This is the seventh and final story about SMU faculty and staff who have suffered major losses 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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David and Joyce McConville of Minnesota City, along with their daughter Kelly, suffered major damage in the bottom half of their split-level home.
Though cleanup efforts are finished, the McConvilles have yet to begin reconstruction.
Dr. Dave McConville said it isn’t easy to watch your home and your belongings set out at the curb and carried away.
Dr. Dave McConville
Professor of biology
Director of M.S.
in Geographic Information Science
Dr. Dave McConville is no stranger to water or to the river. As a career biologist and river researcher, he’s navigated his boat through all kinds of high-level waters.
But, he said, he’s never seen a more treacherous current than the morning of Aug. 19, when floodwater surrounded his Minnesota City home.
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Dave and his wife, Joyce, have lived at 289 Harry’s Lane since 1975. “It took a thousand year flood to bring us down,” he said.
The McConvilles’ home — which they share with their teenage daughter Kelly — is located at the highest level in the area, and Dave estimates it was one of the last to be affected by the flood.
The McConvilles hadn’t known it was flooding when they were awakened at 4:30 a.m. by a neighbor telling them they had better get out of their home.
“You are awakened from a dead sleep, and it’s like, ‘What? What did you say?’” Dave said.
Upon first inspection, the lower area of their split-level home looked fine. But outside, through the darkness, they noticed the high waters encroaching on their home.
Dave walked down the hill from their home to get his boat. By this time, he said, water was waist deep, and both his boat and trailer were trying to float.
In the time it took him to unhook the boat and drag it closer to the house, water on his lower level was rising as the septic overflowed.
“There was a 2-foot geyser out of the toilet on the bottom level,” he said.
Joyce thought to rescue Dave’s laptop, but, he said, that is all that was rescued at that point.
Outside Dave could hear his neighbors calling for help. He and a neighbor navigated the boat “right down the middle of the street” and helped what Dave estimates are more than 20 people who were hanging out of their windows or stranded on their porches.
He also rescued a few precious pets, some of which were more petrified of the water than others.
It was easy to see, he said, why so many people lost their foundations. “Once we would let go of a house, the current would whip the boat around into the house, and I would have to go full power against the current.
“I’ve done a lot of Mississippi River boating, and I have never experienced more treacherous current conditions,” he said.
Dave is still amazed by how quickly the water rose and also how quickly it disappeared. Many questions regarding the cause and the science of it all, still remain unanswered. “It was nature at work,” he said.
For several weeks, the McConvilles, along with friends and family, worked 20 hours a day removing items from their home, ripping up flooring and carpeting and sanitizing the lower level.
“There were two reactions,” he said. “People either stood in shock, or they did what we did and started an action plan before the flood subsided, but I’m not saying there is a right way or a wrong way. (The flood) had a very emotional impact; it’s been very stressful. Your home is the most foundational investment in your life.”
Dave estimates they cleaned out 14 inches of mess, mud, muck and septic water. The smell, McConville said, was horrible. At one point, when they thought they had finished with removal, the family removed more sheetrock after they continued to smell mold.
And, for a while, the three have had unusual sleeping conditions. Some nights, Dave and his daughter have slept on the floor because there was little space anywhere else; they piled what could be salvaged from two floors, onto one. Their lower level had contained three bedrooms, a living room, an office, a bathroom and pantry.
“We haven’t started to restore,” Dave said. “We’re putting together a financial model. It’s been hard to watch your home go from being worth however many thousands of dollars to unmarketable in a matter of seconds.”
But, Dave said, after a particularly despairing day, he began to remind himself — and took comfort from the fact — that no one he knows was killed. His family was not hurt and they still have their home.
“It’s just stuff,” he said.
Brother Louis and Mark Merchlewitz demonstrate how to make zucchini button canapes.
More than 20 individuals graciously served as chefs for the benefit.
