It's been more than eight years since Minot was hit with the "flood of record."
Over 4100 homes and businesses were damaged or destroyed.
But the city continues to recover.
"I'd like to think that, if most people come into town, the remnants (of the flood) are hard to find," Minot Mayor Shaun Sipma said in an interview with Prairie Public. "Most people are going to take a look at the construction activity we have going on with flood control. That's kind of the optics of the recovery process."
Sipma said there are still some homes that he dubbed “zombie homes” – houses that were severely damaged by the flood, and have been uninhabitable. But he said that number has diminished significantly. The city started a "buyout" program for those "zombie homes."
"We've taken that number from when the initiative was launched in late 2013 and early 2014, from over 300, down to about a dozen," Sipma said.
Sipma said a few homeowners have come back to renovate those houses, but a number have been razed. And he says it may be some time before homes will be built on those properties.
"The folks that were here in 2011 still remember the water," Sipma said. "We had water here for 30 days, from a few feet deep to more than 14 feet deep. That in and of itself does have an effect on the valley's housing."
But Sipma said people appreciate the amount of work and dedication going into flood control.
"It's being built to the flood of record, and there is a plan going forward," Sipma said.
