Happy Birthday Myra Henning Halvorson (DHS ’72): Bottineau, ND
Happy Birthday Dustin Striker (DHS ’89): Wahpeton, ND
Rolla Tornado
Reply from Debbie Fugere Fauske (’75): Minot, ND
I remember the Rolla tornado well. I was working in Rolla that day. Lori Sollin ran into the office and told us all to get to the back room with no windows. We went back but, of course, didn’t stay there. We eventually all went outside to watch. The tornado at first looked like it was coming straight south, then turned east. We watched it touch down twice. The second time we could see all the debris swirling in the air. I’d never seen anything like it and hope never to see it again!
Thanks for all you do, Gary!
Reply to Lola Metcalfe
From Connie Zorn Landsverk: Bottineau, ND
Hi Lola, thanks for the birthday wish!!! Joey, is doing very well! His wife (Kim) & him live in Tioga. Joe is a Lyman & works for MDU!! Kim is a school teacher & she teaches special needs children. They have 4 kids together!! How’s your Joe doing??
Uncle Bob – Good Dunseith Samaritan
Story from Vickie Metcalfe (’70): Bottineau, ND
Sunday greetings,
I just arrived home from making a quick run to Bottno Hometown Market.
A person from a graduating class of the late 50’s found me in the canned vegetable isle.
He cheerfully said, “Hey, girl, I bet you will never guess what I did today.”
Of course, I stood there, guessing, and all of my guesses were dud’s.
Finally, he said, ” I went to the top of Butte Saint Paul
with a First Lutheran Sunday School class. “They were studying Moses”
………..I was speechless, “Humm, Oh , Did you ride up on a 3 wheeler?”
“NO. I walked”, he said. “The Sunday School class , were studying
the story of Moses, who went to the top of a mountain.
They were busy reciting the 10 commandments all the way up.”
____I quickly thought backwards…..____I have walked to the top of the
Butte Saint Paul with nieces and nephews it was a challenge 20 years ago.”
At the time, gasping, with my side in stitches, I used a walking stick, and found lots of sitting rocks……
I looked at him standing there with his broad grin, and said,
“HOLY BUCKETS, BOB!, just how old are you?”
Laughingly replying, “I am 75 years old.”
“Holey buckets! ” I told him, “The last time I walked the Butte, I wheezed and rested frequently,
while my nieces and nephews scampered, frolicked, and giggled.”
He looked at me and said, “We hiked the hard way up.”
“But I know of the easier way I will go next time.”
Wholey Buckets!
And that Dunseith friends, is the tale of
Bob Lagerquist, class of 58, who attributes his stamina to walking everywhere.
Also, he is fondly called Uncle Bob by all of the Medlang kids,
great-grandchildren of the late Kenrose and Odin Medlang..
Later, Vickie
Trish Larson’s son – Army Airborne
Posting from Trish Larson Clayburgh (’72): Portola Valley, CA
Hi Gary,
I thought I would share with you and your readers, a big event in our family.
My oldest son, Sylvain, joined the army in May, and just completed Basic Training. He was off for the weekend and able to join us for a short break in Atlanta before heading back to Fort Benning to begin Airborne School. Following this 3 weeks of training, he will go on to Army Ranger School and then deployed to wherever he is needed.
We are proud of his choice to serve our country in time of war. Of course, as his mother, I am holding in my heart a wish for his safety and hope that your blog readers will join me in praying for peace and understanding in the world.
Thanks for keeping us all connected Gary. I am so glad to see that Bernadette appears to be feeling better these days.
Trish
Posted by Neola Kofoid Garbe: Bottineau & Minot, ND
Posted by Neola Kofoid Garbe: Bottineau & Minot, ND
====================================
Blog (156) posted on July 10, 2008
From Diane Berg Rheault (79):
I would like to “ditto” Bill Krause’s email to Tim, Laurie and family. Well written, Bill!!!!
Tim, I will keep you all in my prayers, and wish for a speedy recovery!! Take care!
From Bobbie Slyter (70):
| My thoughts and prayers are with Wanda Poitra’s family and with the families involved in those tornadoes. I live in Kansas and know how scary they can be.we have had two towns basically wiped off the map in the last two years.
To Vickie Metcalf, etal.; Is the Leonard Kavlie family related to the Bernard Kavlie family? Bernard’s family lived and farmed north of Hwy 43 in Bottineau county. After graduating high school, I met and became good friends with one of Bernard’s daughters (Rose). Also, I seem to remember that there was another Kavlie in Bottineau who I believe owned and operated a trucking business that hauled freight between Minot and Bottineau. Maybe I’m all wrong and they are different families as I thought the name was spelled Kavli instead of Kavlie. P.S. Gary, thanks for all your work on this blog, it really is good reading.
Keith, I will let Vickie or someone that knows more about the Leonard & Bernard Kavli families answer this. I know that Bernard and Leonard are brothers. Bernard’s wife, Betty, was at my mothers funeral in 2004. I remember talking with her at the Ackworth Cemetery. In our growing up days, the Ackworth Cemetery was in your back yard and our front yard. Gary |
From Rod Hiatt (69):
Good morning Dunseith,
A while back there was mention on different people that are either in a
musical group or played in one or even back in the good old days when we
all went to Canada to party, as some of us would get up and sing with
the bands.
Well back in the mid 70’s I was also in a country band. We played alot
of the local bars from Mohall to Knox to Kelvin Klinic and some wedding
dances and private parties. We weren’t really very good so we changed
our name about once a month so that we could get people to come, as they
were thinking it was a new band in the area. The bar owners always liked
us, as it seemed the more you drank the better we sounded. I think it
was Paula Waula Fassett who asked me one night at Kelvin if she could
bring her dog up there to howl with the music. Not sure if she meant
that or not, but I never wanted to ask as I didn’t want to know the
truth. When I got married in the fall of 1975, I decided that being gone
every weekend was not the way to start out a new marriage, so I gave up
the music business. Others said that I quit because my new bride was
embarrassed to go out in public. There again I’m not asking as I really
don’t want to hear the truth. We use to getting em rockin with the
Auctioneer Song and Wabash Cannonball, but I guess to make it big in
Nashville or even Dunseith you need more than 2 songs in a 4 hour gig.
From Dick Johnson (68):
Gary and Friends,
There was a barber in Dunseith by the name of Hank Johnson. We called
him ‘Hank the Barber’, and he had a shop two doors south of the Althea
theater. This is not the Hank Johnson from Willow Lake, but another guy.
Anyway, for years he drove an old 1950 Nash four door car that resembled
an inverted bathtub! It was dark green and ugly, real ugly. In those
days Nash thought it was cool to be able to lay the front seat down and
make the car into a bed, maybe for camping, who knows! Hank decided to
sell his old Nash and buy a newer car so Marvin Kalk went down and
bought it for $25, if I remember right. It didn’t like to start real
well but he seemed to get it going most of the time, one way or another!
One night a bunch of us were cruising town in Marvin’s Nash and we
noticed he had a stick holding the rear of the driver’s seat up! Someone
asked what it was for and Marvin said the latch was broken so the seat
fell back to the bed position. He dropped us off by Fortune Berube’s
house and we were standing by the car talking to Marvin, who was still
in his car. Bill Berube had tied a rope to the stick that was holding
the seat up and had secretly dropped it out the rear window. We asked
Marvin if he could make the old Nash burn rubber? He revved it up and
dropped the clutch and sure enough it squealed the tires and took off
to the east! Billy gave the rope a pull and poor Marvin fell over
backward in the seat and lost his grip on the steering wheel! The car
veered to the left and jumped the curb, heading for Knute Landsverk’s
garage! Marvin sat back up just in time to turn the wheel and miss the
garage, but instead of hitting the brakes he just kept going and drove
clear across the vacant lot south of Landsverk’s and then bounced back
over that curb and drove off like nothing happened! We went from being
scared to laughing hysterically in just a few seconds! I remember
thinking, if he would have hit that garage we would have all been in BIG
trouble! But we pulled off another one! Thanks Gary!
Dick
The Minot Daily News
Rolla, Belcourt residents cleaning up, putting their lives back together
By ELOISE OGDEN, Regional Editor, eogden@minotdailynews.com
POSTED: July 9, 2008
Eloise Ogden/MDN —
Sheri Leas, right, and her son Logan Leas, 11, stand in front of what’s left of their house in northeast Rolla Tuesday after a tornado struck the area the day before.
Fact Box
Red Cross accepting donations
The Red Cross is accepting donations to help with the disaster in the Rolla and Belcourt areas. For more information, people can call 1-800-323-3179.
People who would like to volunteer their time to help in Rolla with clean up and others ways can call Rolla City Hall at 477-3610, then extension 10. Volunteers need to sign in at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Rolla.
People who would like to volunteer to help with the clean up and other needs in Belcourt can call the emergency services office at 477-2674 or 477-2693.
Rolla recovers
ROLLA AND BELCOURT Sheri Leas said she really didn’t know where to begin, as she picked up pieces Tuesday of her home in Rolla that a tornado hit and demolished the day before, scattering much of it about the area.
On Tuesday, Leas, along with others in Rolla and the Belcourt area whose homes were destroyed or damaged, were trying to clean up the debris and save what they could from their homes.
“It’s quite the devastation,” she said.
Leas said they weren’t home when the tornado hit. They’re living at another place now “and cleaning up,” she said.
Tom Allard, Rolla chief of police, said Tuesday that six to eight homes in Rolla were destroyed and 20 homes were damaged. Allard was the first emergency person who arrived at the scene of the damage in that community Tuesday afternoon.
At Belcourt on the Turtle Mountain Reservation, about 19 structures were affected, said David “Doc” Brien, chairman of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. That number was a preliminary assessment, and tribal officials were continuing their assessment of the area Tuesday.
Gov. John Hoeven and several other state officials visited the Rolla and Belcourt areas Tuesday to view the damage. During a news conference in the Rolette County Courthouse in Rolla Tuesday morning, Hoeven extended his sympathy and concern to those who have been impacted by the tornados.
The 19 structures in the Belcourt area included Martin Peltier’s home northeast of Belcourt, which was considered a total loss. The tornado’s force moved his home off the foundation. Peltier was trapped in the basement, rescued and then flown to Trinity Hospital in Minot where tribal officials said, to their knowledge, he’s in stable condition.
Another injury as a result of the storm was a firefighter in Rolla who sustained minor injuries when his vehicle was struck by a tornado when he was observing the storm approaching the city.
Brien said 18 people on the reservation were affected by the tornado’s damage and rooms were provided for them Monday night at the casino at Belcourt.
“To our knowledge there might have been three tornados that folks saw,” Brien said, referring to the west side of the reservation between Belcourt and Dunseith, although the number hasn’t been officially confirmed.
Brien told the group attending the news conference in Rolla that a grandmother with several grandchildren and a mom saw a tornado coming, went inside their mobile home and hid in the bathtub. “That’s actually the wrong thing to do,” he said. He said people die from being in mobile homes and cars. He said the tribe needs to work on warning people of approaching storms and also make sure people get the right advice on where to go and what to do.
He said that family’s mobile home was lifted up. The grandmother said it was “just like her guardian angel said, ‘no, you’re not taking that trailer’ and pushed it back down. We’re very grateful that family was not injured,” Brien said.
Anita Blue of tribal Emergency Management in Belcourt said all the homes that were destroyed or damaged on the reservation belong to people who are poverty stricken and have no insurance. She said officials were working on getting help for them.
Shaiyan Davis of Belcourt was at the Anishinabe Learning, Cultural & Wellness Center north of Belcourt, attending a cultural camp there when a tornado hit Monday afternoon. She said about 20 kids, 20 mentors and 10 more adults were there at the time. “It just came out of nowhere,” she said. She said it had been sunny but then got really dark. She said the noise was like big gusts of wind and then complete silence. Davis took cover with others in the main building. A straw-insulated building on the property was damaged.
Hoeven and other officials Tuesday commended all the emergency responders for their coordination and short-notice actions Monday afternoon.
Agencies including Red Cross officials from Minot and Bismarck were on the scene to help with the work, along with other people.
Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Rolla has been set up as a relief facility. Erma Mickelson said the American Legion Auxiliary is using the church as a site to serve food. The auxiliary had served supper Monday night and was serving meals Tuesday to those whose homes were destroyed, she said.
As the cleanup gets under way in both communities, Adam Hamm, North Dakota Insurance commissioner, said people need to take steps to prevent further damage, to take photographs or videotape of their property and save all receipts of work, which will help to expedite insurance claims.
Pictures From Bev Morniville Azure (82):
Gary, Here are someof the pic’s I took in Rolla from the Torando. U can share with the site if u would like to. Bev
