Flood left Washburn native with a glass half full
By Erica Kingston, BHG Intern
Chad and Nadine Nelson and their two small children were evacuated from their home both times the call went out in Minot. But unlike so many others who are living in campers and in the spare rooms of a relative’s home, Nelsons have been fortunate enough to stay in her parents lake cabin on Lake Audubon. Nadine Nelson, originally from Washburn and the daughter of Dwight and Val Hetletved, and her husband Chad and two and a half-year-old Jasper and three-month-old Piper have stripped their Minot home down to the studs after their basement and 55 inches on the main floor was filled with water. “We were really lucky,” Nadine said. “We were able to get all of our belongings out so we didn’t have any furniture or anything in the house. That was really nice.” Nelson’s returned to their home three weeks after the second evacuation. “It was weird,” Nadine said. “It was kind of surreal almost. We were the only people on the entire block in the area at that particular time. It was this empty neighborhood with all this brown grass and the trees were all brown and dead up to the level of the water. It was quiet and there was still some water down the road from our house. We opened the door to the basement and you could only see two or three steps down and it was just water.”
