‘We have nothing’: Flood victims say government failures continue after botched flood warning

Morgan Speichinger works to clean up her home near McCook Lake on July 3, 2024, after a June 23 flood. (Joshua Haiar/South Dakota Searchlight)

McCOOK LAKE — Neither Morgan Speichinger nor many of her neighbors came away worried on June 23 after listening to Gov. Kristi Noem talk about flooding in the southeastern corner of South Dakota.

“Noem’s press conference made it sound like it wasn’t going to be bad for us,” Speichinger said. “There was no talk of a massive flood coming our way.”

McCook Lake catastrophe shatters complacency around old flood plans

Four hours later, Speichinger and her neighbors were fleeing for their lives, while Noem was at a political fundraiser in Tennessee, having flown out after her press conference in North Sioux City.

The floodwaters that slammed into the McCook Lake neighborhood destroyed and badly damaged dozens of homes, temporarily knocked out electricity, gas and water service, and carved deep gouges in the land.

Speichinger and some other McCook Lake residents say the effects of the botched warning have been exacerbated by a disorganized recovery effort and by Gov. Kristi Noem’s decision not to dispatch the National Guard.

“We have no idea what’s coming next for us,” said flood victim Nathaniel Cutsinger.

A press conference and a flight to Memphis

Authorities began expecting flooding as historic amounts of rain fell for three days, June 20-22, in southeast South Dakota, southwest Minnesota and northwest Iowa.

In the southeast tip of South Dakota, McCook Lake, North Sioux City and Dakota Dunes are situated alongside the Big Sioux and Missouri rivers, making the communities especially vulnerable.

At 11 a.m. on Sunday, June 23, the North Sioux City Council held an emergency meeting and activated a 48-year-old flood mitigation plan. The city got the state’s blessing to close a section of Interstate 29 and build a temporary levee across it. The temporary levee plugged a gap in permanent levies that protect parts of North Sioux City and Dakota Dunes.

Noem led a press conference later that day in North Sioux City, beginning at 2:30 p.m., that focused on the construction of the temporary levee and a voluntary evacuation order that Dakota Dunes issued for its residents.

“Knowing that’s where we’re most vulnerable,” Noem said at the time.

None of the local, state or federal authorities at the press conference clearly explained that the temporary levee was intended to direct Big Sioux River floodwaters toward McCook Lake, where the overflow would hopefully drain toward the Missouri River while causing minimal damage.

When somebody in the audience asked what McCook Lake residents should do, Noem said they should protect their personal property, “because we do anticipate that they will take in water.”

“That’s what we’re preparing for,” she said. “If we don’t, then that’s wonderful that they don’t have an impact, but they could see water flowing into McCook Lake.”

Noem shared projections during the press conference indicating the Big Sioux River in North Sioux City would peak at 42 feet by 1 p.m. the following day.

As the press conference concluded around 3 p.m., the crest projection had been updated to 42.3 feet by 7 p.m. that evening, and the projection continued to change as the situation worsened.

Sometime after the press conference, Noem flew to Memphis, Tennessee, where she was the featured speaker that evening at the Shelby County Republican Party’s Lincoln Day Gala fundraiser. The event started at 6 p.m. Eastern, 5 p.m. Central.

Phone alerts fail to reach stunned residents

Based on what Speichinger heard from the afternoon press conference, which she’d streamed on her phone, she was comfortable allowing her kids to play at a neighbor’s pool while authorities and contractors worked on the temporary interstate levee and after they completed it around 3:30 p.m.

“There were people still out in their boats on the lake as the flood was coming,” Speichinger said. “Nobody had any idea. I didn’t even know there was this diversion plan.”

She had moved into her home on Penrose Drive near the lake in 2019. Some other lake residents also lacked knowledge of the plan to divert water to McCook Lake or were caught off guard by the severity of the flooding, including a few police officers in the neighborhood, according to residents.

Speichinger said a sudden gush of water flowed through her backyard around 7 p.m.

“People were running and screaming, ‘Get out! Get out!’” she said.

Union County Emergency Management Director Jason Westcott said first responders, including two emergency rescue boat teams, conservation officers, law enforcement and firefighters were all on standby in case “the worst-case scenario happened.”

“And that’s what happened,” he said.

Those first responders immediately began alerting residents to evacuate and performing rescues, Westcott said. He targeted an alert to the smartphones of residents along the north shore of McCook Lake at 8:21 p.m.

“We were relying on other people to know about the issues going on,” he said. “A lot of stuff was happening very fast.”

Speichinger and some others said they didn’t receive the phone alert.

“I’ve only heard of a few people who got that alert,” Speichinger said. “It wouldn’t have mattered anyway. The flood was here.”

Wescott said the alert system has weaknesses. He said the area’s poor cell service may have contributed to the problem, and some people may have disabled the location tracking on their phone.

“There are a million different ways you won’t get one,” he said of the alerts.

At 8:35 p.m., Westcott posted an urgent message to his office’s Facebook page.

“𝐄𝐕𝐀𝐂𝐔𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐄 𝐍𝐎𝐑𝐓𝐇 𝐒𝐈𝐎𝐔𝐗 𝐂𝐈𝐓𝐘 / 𝐌𝐂𝐎𝐎𝐊 𝐋𝐀𝐊𝐄 𝐀𝐑𝐄𝐀,” the message said in bold and all-caps. “𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐍𝐓’𝐒 𝐎𝐍 𝐍𝐎𝐑𝐓𝐇 𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐑𝐄 𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐌 𝐄𝐗𝐈𝐓 𝟒 𝐓𝐎 𝐃𝐀𝐊𝐎𝐓𝐀 𝐕𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐘 𝐇𝐈𝐆𝐇 𝐒𝐂𝐇𝐎𝐎𝐋 - 𝐏𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐄 𝐄𝐕𝐀𝐂𝐔𝐀𝐓𝐄!”

Speichinger saw that message, although it has since been deleted from the page. Her webcam-enabled Ring Doorbell shows the water was about 3 feet high outside her home at 8:35 p.m.

Nathaniel Cutsinger was finishing up his shift at Dollar General in North Sioux City as water rushed into his home across the street from Speichinger’s.

“There was absolutely no notice of anything that was going on,” Cutsinger said.

When he got home, he waded into floodwaters to rescue his pets and an elderly neighbor.

“He was waiting at the window for someone to come,” Cutsinger said of the neighbor.

They got into Cutsinger’s Tahoe and drove down a flooded street until the vehicle stalled. Then they walked a few blocks in knee-high water to safety.

Emergency responders spent the night performing rescues, wading through knee-deep water, knocking on doors and shouting to alert residents, while others used boats to reach stranded families.

The Big Sioux River crested at 10:30 p.m., reaching a new record in North Sioux City of 44.98 feet after a 13.48-foot rise since 9:15 a.m.

Aftermath: ‘We have nothing’

An estimated 30 homes at McCook Lake were destroyed and at least 100 damaged, though Wescott said those numbers are preliminary.

Some homes were ripped from their foundations, while others collapsed or suffered severe erosion around their perimeters. Washed-out roads were littered with debris, trees were ripped from the ground, and there were dozen-feet-deep gashes in the land. Electricity, gas and sewer services were disrupted.

“We have nothing,” Cutsinger said several days after the flood. “We’re not rich people. People on this street have put everything into these houses.”

Problems continued after the floodwaters receded.

“The government response immediately after was terrible,” Cutsinger said.

At press conferences during the days after the flood, reporters asked Noem why she didn’t deploy the National Guard to help flood victims. She said no local officials requested it, and she also cited the expense of activating soldiers.

But during a July 1 public meeting, North Sioux City Mayor Patricia Teel said she did request the National Guard’s assistance.

“I asked for them,” Teel said. “I was told at first they were gone and ‘we are sending extra law enforcement’ instead.”

The Highway Patrol provided additional security to keep people out of dangerous areas immediately after the flood. Some residents were frustrated that they weren’t able to see or evaluate their homes, and authorities made them schedule appointments to be escorted into the neighborhood.

Mayor Teel did not respond to messages from South Dakota Searchlight. Westcott said Teel requested the Guard’s help with security, but Westcott agreed with Noem that law enforcement was better suited to keep the area protected. He said a specific request for help with debris cleanup has to be made to get that help - something some residents say would have been useful.

North Sioux City hired a contractor, Blue Cell, to “help organize communications and operations,” according to the Governor’s Office. Additional contractors have been hired to help repair roads, electric distribution lines, and water and natural gas pipelines.

The contractors’ work has been limited to fixing public infrastructure, according to multiple lake residents. That has left residents to clean up their homes themselves, hire help, or wait for volunteers.

On July 3, volunteer Mary Lee Lazarowicz was spending the day removing soaked drywall from a basement. She said an apparent lack of organization, beyond the already stretched-thin local lake association, was leading to inefficient aid distribution.

“I have to think that if we had some kind of centralized command center for volunteers, I just wonder if things would be running a lot more smoothly,” she said.

Confronting the ‘harsh truth’

Ten years ago, the same levee plan was utilized in response to flooding. Then-Gov. Dennis Daugaard warned McCook Lake residents at a press conference that the plan meant the homes surrounding the lake would be in danger of flooding. He sent National Guard troops to Union County to assist in preparation and relief.

Gov. Noem’s spokesperson, Ian Fury, has repeatedly defended Noem’s actions in relation to the flood and the aftermath. Fury said in a written statement June 27 that all local emergencies are handled through the county emergency manager, with support and resources provided by the state when requested.

“Since the first forecast of significant rainfall coming to our area, Governor Noem and the South Dakota Office of Emergency Management started communicating with impacted counties to help them prepare,” Fury wrote.

He shared a document showing a series of projections from June 21 to 24. The modeling indicates how high and when the Big Sioux River was expected to crest. With each update, the water was expected to come sooner, and many updates included a higher crest.

One of the most dramatic changes to the projections occurred immediately after Noem’s press conference, Fury highlighted.

“Officials can only use the best, available data in decision making and warning processes,” the document reads. “Due to limited data, modeling showed that this was not going to be a historic flood event that it ended up being.”

But the claim that authorities didn’t foresee a “historic flood event” is contradicted by the data in Fury’s own document, which includes a projection from Friday night, June 21 — two days before the McCook Lake flood — already predicting that the Big Sioux River in Sioux City was headed for a record-high crest.

McCook Lake residents say their homes were sacrificed, and they want a new flood plan

Westcott initially rejected claims that residents were not adequately warned, but later acknowledged to South Dakota Searchlight that residents were not given enough warning to prepare. He said authorities expected the flood mitigation plan to work as it had in the past, when McCook Lake was spared catastrophic damage.

“We did not know we had a 1,000-year flood coming at us. That was not part of the plan,” Westcott said. “That’s the hardcore truth of it.”

Westcott and Fury each said if the flood mitigation plan had not been utilized and the temporary levee had not been built, the flood would have overwhelmed North Sioux City and Dakota Dunes. They point to modeling showing just that.

Westcott said flood response work began immediately after residents were deemed safe. Those efforts included restoring water, electricity and gas services, working with the Red Cross to help flood victims, organizing volunteer and donation efforts, and bringing in emergency supplies.

During the July 1 public meeting, Mayor Teel read a statement to residents. She said her team was short-staffed and was not equipped to handle such a severe emergency; therefore, it relied on the state for help.

“We trusted the team that was provided by the state. By Thursday,” she said, referring to the fourth day after the flood, “we knew that the help provided wasn’t really helping us.”

Teel said she requested more help and was advised to hire a contractor, which she did.

Residents at the meeting also shared frustrations.

“I think we deserve to know why none of you thought it was necessary to tell the residents this flood was coming,” one said.

“What I’m disgusted with is the lack of response after it happened,” said another, who added that bottled water didn’t arrive until June 26.

“We had to run for our actual lives,” another resident said. “My kids are having PTSD.”

Some residents, including Cutsinger and Speichinger, do not have flood insurance. The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s flood maps do not require insurance in the neighborhood, and Cutsinger said the optional insurance would cost his family $5,000 a year.

Noem is seeking flood recovery assistance from FEMA. Westcott hopes that effort will bring financial help to McCook Lake residents, but he doesn’t know when it will happen, and he doesn’t expect it to fully replace their losses.

“The program is only designed to get people on their feet again,” he said. “That’s the harsh truth.”