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It was 3 a.m., and Eric and Jane Thompson were wide awake in the kitchen of the home that would soon be theirs.
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Eric and Jane Thompson and their seven kids, Lily, 4, Grace, 6, Eli, 8, Caleb, 10, Seth, 12, Nick, 13, and Allie, 16, play games in the living room of their Rushford apartment Friday. The family was displaced from their home Aug. 19 by the flood, staying in motels and with friends and relatives until they found an apartment in October. The living room houses Jane's sewing corner, the t.v., computer, toys and games and is also used for dining. The other rooms in the apartment are shared bedrooms, one bathroom and a small kitchen.
(Photo by Melissa Carlo/Winona Daily News) |
Their seven children slept soundly in the bedrooms of the River Trail Inn in downtown Rushford, Minn.
Homes that accomodate a family of nine are hard to find. The Thompsons thought they had landed one in the River Trail Inn, which has 12 bedrooms and seven-and-a-half bathrooms.
The Thompsons had been renting rooms at the Inn for several weeks. They had a verbal agreement to purchase the building by spring 2008 and convert it into their home and office for their two at-home businesses.
As was the case for so many flood victims, the night of Aug. 18 changed those plans.
“We heard a sound and Eric said: It sounds like a siren going off,’” Jane said.
The Thompsons rounded up their seven children ages four to 16 and waded through thigh-deep water to higher ground near Rushford-Peterson High School.
“I made sure I counted heads when we got to the high school,” Jane said.
More than four months later, the Thompsons find caring for their brood is no less of a challenge.
The family has moved 12 times since the disaster.
They first moved to Jane’s parents’ home in Winona. A few days later they left the one-bedroom townhome and headed to Winona’s Riverport Inn.
From there, the Thompsons’ odyssey took them to hotels in Houston, Preston and La Crosse.
But the Thompsons say Rushford is where they need to be.
The customers for their businesses are there. Their friends are there. Eric is a member of the Rushford-Peterson school board.
“We have a purpose in this town,” Jane said.
For the last two months, the family has been staying in a three-bedroom apartment in Rushford.
And no matter where they’ve moved, the Thompsons can’t leave behind their memories of the night of Aug. 18.
Jane said their youngest child 4-year-old Lily still chastises Eric to stay indoors every time it rains.
“Don’t open the door, Daddy,” Lily says. “The water will come in.”
Promise of state aid falters
The Thompsons had virtually nothing to their name after the flood. It wiped out most of their personal belongings, including a 15-passenger van that could transport the whole family at once.
Despite their obvious need, the family was turned away from every state program to which they applied.
It left Jane wondering what happened to the promise of September, when the Minnesota Legislature passed a $157 million flood relief bill.
“That money was set up for the people here,” Jane said. “Where is it?”
The Thompsons weren’t homeowners, so they weren’t eligible for Minnesota Quick Start funds.
The Minnesota Investment Fund program offered no help for Eric’s business, Eric’s Lock and Key.
After those rejections, the family contacted Sen. Sharon Erickson Ropes, DFL-Winona. Ropes and other lawmakers have prodded state officials to be more liberal in their disbursement of Quick Start and MIF funds.
Ropes believes she’s identified the technicality that eliminated Eric from consideration for MIF funds. She said Eric and others who were denied the funds on their first try may be eligible if they apply again.
“It’s really important to get the message out: If it didn’t work for you the first time, go back and try again,” she said.
The Thompsons’ applications to the Federal Emergency Management Agency yielded some aid if a pittance compared to their total losses.
The family was denied a FEMA trailer because they weren’t homeowners, Jane said. The amount they’ve received from FEMA in rental reimbursement: $1,100.
Other safety nets have failed the Thompsons.
They had renter’s insurance, Eric said, but collected nothing in reimbursement because the damage was done by a flood.
The Thompsons acknowledge that state programs have helped some others in Rushford. But watching others get help while they’re left out has Jane wondering why they’ve been passed over.
“The government needs to be accountable for what it hasn’t done,” Jane said.
A home for now
“Welcome,” Jane said, “to the real world of the Thompsons.”
For now, that world is crammed inside a three-bedroom apartment in an upstairs storefront in Rushford.
While it’s far from ideal, Jane said the apartment is the best living space they’ve found so far.
Clothes and appliances clutter the apartment’s narrow hallways. Inside the kitchen, a card table stacked with toasters and utensils is perched in front of the refrigerator.
The table doubles as a cook space for their skillet, where Jane often fries up three to four dozen eggs to feed the family.
“We don’t all fit at the table,” she said dryly.
But the Thompsons have done everything possible to make the place feel like home.
A Christmas tree is the centerpiece of their living room “one of the prettiest trees I’ve ever had,” Jane said.
The tree and its ornaments all were donated, as was a bunk bed in one of the bedrooms. As were the clothes they’re wearing now. As were the toys their children got for Christmas.
The Thompsons credit groups like Lutheran Disaster Response and the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation for providing assistance.
“There will never be a way to say thank you’ to everyone who helped,” Jane said.
Yet the Thompsons’ future still holds plenty of unanswered questions.
Most of all, Jane said her family of nine wants room enough to sleep in peace.
“I don’t know what the future holds,” Jane said. “My kids just want a home.”
