A contingent of Salvation Army Austin Corps workers are helping flood victims at Granite Falls today.

Tuesday, April 10, 2001

A contingent of Salvation Army Austin Corps workers are helping flood victims at Granite Falls today.

Team leader Ron Hareid and Ron Houff and three brothers, Ron, Dennis and Bobby Newman, are working side by side with other Salvation Army volunteers, the American Red Cross and the Minnesota Army National Guard.

The team was dispatched to Granite Falls by Maj. Doug Yeck, officer in charge of the Salvation Army Austin Corps. "The Salvation Army is sending as many units as possible to the Granite Falls area as well as Breckenridge and Wahpeton, N.D., and all along the Red River, where it is flooding again," Yeck said.

In the case of the Austin Corps, the 1-year-old disaster services canteen will be in use.

One team under Hareid’s direction will staff the canteen, while the other will work in a giant Salvation Army warehouse distributing food, clothing, cleanup supplies and other items to the flood victims.

"We expect to be there for one to two weeks or as long as it takes," team leader Hareid said. "The canteen will deliver dinner, a break snack and supper to the victims and the volunteers building up the dikes."

The canteen is stocked with cases of soda pop, bottled water, cookies and chips. Hot food will be prepared at the Salvation Army’s temporary headquarters in Granite Falls.

Hareid is a veteran of the Red River Valley’s flood disaster at Fargo-Moorhead four years ago, when the Austin Corps also was needed, but before the canteen was purchased.

"The canteen will go to wherever it is needed," Yeck said. "That could be in the countryside around Granite Falls, where there are other victims of the flooding."

Authorities worked yesterday to finish shoring up dikes to protect Breckenridge and Wahpeton, N.D., from the rising Red River.

Meanwhile, people in low-lying areas along the Red Lake River at Crookston were told to evacuate.

Over the weekend, the Red Lake River rose above 26 feet or 11 feet above flood stage. The dike system seemed to be holding, but as a precaution volunteers were shoring it up.

Granite Falls was the scene of emergency dike-building efforts Monday after the weekend’s rainstorms combined with more melting snow and ice caused more flood worries.

Houff, a long-time Salvation Army Austin Corps, veteran relief worker said he was "proud" to be joining the efforts to assist flood victims and volunteers at work.

The three Newman brothers are all sons of Ardis Newman, the retired long-time Salvation Army employee for the Austin corps.

The last time the Salvation Army’s disaster services canteen-on-wheels was in use was last July, during flood in Austin.

Call Lee Bonorden at 434-2232 or e-mail him at lee.bonorden@austindailyherald.com.