A Flood of Words, and a Few Tears

It's 4:51 a.m., and I've finally finished editing the 2,053 inches of copy for the book our newsroom is putting together about the December floods. Now I'll pass on those stories -- slightly revised versions of the best of our coverage from Dec. 3 to Dec. 24, 2007 -- to Copy Desk Chief Sheyna Watkins, who has already begun putting together the 160-page, full-color book. We send it off the printers on Feb. 13, and it should be back and ready for buyers to pick up by early March.

Rereading these stories has been like a return to that crazy month for me. My family did not suffer any damage from the flood, except the loss of my presence for the better part of December. In fact, I'm still largely absent, with all the time this project has taken.

The final story in the book ran with the headline, "Christmas, Not Forgotten," from Dec. 24. Reporter Eric Schwartz and Photo Editor Mike Salsbury created a package that clearly displayed the enormous task facing the Boistfort Valley in general and the Dykstra family in particular. What shone through in the story is the resiliency and optimism, tempered with experience and pragmatism, that the Dykstras and their neighbors are bringing to this overwhelming recovery effort. 

The family lost their entire herd, including cows with a bloodline dating back to Pete Dykstra's grandfather. Here's a bit of Schwartz's story:

Life will go on for the Dykstras, but first they will have to pick up the pieces of a dairy farm operation that has been all but destroyed. Cindy Dykstra said that aside from the obvious pains brought on by the loss of the herd, they will also have to repair and replace the barn where the cows were held and the milking stalls.

However, like many other Boistfort Valley residents, the Dykstras will likely receive a lot of help. Already, Pete Dykstra said, church groups and complete strangers have stopped at his farm to offer a helping hand. They, in addition to the more than 35 friends and family members who have frequented the property in recent weeks, have helped accelerate the rebuilding process. 

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But it will be at least six months before Pete Dykstra will be able to resume his milking operation. Still, help is coming in that regard as well. The International Dairy Federation, of which he is a member, has already sprung into action with offers of free cows pouring in from California to Canada and throughout Montana. 

Sandy Tibeau graduated with Pete Dykstra from Auburn High School in 1961. She is one of about a half-dozen members of that graduating class to travel to the Dykstra farm to assist with rebuilding. 

Tibeau explained that the loss of the cows was probably the hardest thing for Pete Dykstra to face. 

“For him, those cows were a life’s work,” she said. “He bred the same bloodline as the cows his father and grandfather bred before him.” 

In a serendipitous twist, Pete Dykstra said he will still have two of the cows from the same lineage of his family’s herd. That’s because in the late 1970s, a fellow member of the IDF lost his entire herd in a flood. In the spirit of helping a fellow farmer, Pete Dykstra sent over some of his own herd to help out. 

Now, with the Dykstras falling on hard times, that farmer is sending back two of the cows that descended from his father’s herd. 

“I lost bloodlines that go back to original herds,” he said. “It’s nice to think a couple of them are coming back.” 

Combine that with the tale of how the family took the time to set up their annual Christmas creche on the porch of the flood-ravaged home, and it was just a little too much for this grizzled young editor. It might sound corny, but I was actually wiping away tears as I finished editing that story. It's a testament to the good heart of people like the Dykstras, and the fine journalism of people like Eric and Mike, that ink on a page (or in this case, pixels on a screen) can take me straight into the mud and grime of the Boistfort Valley. 

Our book will be a tribute to the flood survivors. It will present in a new way The Chronicle's deadline reporting, which I believe captured much of the gritty reality of life during and just after the floods. The intensity of that effort has faded, leaving behind a still overwhelming task of cleanup and rebuilding. Our book will capture a moment in time, but our newsroom is still engaged with all the stories to be told about this flood, its survivors, and what we in the Chehalis Basin will do now. 

There is still much to do, and much for our newsroom to explore and detail. Rest assured that our journalists will continue to cover this event as our community moves forward through this battlefield of rebuilding and toward a time, years from now, when we can take the flood book off the shelf and realize that the deluge of 2007 is just a part of our common history as citizens of Lewis County and no longer a daily grind.