By: Rebecca Hudson
Murray County News Staffwriter
Last week the rains came in a fast and furious fashion in this area and along with that destruction teemed across the county as water rose and flooded buildings, streets and farmland. In response to the emergency that loomed greatest in the north part of the county where the banks of Lake Shetek and the Des Moines River were breached by the rising water, crews began gathering on Tuesday to fill thousands of sandbags.
The center of the sand bagging operation was on the grounds of Muecke Sand and Gravel, located south of Slayton and by the end of the day, volunteers had filled 8,000 bags that were loaded onto flatbed trailers and sent on their way to the northern part of the county.
Early the next morning on the Fourth of July, crews of volunteers were back at the grueling work at 6:30 a.m. But the efforts were thwarted for a short period of time mid-morning when once again rains began to pour down on the area. Operations were moved inside one of the buildings where bags continued to be filled and folks waited for the rains to subside.
“If we’re sick, that makes them even sicker every time a new wave of rain comes,” said Julie Beers, referring to those whose homes and businesses had been flooded as the rain continued to fall and threatened to curtail the sandbagging efforts. Thankfully the rain was short lived and the more than 100 workers were able to move back out to work at the mountains of sand that had been deposited there by Muecke’s dump truck.
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