Kajala conveys flood recovery report to LCIF donors

COOK- Ever since last summer’s devastating historic flood in Cook, the words “thank you” have been on the lips of Cook Lions Club President Steve Kajala as he’s expressed his gratitude to all of those who donated their time, effort, and donations of money and goods to those who supported the club’s flood recovery efforts.
Kajala took that thank you tour on the road on Saturday, March 29 when he and other club members traveled to St. Cloud for the Lions Club International Fund (LCIF) “Go for the Gold Gala” to share what a $10,000 LCIF emergency response grant and donations from regional Lions clubs meant for the Cook club’s efforts.
While Lions International is the umbrella organization under which local Lions clubs operate, LCIF is a separate entity administered by the Lions that provides financial aid for humanitarian projects and is fully funded by voluntary donations, Kajala noted.
Kajala began with a slide depicting Cook in drier times, and then switched to flood photos, with an aerial shot of the flood drawing gasps from the crowd. Kajala showed a picture of his office at River St. and Vermilion Dr.
“The water was about 18 inches higher than this – this was taken when the water was already coming down,” Kajala said. “Our watershed received about six to ten inches of rain upstream from us. The river that comes through town is about 30 feet wide and three feet deep, so it just didn’t work and it rose by about ten feet, cresting on Thursday, June 20 and causing the worst flood that we’ve ever seen. Everybody talked about the great flood of 1970 and that was a foot lower than what we had. About 40 percent of the town was underwater, anything from sheds and garages to businesses and homes.”
Kajala immediately turned to LCIF with a request for help.
“I’m going to give credit to this to District Governor Bob Woodke, I think he said it, that the Lions are the first humanitarian group to arrive and the last to leave, because they live there,” Kajala said. “And that was true.”
Kajala said it took just 57 minutes to get a response from LCIF that they would be sending $10,000 to help.
“I was swept away,” Kajala said.
And although no one in the club had experience in disaster response, Kajala described for the crowd what happened next.
“We got on social media because there wasn’t a lot of communication – the city workers and leadership, they didn’t know what to do, either,” Kajala said. “Two days later we had an emergency meeting and it was the most attended Lions meeting our club has ever had. We established a flood committee. We got spending protocols opened up so we could spend money more quickly, and obviously to have that grant money was just amazing. What did we need? Dehumidifiers, shop vacs, sump pumps, pressure washers, protective equipment, cleaning supplies, especially disinfectants. Cleaning equipment, toileting supplies, food, beverages. So we planned a shopping trip for the next day.”
The next morning, a Cook Ambulance led a convoy of four pickup trucks and a large enclosed trailer on the trek, spending out the LCIF donation and additional donations for the needed supplies.
“If you’ve never followed an ambulance, it is really something special,” Kajala smiled. “It’s good when you’re not following it for bad reasons.”
Kajala estimated that there were as many as 100 volunteers at the Cook Fire Hall to help unload and organize the supplies.
“This was really just a special day,” he said.
Kajala noted that the Cook club made an additional $5,500 donation for food.
“When you have 120 residences displaced, you’ve got businesses, workers, emergency staff, the burn rate (for food) is pretty high – it’s about $1,000 a day feeding all those people,” Kajala said.
With an account at North Star Credit Union established to receive monetary donations, the club turned to collecting the many different items homeowners would need for their recovery efforts.
“We rented an empty building (the former Franks Pharmacy building that had been damaged by the flood) and turned that into the Cook Lions Flood Recovery Center,” Kajala said. “We ran that for two hours in the morning and two hours at night for two months straight every day. As things started to taper down we ran it for eight hours a week. We had refrigerators and beds and couches and chairs and everything. Ruby’s Pantry, a regional food shelf, gave us a whole bunch of stuff because it was easier for us to handle because we were always open. Everything in there was free to flood victims, and I don’t think anybody took advantage of that. At the end, we had two rummage sales, sold everything, and put that money in the flood fund.”
Kajala summed up the results of the club’s efforts, including the donations made to the flood fund.
“Today, we’ve put $130,000 back in that town of 590 people,” Kajala said. “We spent about $32,000 on relief supplies, and LCIF covered the first $10,000 of that. We spent another $11,500 on food for everybody. And when we were done we had $76,000 left over.”
That money was distributed to 29 homeowners who applied for assistance, and also to the Cook Public Library.
“So, thanks to LCIF, thanks to the Lions, we were able to get those supplies quickly,” Kajala said. “The other organizations had a place, but the fact that we were able to act quickly (was essential). When you have a building that’s underwater, it’s kind of in suspended animation, and when the water comes out mold and mildew start right away, and with swift action and all those volunteers we were able to get things dried out. Of the 120 buildings, only five of them were not able to be re-occupied, and all but one of our businesses has or will reopen soon. So, to LCIF and the number of local people we got checks from and from Lions Clubs everywhere that sent checks, thank you.”
The Cook club is also looking ahead to help prepare for the next disaster. Kajala said they want to help the Cook Fire Department get a generator so that they won’t be hampered by a power outage when they serve as a command center for the response.
“Right now, if the power goes out, they can’t even open their doors,” Kajala said. “That’s the next step.”
Kajala also told the gathering that the Cook club stands ready to share the expertise it gained with other Lions clubs in communities that may experience a flood.
“We figured it out,” he said. "If there’s ever a need, I want people to call us. We will get on a Zoom, we’ll drive down, we’ll help in any way we can.”