SMU community members share flood stories

This is the third in a series of stories of SMU faculty and staff who have suffered serious damage because of recent flooding. We hope that these stories bring to light how many people, in how many areas, were deeply affected. Please continue to keep everyone who is fighting to put their lives back together in your prayers.
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Robin Thelen has been through two floods in Stockton. The August 2007 flood brought over two feet of water and several inches of mud.




Thelen discovered thick mold on her bedroom walls.







Two feet of water destroyed the main floor of Thelen’s home.







Robin Thelen
Custodian
Maintenance

Robin Thelen keeps photos of her flood-ravished house in an album labeled “Home Sweet Home.” In between photos of thick mold growing on her walls and her family tearing apart sheetrock, she stuck a vacation picture of a brightly colored flower floating on lillypads.

She said she just had to put “something pretty” in there — a little bit of sunshine amidst all the rain.

Though it’s not a label Thelen would have chosen for herself, she’s is an expert flood survivor.
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She’s has done it all before.

When the 1991 flood swept through her home, she lost a lot of her precious photographs.

Thelen knew it would happen again. In her mind, it wasn’t “if” the town would flood, but “when.” In preparation, she moved her photos and important paperwork upstairs. In some ways, she was prepared.

But last time, the flood wasn’t this bad.

All that’s left of Thelen’s home of the past 18 years is a shell. Caution tape surrounds the center of the home so no one falls through the rotted floorboards. Two feet of water and ankle-deep mud destroyed most everything on the first floor and garage.

“It’s just stuff,” she said. “But it’s what makes your house a home. It’s your sanctuary; it’s where your love is built.”

When she talks about her loss, Thelen struggles to hold back tears. Photos of her 3-year-old grandson Mason hammering at sheetrock, and memories of the many people who have helped her, bring smiles to her face.

During both floods, Thelen has been grateful she wasn’t home during the evacuation.

In 1991, she was at the Winona County Fair, picking up her kids’ 4-H projects.

The weekend of Aug. 18-19, she and Tom White, also from the maintenance department, were camping. By 6 a.m. Sunday morning, she awoke to several panicked cell phone messages, including one from her daughter, Jessica.

“She was crying,” Thelen said, “She said, ‘Mom, it’s like the ’91 flood. The house is just as bad, worse. Where are you? People are dying.”

Thelen and White quickly packed and drove back to Stockton. “It was only four hours, but it was the longest drive. All I could think about was what I was coming home to,” she said.

By the time they arrived, her family (including Jessica, who lives in the Twin Cities, and Tony, a freshman at SMU) had already started hauling her personal belongings out on the front lawn and scraping up mud.

“When I walked into the house, it was like, ‘Where do I begin?’ and ‘Here we go again,’ ” Thelen said.

But, instinctively, her family dove right into what needed to be done – throwing furniture and belongings outside first, and then tearing out sheetrock, insulation, flooring and subfloors.

It’s been a difficult year for her family, but Thelen is proud of how they pull together in a time of crisis.

Thelen’s son, Gary, who lives in Dover, Minn., was in a serious combining accident shortly before the flood; half of his body was crushed by an industrial pea picker. He is slowly recovering and lucky to be alive.

Even Thelen’s cat is a survivor. Jessica found her mother’s cat, Cloe, muddy and scared and hiding under the bed after the flood.

The question now remains whether Thelen should try to rebuild in Stockton; she asks herself how many times she thinks she can go through the hard work and the heartache.

“I’m afraid to stay there, but I don’t know what else to do,” she said. “I like the community. This flood has brought us closer together. We are all helping each other and are really concerned for each other, even more than during the last flood. I think in 1991, we were all just so shocked. Now we’re giving each other hugs and praying for each other.”

Thelen knows of eight to 12 other families in town who are selling out. Thelen could have the city buy her out as well.

“It’s not as easy as you’d think to just pick up and leave,” she said. “I’ve not only cried for myself, but I’ve cried for my neighbors. I mourn for what they’ve gone through.”

Thelen is staying with White in Wisconsin and has received her FEMA money, but she knows she cannot simply fix her existing home.

She hopes to have definite answers by spring – whether or not there will be grants available to help her re-build. Right now she is getting quotes and estimates and doing research.

Thelen keeps all of her paperwork neatly filed away.

“I’m always so organized and in control,” she said. “This is God telling me, ‘You never did have control.’ I have nothing left to hold on to, all I can do is get closer to God and hold onto Him.

“Things will work out. I’ll just take it one day at a time and count my blessings.”