Ten years ago in April, the Midwest played host to the largest mass evacuation of an American city since the Civil War--until Katrina. In Grand Forks, North Dakota, and East Grand Forks, Minnesota, more than 60,000 people were ordered to evacuate to avoid the raging Red River. The water overflowed the earthen dikes and temporary levees to run down city streets and into people's homes. Some of the most unfortunate homeowners had water up to their rooftops. While the losses were even greater than the mounds of debris discarded on the boulevards, thankfully, no lives were lost.
The story found in Grand Forks offers many lessons for the flood victims in the Midwest and their city, state and national leaders.
•The flood victims need help now. They need more help than you'd imagine and faster than we'll be able to get it to them.
•The immediate need, still, days after the flood, is for money, clean water, food, clothes, shelter, electricity.
•Soon, in towns where several businesses were destroyed--along with the jobs they provide and the fabric of life they create--job assistance and mental health services will be required.
There's no doubt about it: the physical needs are many and the time is short. But, as experienced in Grand Forks and New Orleans, there's a need more pressing in the long run for recovery efforts--the need for good publicity.
Take Grand Forks for instance. In this small Midwest community, we had several things working in tandem with each other to make a strong flood recovery possible. We had a strong legislative delegation. We had committed city and business leaders. We had a great media story. (Picture it: a town in the heartland of America, destroyed by flood waters and, incredibly, a downtown fire blazing in the midst of it all.) And we had Pat Owens.
Pat Owens, the tiny powerhouse of a mayor who stood on stepstools to reach the microphones that reached out to the nation for help, painted a picture of our plight through her words and her determination. Our need--as expressed by the humility of our mayor--was great, as were the gifts that eventually flowed from state and national coffers.
Community leaders representing Midwest towns inundated by flood waters would do well to heed lessons learned in Grand Forks and New Orleans. Find your story and why yours differs from surrounding communities. Find the best spokesperson for your message and remember that his or her appearance and body language will speak more loudly than words in a 30 second sound bite on the six o'clock news. Meet with the media and tell your story with colorful words and pictures. Tell it often.
Your recovery will take years--and you will recover!--but your five- and ten-year recovery will follow not from strong backs but from strong relations with the media. Start today.
To read more about the Grand Forks flood and see an audio slideshow of us then and now, visit National Public Radio online.