Leonard and Marilyn Kouba
Interviewed by Kim Porter

Leonard and Marilyn Kouba, who lost their home in East Grand Forks, were among the few who anticipated that there would be a serious flood. Even though they took precautions and moved their belongings to a warehouse, they failed to realize that the warehouse itself would be threatened. They were interviewed by Kim Porter at their new home in East Grand Forks on April 13, 1998.

MARILYN: And to leave there, to go over the Kennedy Bridge&endash;our former house was right down below there. It was always a reminder that that was there. It was awful to see it and I was always saying I'm not going to look, but it was there and it was just a tough feeling. After the buyout we said we hope they take it down by spring, because we though that needed to be taken care of. I said well, I was going to be there when they took it down, because I thought it was just like when we lost our mates, you know, we always said that that was hard for both of us, the illness and the death of them, and we made it through that, and we didn't feel this was that bad so we would be okay. And I just needed that finality of seeing it and then I'd seen in the paper about a week before that they were probably going to be in that area the week. Well, then I kind of got antsy, you know, how are we going to react to this? You couldn't prepare yourself for that anymore than we could prepare for the flood. So it was on a morning, I was going to Circle, and we always had a potluck in December about a week before Christmas. I was going to go down River Road to go out on Belmont but they were moving a house there so I couldn't go. I had to go up over the bridge and I looked down and I seen cats and trucks down in there and a bunch of things going on and I started to cry. I cried all the way over to Belmont. And I thought, well, they're counting on this hot dish. I've gotta have it there, but I'm not staying there. Leonard didn't know anything about this&endash;he had been up to his son's shop on Gateway Drive. I come home and I wanted to take some last pictures there and I thought oh, I don't have a film for my camera so I stopped and got a film. I came home and shortly he came and I was crying and he said well, how come you're not at Circle and what's the matter, and then I told him. So we checked back off and on, but they hadn't taken it down yet during the day. then about 4:30 he went over and he talked to the guy and he said, "Are you going to be taking that house down today?" And he said, "No, I think it's getting a little late"&endash;this was about 4:30&endash;and he said "We'll take it down in the morning." Well, about five o'clock on Tuesday nights we go out to eat with a widow/widowers group of about 30 people. We eat out at a restaurant, so we thought, well, we'll go out to eat, they're not going to take it down anyway. we were just ready to leave and his son called on his cellular and said they're taking your house down. It's going down right now. So then we drove over there. He did decide to go, and I don't know if he was ever happy about that. It was really hard for both of us to see that. It wasn't anything we could prepare ourselves for and we wanted to take some trees that were there and stuff and the city said no and they drove over them with the cat, you know. That was hard to understand. Why you couldn't have plants and some of those trees and things, and then they just drive over them.

LEONARD: The trees, they were only four years old. They grew so perfect. And we kept them all roped down so they'd grow straight, you know. And then I asked the city about it. My son over here built a new house and my son out on 47th built a new house and I have a son building out in the country. They all wanted trees and they asked, can we have those trees, dad, and I said, sure, you can have them. But the city said no, you can't have them. It was bought out at full value and the city owns it and all that, you know. Well, they come with those big cats and they just drove over everything. If the city wanted to move them themselves into where they're building homes, OK, but that wasn't the idea anyhow.

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