City surrounded by water deals with outage

At the Perley Cenex, the heartbeat of this farm community, the well in town was on the fritz. The cooks had to use bottled water, God forbid, to make gravy for the pork roast dinner. The bathrooms could not be used. And worst of all was this sign above the coffee pots. The flood had finally hit a nerve.

CRAIG RENFREW - Cenex Station/Café: “The coffee. Nobody can drink coffee and everybody says it tasted different with bottled water than city water.”

At the firehall, Mayor Ann Manely, now on her 4th flood, tried to reassure the 90-residents of Perley that work to restore electricity to the town's well was underway. Bottled water was brought in. So were porta-potties.

ANN MANLEY - Perley Mayor: “Too much on the outside of the dike and no water inside of the dike.”

Those without water in Perley, took it in stride.

RON PLEMMONS - Perley Resident: “It will pass. A couple days inconvenience and it will pass.”

But people living here in Perley are dealing with more than water issues, not a single road in town is drivable. When contractors came in to beef up the dike, all the streets in town got trashed. In some cases, only 4wheel drive trucks can go thru.

“I can't get home. The Guard is taking me home late at night they are taking me home in the humvee.”

The Minnesota National Guard maintains a presence here in Perley as this tiny town keeps back water from the Buffalo Sheyenne and Red from rolling in. Both Perley and Hendrum are set to see permanent flood protection work start on their dikes this summer.

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