At the home of Shelley Lashkowitz at 1518 South River Road, student labor began constructing a dike around the house at about 11 p.m., and continued work well into the early hours of Monday. Students were also aiding many other people in the area, as river waters streamed into the area because of lack of pre-planned dikes and flood control operations.
South River Road residents, helped by students last Sunday evening and early Monday morning, were surrounded by flood water by late Monday morning, but their dikes seemed to be holding back the tide. The Dan Holm house. along with other houses in the area, had been completely diked with about four rows of bags by high school and college students during the early morning hours of Monday.
"The kids are really great on this (the flood problem)," said Lashkowitz. According to him, many of the 250 student workers were from MSC and SU.
Bob Norbeck, SU student, said, "It looks terrible here. We've been working all day with from 200-300 people, and will continue to work long into the night."
Many of the student volunteers had been working for hours before coming to the River Road area, and were still willing to sandbag for the residents who needed their help.
"Using student labor has worked real well, except that these students were not briefed before working on the proper diking procedures to use," said Carol Susag, local resident.
"These people have been working here since Friday, and much of the labor has come from both high school and college students. We've moved at least 10 semi-truck loads of sand already."
In order to keep people handy for aid in sandbagging all night long, shifts of people were being set up so certain people wouldn't have to put in a large share of the work load.
Problems multiplied as a result of a change in the type of diking, and in the lack of communication and cooperation within the community, according to Lashkowitz.
"There are no students here as such," said John Ginakes, relative of an area resident, "all we have here are grown-ups in my opinion."
Lincoln Huseby, SU student and River Road resident, said the basement of their house was filling fast, and numerous leaks had developed already. He expected that their basement wall would collapse.
"We've even had the Grim Reapers down here helping us out," said Huseby. "Already about twelve yards of sand have been moved, and that is just for our own house."
The people unloading a semi-trailer load of pre-filled sandbags at the Lashkowitz home were standing up to their knees in water just to unload the bags from the rear of the truck. From there, the bags were passed to the back of the house, about fifty yards, by a double line of about eighty people.
Through the steadily moving line, the truck load of bags was emptied in slightly over half an hour. After a call was put through to the NDSU manpower center, there seemed to be no real danger of a shortage of manpower at the moment, and work was to continue around the clock.
On the flooded streets, abandoned dikes and partial attempts at stopping the water in the streets were surrounded by water, with the river standing at 36.75 feet at the time.
Some workers had to wade through waist-deep water to aid a man who had a flooded basement and water up to his doorstep.
"I can't conceive of the water coming up to my house," said Lashkowitz, "but there are so many things we didn't conceive when this thing started."
"We really appreciate the work you students have done," said one local woman. "It has taken a lot of work, and most of it has been students."
The J. H. Goldberg residence was being diked during the morning as the river continued to rise toward an expected crest of 38.5 feet on Tuesday.
"We have had some help from the city, but the student help has been real good," said Richard Goldberg, son of J. H. Goldberg. "They are real good people."
"I supposed there aren’t any members of the SDS out here helping, though?" called out Goldberg. To set the record straight, SDS members did participate in diking and manpower operation through the university.
"We are stabilizing here," said Shelley Lashkowitz, "if it (the river) just holds its own for a day or two now, if it just does not rain.
"Changing into army fatigues is a connotation which makes me feel real cruddy," said Lashkowitz.
There were many groups of volunteers evident, but most noticeable representatives were those from the Tau Kappa Epsilon and the Delta Upsilon fraternities.
Representatives of the SU faculty were doing their part raising the dike behind the Veterans Administration Hospital. John Johnson, professor of animal science, and Dr. Robert Carlson, professor of entymology, were among some 50 men and young people sandbagging Sunday.
"If the water comes up fast, we have plenty of pumps to keep it away from Shakey's, and I can have them here in a short while using the radio," said Austin, reflecting on the threatening rain Monday.
"Little" Joe Blakely, a Shakey's employee said, "If I had a dime for every SU student that came down here and asked to help save Shakey's, I'd be a millionaire.
"Coach Bodine and the football team and every fraternity I can think of have called and offered to help. Shakey's is really very grateful."