In June 1976 we decided to go camping up in Horseshoe Canyon. We went up on Friday night, enjoyed our camp out, and came out of the canyon on Saturday, June 6th. As we were coming out of the canyon, Evelyn came speeding up the road with the news that the Teton Dam had broken!
(Written account by Nada Bowen, Published in "That Day in June" (1976) p. 43)
"We drove on to a brother's farm west of Driggs, Idaho. As we entered the front room, the television report was showing pictures of the flood hitting our hometown of Sugar City. That was when we realized we might not even have a home to go back to. Even though the T.V. scenes were bad, our first thoughts were not about our home going under, but of our loved ones."
"Our four children, Kim, Pam, Craig, and Cindy, were worried about their pets, bikes, friends, and belongings, but their attitudes were great, and through all this they have been so understanding, patient, and calm. All day Saturday we were informed of the flood happenings by radio and T.V. Saturday evening we drove down to Rexburg. What a sight as we saw the whole valley covered with water and a haze of smoke from fires."
"After many detours, because the roads were washed out, we made it into Rexburg and up to Ricks College, which was such a blessed haven of refuge for the thousands of homeless people. After reporting in, we went to see if my parents' home was still there. It was, even though the water had gone up to three feet in their home."
"How sad it was to see all the smashed cars, floating homes, trailers, dead animals, trees stripped of their bark, and strips of highway lying across the farm lands that once were beautiful."
"We went back up to Driggs, still wondering if our home and loved ones were safe."
"The next day, a stake conference was held at Ricks College Fieldhouse. What a spiritual feast. Each ward sat together, wearing what they had left home in the day before. After the great encouragement and counsel from President Ferron Sondregger, our bishop, Glenn Dalling, met with us to report which homes were left, which he had spotted from a helicopter. Our home was still there! Our family shed tears of joy and thankfulness."
"After lunch, we hiked through water up to our knees from the Sugar City Cemetery into Sugar City (2 miles) to see our home. Many have asked us if we were really upset when we saw the inside of our home covered with ten inches of mud, all the furniture covered with water, much of it tipped over and floating, the garage torn off, three apple trees, a hedge, and garden fence gone. But our reply was, "No, we weren't upset, only thankful most everything was there and that our family survived."
"Our front yard was covered with mud a foot and a half deep. There were three sheds that had floated into our yard, a trailer house crashed into our garage and tore out two walls, which lodged against our tree and our house. Also, a pickup was lodged between the trailer and the house. A crippled cow was lying under a tree on our back lawn. There was no sign of our three cats, but they returned one at a time the next day. Our mother cat brought a litter of kittens with her. How her babies survived, we will never know."
"The next days were spent in shoveling mud and pumping water out of the basement. Then the volunteer help started coming in to help us really clean out. The first group was from Ammon. It took six men two days to clean the mud and debris out of the basement and crawl space. Garry and his father emptied 600 jars of fruit and vegetables, which amounted to 100 gallons, into garbage barrels to be thrown away. Six ladies later came to spend the whole day washing 600 jars."
"What seemed to be an overwhelming burden at first turned out to be a great blessing because of the tremendous people who gave of themselves, sacrificed and labored so hard to dig us out and clean up the mess."
After cleaning out our flood home all summer, we sold it in the Fall to Nyle Garn. Then we moved into a HUD trailer behind mom and dad's home in Rexburg, and waited until Spring when we would begin building our new home.
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