COOK, Minn. — As flood waters in northern Minnesota recede, the damage left behind is still impacting residents.
Theresa Drift is a Cook resident whose basement was flooded during the storms two weeks ago. She still can't move back in.
"We just had to get out because we didn't know if we would be safe anymore," said Drift.
She spoke with Governor Tim Walz during his visit and asked for help. Residents are still waiting on federal and state assistance which could take months. Luckily for her, she has a community to lean on.
"It makes me cry," she said. "You know, it's like, why are you helping me? I'm just some lady on the end of the road here. And they saw people needed help. And they came in, they helped us."
Ryan Horner and his wife own the Comet Theater, the longest-continuously running movie theater in Minnesota.
"We're in a floodplain," said Horner. "So you can't have flood insurance. None of the businesses do. "
Horner said an assessment determined his business was a 95 percent loss, with nearly everything inside the theater destroyed.
They expect to pay tens of thousands of dollars in repairs.
"We're kind of left on our own as far as rebuilding," he said. "So we're not sure when or if we'll get help at all. Everyone says we will, but it's hard to know when."
He is raising money to get the theater back in order.
Betsy Grams is the vice president of adventure for the YMCA Of The North. Their Family Camp du Nord outside of Ely took a hit from the floods.
"That overland flooding, washed out roads in the area and created some flooding conditions in a number of our camp buildings, especially in the lower levels of buildings, including the dining hall Lodge and some cabins," said Grams.
Grams says significant recovery efforts are underway as they raise money to repair their property.
"Even with the good news story of everyone being safe and programming not being disrupted, there's significant amount of support still needed to restore," said Grams.
Grams says luckily, programing won't be interrupted this upcoming busy holiday weekend, but the DNR is urging folks to check with them before making plans to head north,
"The trails that are closed are mostly in northeast Minnesota," said Sara Berhow, with the DNR Parks and Trails division. "There have been some trail wash outs and some road wash outs. And we're not able to assess and start repairing those until after the water recedes."
She says all state parks in northern Minnesota are still open. But just like in Cook, it will be awhile till things are back to normal.
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