The one common thing in the whole valley that I keep hearing about is the stories about how the communities were brought together. This hasn't really happened in years, according to residents. People got to know one another again. One person was jokingly overheard saying that we should have a flood everyyear. Of course they didn't mean it, but it shows to what extent people missed this strong sense of community.
Whole towns seem rejuvinated, stronger, and seem to have a new sense of direction.
Despite the devastation you'd almost think that people enjoyed some adventure in their lives for a change. Human nature - go figure. At the end of August, LIFE magazine took a town photo of all the residents of Grand Forks standing on the bank of the Red River for their Year-end issue. Expect a 10-15 page spread. The town of St. Agathe, which lost the flood fight is having a big volunteer thank-you bash on the 14th of September.