June 18 Dear Mother and Barbara-- The last nine days have been something I've never gone through before, and don't care to again. This is one time I don't have to say there isn't much to write about. You have probably read a lot about the flood in the papers, and I'm sure you've seen pictures on TV. June 9th was a hazy, humid day, and I was sure it was going to rain. I was trying that afternoon to get the last patch of sweet corn planted before the rain started, but was only about half done when the rain came about 5:30. Judy was in Denver where her father was in the hospital, so Ronnie and their kids were having supper with us. It wasn't raining hard early in the evening, just intermittent sprinkles. Most of the time there was also very little Wind, but the clouds over the hills were rolling frightfully, like a tornado could drop out of them at anytime. About 6:30 the radio started broadcasting flash flood warnings for campers along streams in the Black Hills. Ronnie said he was going back to town to pick up the amplifiers and other band equipment he had left at the last place he played, and Bud, Bev, and Roddie went in to visit Bevis folks. Ev, Sherri, and I sat around watching TV and listening to the radio warnings, which were getting more urgent and had spread to the Rapid City area. Then about 9:30, both the lights and telephone went out. Ev happened to look down the highway and saw a bunch of flashing car lights, so I jumped in the car and started down toward Box Elder Creek to see what was going on. I only got about a hundred yards fron our driveway when I came to a place where water as over the road ... and the creek looked like it was half a mile across. I asked about some of the people that live in the flooded area, and as far as I could learn they had gotten out. So I came home and gave Ev and Sherri the keys and told them to go look; because they'd never believe it if I just told them. Bud, Bev, and Roddie got home just before Ev and Sheri got home ... then I took the car and headed for KOTA. I didn't get home again for about 26 hours. In that period, I understand the whole family was busy patrolling the creek banks, rescuing people, and doing what they could. Bud and Ronnie rescued four people from flooded buildings. Several people drowned out here by our place, and others are among those who are missing and presumed drowned. When I left for Rapid City, the rain really started coming down, so thiok the windshield wipers wouldn't take if off the windshield. I got to the radio station, but all we could do was sit around and listen to police radio reports ... no one wanted to take a camera out into a rain like that. Then the police radio reported a wall had collapsed at a nursing home and they were evacuating all residents. At that point I decided no mattex how hard it was raining, we had better get some film, so I took one of the cameras and the KOTA car and headed west. I hadn't gone more than five blocks before I came to an area where water was about two feet deep. Then I tried another route, but was also stopped by high water. So I went up on Skyline Drive, toward the dinosaurs, parked the car, and walked down the west side. It would have been pitch black except that numerous fires bad broken out in the flooded area because of power lines down and gas mains broken. I got down to where I could get pictures of both the flood waters and the fires, then climbed back to the top of the hill and went back to the station. By that time the radio station had lost both power and telephone service. A bunch of us set around by candle light for a few minutes trying to figure out what to do next, and we decided I would go to the civil defense offices and try to activate the civil defense emergency broadcast system, while two others would bed down at KOTA to be there in case we got back on the air. So many telephones were out that it took almost three hours to locate an engineer and get the system operating. I signed it on at about a quarter of three in the morning for what turned out to be 70 hours of continuous broadcasting. Another newsman from KOTA relieved me about four in the morning, and he did almost 12 hours of being continuously on the air. Another member of the county commission and I then turned our attention to what we could do to maintain city and county services to those areas not hit by the flood, and to providing for those areas that were hit. With daylight, about 4 am, we began receiving reports of bodies, and realized the magnitude of the disaster. Many things were done, but the week that followed was sort of like a movie, changing quickly from one scene to another, and each With it's special problem. Other county officials and I made two helicopter trips over the flood damage, which extended about 30 miles up and down Rapid and Box Elder Creeks, and about 15 miles along Spring and Battle Creeks. Sandwiched in with the county duties, I tried to put in some time for KOTA, but it was very little except for keeping them informed of what happened at numerous meetings of public officials. However, both the management of the station and the other newsmen were very understanding. I managed to catch about five hours sleep Sunday morning, and about the same on Tuesday morning. After that, I would get six or seven hours sleep every night ... and last night I took a break and went to the cabin where there would be neither telephones nor alarm clocks. I slept a full 12 hours, and feel ready for another busy week starting tomorrow. I should add that although not much of my time was spent for KOTA, Monday through Friday of last week Ev took over for me in handling the emergency broadcast line from the courthouse civil defense office, and she put in 12 to 16 hours every day. Last night, before I left for the cabin, we had another flood scare. A shower dropped about four or five inches of rain in about an hour, and once again flash flood warnings were posted. But the rainfall was small in overall area, and even though there were two drownings in Rapid City, the flood was not serious in comparison. We were worried for a while though because this railroad ditch that flows by our place filled with a torrent of water to within about a foot of coming onto the lawn. We were afraid the bridge on our road to the highway would wash out, so we took two vehicles out to the highway and stayed out there for about an hour, until the water started to go back down. Speaking of rainfall amounts...I saw figures from an official rain guagin station for the June 9th storm. Just five miles west of Rapid City there had been 12 inches of rain in a 12-hour period...about eight inches of it coming in the four hours from six to ten o'clock. There's much more to be written about the flood and the people caught in it, but that's enough. We are very thankful that our family is all safe and none of those drowned were real close friends, and any property damage we suffered was slight. By the way, the corn I was planting when it started is now almost ready for the first cultivation. Love from all of us, Stewart P.S. Kenneth, Betty, Jim, & Linda were here for a while this afternoon.