous about the raging waters headed south. I knew many of them would not have the budgets nor equipment to help themselves, similar to the situation in Oakville. We loaded the equipment and said goodbye. I was going to make some calls and do some more research about communities along the river when my cell phone suddenly rang.

June 15, 2008 - Oakville, IA Flood

It was a good fight but we didn’t win. Even though everybody in the town and from nearby cities came to help, we lost this one. There was a breach today, and it was impossible to stop. We tried but just could not hold back the water. Within a few short hours the city of Oakville, IA, was completely flooded, including approximately 18,000 acres of surrounding farmland.

When we started this fight I was not sure if we would really hold back the river. Further north the river was overtaking cities that had more resources than Oakville. But what if we did not give it our best? What would that say about the community? What would that say to future generations about giving it your best shot…to always try and never give up?

I’m glad we came to Oakville. It was worth it to be a part of this effort and to experience the passion, drive, and dedication of a small town. This town joined together to help neighbors and strangers alike, expecting nothing in return, fighting for the existence of their community. I have no doubt in my mind that Oakville will not look back. They will rebuild those levees better than ever before, they will rebuild their town, and will continue to be the heart and soul of America.

June 14, 2008 - Oakville, IA Flood

The sand bagging operation was going well but more four wheelers were coming in from nearby towns to help build the levy. By now Tim and Seth had arrived from Middleton with the other grapple truck. Since the grapple truck has a 60-cubic yard dump trailer able to hold and dump 80,000 pounds, we decided to use it to carry thousands of sand bags from the bagging operation to the levy. Since only one man is needed to run the grapple truck, the Team was able to move enough sand bags to keep another 100 four wheelers working.

Things were going well, and the spirits of the community were high. We were making progress, and the levy was going up just in time. Every once in a while I would stop and look around me at the people working together to help save each other’s homes. From early morning until late at night no one stopped working.

The water was getting higher. I recommended to the community leaders to move the sand bagging operation farther outside of town. I did not like that so many young kids were making sandbags in an area that would be difficult to evacuate should the levy break. I did not want to be the one sending a bad vibe but none of this would be worth it if people got hurt. People are more important than property.

The leaders agreed, and we began to move sand, bags and equipment outside of town. We set up the new sand bagging operation in a local church parking lot. In the meantime, Tim was out on the dirt bike with the Sat Phone, GPS, and GMRS radios monitoring the levy. It was his job to alert the Team and the community if there was any sign of the levy breaching. This would either give us time to fix it or to get everyone evacuated.

June 13, 2008 - Oakville, IA Flood

While finishing up in Middletown, IN, I received a call from a farmer by the name of Todd Maser. I met Todd while helping out in Parkersburg, IA. He asked if the team could help in the town where he lived. Oakville is a small town in southern IA, and it was being threatened by floodwaters from the swollen Mississippi river. The river was rising, and everyone had joined forces to build a seven mile levy, four feet high around their city…but they needed equipment. All they had were farm trucks, a tractor, and a lot of four wheelers.

There was still work to do in Middletown so I decided to split the team up. Seth and Tim would stay in Indiana, and Rob and I would head to Iowa. I left immediately and upon our arrival I saw something I had never seen before – a community of young and old working together to save their city. I immediately knew the situation was serious, and we only had a few days to get this levy built. I called Seth and Tim and told them to finish up in Indiana and get to Oakville as soon as possible.

Oakville had two dump trucks, one John Deere tractor, a few hundred people, and probably 250 four wheelers: basically just manpower and four wheelers. I decided to speed up the sand bagging operation by having the baggers throw the finished sand bags into the skid steer bucket, instead of on the ground. The skid steer would them bring them to where our crane was parked. By making one huge pile of sand bags, we could then load the bags into dump trucks with the crane. Since our crane has such a large hydraulic head, it was able to pick up 30-40 sandbags at a time and loaded the dump trucks within minutes instead of hours. We kept the dump trucks moving from the sand bagging operation to the levy. Now, instead of the four wheelers driving all the way from the sand bagging operation to the levy, we could deliver the sand bags directly to the base of the levy so the four wheelers could be put to better use in building the levy.

June 8, 2008 - Parkersburg, IA Tornado

We have really grown close to the people here in Parkersburg. Tonight was the first town hall meeting. I was asked to sit in front with the police chief, sheriff, and the town board. They opened up the meeting by welcoming the community to the first town hall meeting since the tornado, which was held in an abandoned mechanic garage on the outskirts of town. Then the chief said, “First order or business, many of you have seen the large black trucks in town opening up roads. We would like to introduce you to the man who owns those trucks, Tad Agoglia.” I was taken aback as everyone from the town gave me a standing ovation.

Later tonight I was told by many people that we gave them hope that they could begin again – because they saw progress and because people cared enough to come help. They simply felt better days were ahead. I’m thankful we can help.

June 2, 2008 - Parkersburg, IA Tornado

We have been in Parkersburg for several days now. We have grown close to the local emergency and government officials. We are no longer staying at the hotel but at County Sheriff Johnson’s house. Our main effort here has been opening up roads. The main highway going through town had piles of debris 30-40 foot high. It was difficult and dangerous for people to drive through because visibility was so bad.

We usually just push debris aside but in this case there were so many houses piled on top of each other – covering a vital road – that we had to remove the debris to the edge of town. When Chris and Jason asked what they could do to help, I said get me dump trucks because dump trucks are usually what is available in most parts of the country.

Jason and Chris took me seriously because dump trucks arrived from three surrounding counties, and for the past few days we have been moving hundreds of truckloads of debris off the main highway.

Today is the day they are burying the husband and wife who died together. The funeral precession came right through the main road where we were working, and we all stopped as everyone drove by. I just can’t seem to get used to this. I can get used to houses and cars being destroyed but I can’t get used to death. It stops me in my tracks every time and makes me think.

After all the cars passed we kept at our work. The truck drivers could not believe we were loading them so fast, one after the other, each truck only taking 1-3 minutes to load. We are tired though – it’s been a long storm season and I know it’s not over yet. We should be done here in Parkersburg in the next few days.

May 27, 2008 - Parkersburg, IA Tornado

We stayed in Picher until yesterday. The situation there was about as stable as possible. Reports started coming in of an EF5 tornado that ripped apart Parkersburg, IA. This is the largest tornado of the year so far, and it was a direct hit on the city. I decided they were going to need our help. We left immediately and arrived in Parkersburg as the sun was coming up.

Tim and I walked into what was left of the volunteer firehouse. The walls and roof were ripped off and all that was left of the garage were steel ribs. There was a lot of commotion and all of a sudden I heard someone scream, “Disaster Recover Solutions!” I heard it screamed again as a man dressed in a police officer’s uniform came around the corner of a fire truck. I identified myself as the person he was looking for. He said, “Are you the guy that owns that large black truck out front?” I said, “Yes, and we are here to help any way you need us.”

He said, “Follow me.” As we walked he said, “My name is Chris Luhring. I have lived here my whole life, and my city is destroyed. I have family who has died, I have friends who have died, and I don’t even know where to bury them. My office in city hall is gone, all the file cabinets, safes, computers, everything is gone. Can you help me?” I said, “Yes, show us where city hall used to be, and we can get to work on finding whatever we can.”

He showed us where to start, and we began digging. We began to pick at the pile of debris with our crane. The tornado was so powerful that houses and cars from blocks away were thrown into city hall – which meant parts of city hall may be lying blocks away as well. Our search went beyond the city hall lot and, according to Chris, we recovered 80 percent of their vital documents. As we stood amidst the rubble with bags of papers, the county clerk we were working with said, “Well, I guess we have to dig graves now.” I explained to him we could use our skid steer to help.

So just a few hours ago the First Response Team did something I never thought we would do: dig graves with the local high school kids using shovels. It was so strange because I never thought I would do something like that in my life. Tim and the kids worked hard, especially on one that needed to be dug double wide for a husband and wife to be buried together.

Chris introduced us to Jason Johnson, the sheriff of the county. They offered to get us a hotel, and thanked us for coming to help. We will meet them tomorrow at sunrise in Parkersburg to again help out in any way we can.