NEW HARTFORD - Charlene Ingalls bummed a ride into New Hartford in the back of a Jeep.

She feared what Beaver Creek's invasion had done to her cafe and her home.

When she fled town with other residents June 8, Ingalls expected the usual inconvenient muddy sidewalks and flooded tool shed she'd seen many times before.

She was prepared for worse. The main floor of Ingalls Little House Cafe, 819 Main St., was elevated, level with the hundred-year flood of 1947. Her trailer home across the back alley sat on stilts about two feet above 1993's record marks.

Confidence set in.

But what greeted her the next day was far from the pretty picture she'd left behind.

"I came up and I opened the door, and oh, what a mess," Ingalls recalled.

The cafe she opened with her husband, Ross, in 1984 had taken on 18 inches of water.

Refrigerator doors were popped open. Soaked food littered the floor. Corn stalks were piled against the back door. A layer of slick mud made it nearly impossible to stand up.

The business she had nurtured was in ruins.

Helpless, Ingalls turned around, locked the door and sat on a cement slab outside.

At age 61, she was torn by the question of whether to rebuild.

She waited for her ride.

All she could do was cry.

Assistance available

Many older residents displaced by the May tornado and June floods faced similar deicisions.

Immediately following the disasters, officials with Federal Emergency Management Agency, partnered with the Small Business Administration, set up centers to determine victims' eligibility for financial assistance.

The application deadline was recently extended to Oct. 31.

An estimated 20 percent of all FEMA registrants are older than 60, said Donna Harvey, with Hawkeye Valley Area Agency on Aging. In Black Hawk County, at least 1,000 individuals 60 and older filed for assistance.

HVAA deployed staff to disaster recovery centers, and called or wrote to senior FEMA registrants in the area to offer assistance.

As of a month ago, HVAA had helped 320 families.

"We have stayed with them while we get FEMA on the line or SBA if necessary to help them walk through," Harvey said. "We feel like we've done a pretty thorough job of staying connected with those who need extra help."

Applying for aid is an important step in the process, said Michael Stadie, a disaster response manager with Lutheran Services in Iowa. He helps with case advocacy work through the Black Hawk County Long-Term Recovery Committee.

After people register with FEMA, they're typically referred to SBA, the only federal agency that provides direct loans to individuals. SBA approves or denies requests without regard to age, and then FEMA doles out dollars depending on uninsured or uncompensated losses, said Wali Armstead, a public information officer with FEMA.

Applicants don't have to accept an SBA loan if approved, stressed Gary Colton, communication specialist for SBA's office for disaster assistance. It offers another financial option for the rebuilding process.

But many seniors don't bother filling out any forms, Stadie said.

"People don't fully understand the program," Stadie said. "I think they're concerned they're putting themselves in debt, and they are on fixed incomes."

SBA loan terms actually are very generous, Stadie said, and the agency works with families.

"If eligible, I would recommend people take the loan if it makes sense for them, because it is really one of the best loan programs the government has," Stadie said.

Seniors may also fear passing a debt to their heirs. SBA loans are secured with a lien against their home, SBA's Colton said.

People who don't get enough money from FEMA or SBA should appeal for more, Harvey said. Information often overlooked can open up more doors.

Some seniors simply sought an easy way out, relocating to assisted-living or retirement communities.

"That's one of the real challenges, especially for seniors, about rebuilding, too," Stadie said. "Do they have the energy as well as the resources to do it?"

Making decisions

Ingalls and her sister, Florence Sommer, headed back to New Hartford the morning of June 10, two days after the flood, to salvage what they could. They toted garden hoses, squeegees and cleaners.

But when they pulled up, all of the cafe's booths and tables already had been carried outside, and the layer of mud had been mopped off the dining room floor.

"We thought you were going to sleep all day," a customer teased.

Nearly 20 people, including friends whose own house sat soaked down the street, had volunteered their elbow grease to scrub and sanitize.

"From that point on, there was no question," Ingalls said. "I was going to open up again."

The same couldn't be said of her home. Standing water surrounding the perimeter would take more than a week to recede. With her focus on the cafe, she wouldn't get in there to clean for another couple of weeks.

"Myself, personally, I was afraid to walk back there," Ingalls said. "You couldn't really see where you were walking, and there were a lot of washouts."

Ingalls accepted initial emergency help from FEMA and the Red Cross for necessities like housing and clothes. But she opted against applying for federal aid. She has no complaints about FEMA.

"I just didn't want to have that kind of debt hanging over my head at this time in my life," Ingalls said. "And not knowing what was going to happen to the town itself. I'm going to have to work several more years before I can retire. I may be 80 or 90."

A fundraiser at Our Savior's Lutheran Church kicked in $6,000 to rebuild, nearly half of the $13,000 Ingalls estimates materials cost. She is also tapping into her savings.

Refusing assistance isn't uncommon in seniors, said Stadie, with Lutheran Services.

"They didn't ever anticipate having to do a loan again," Stadie said. "They were sufficient to be able to take care of themselves, and the loan then also says that they have other needs they can't do themselves. Seniors like to be independent."

But as much as seniors strive to remain independent, not all of them can afford to be.

Ronald Pedersen and his wife, Rae Ann, just want to return to their northern Cedar Falls neighborhood, and they've exhausted their resources to do it.

"We like this area," Ronald Pedersen said. "We love it."

A FEMA official deemed their 1925 two-story house at 124 Logan Ave. a total loss. The Cedar River had filled their basement and main floor, creeping over the eighth stair toward the second level. The garage was washed away.

"At first when I went into the house, I almost cried because I thought, 'The house is paid for.' And I says, 'Oh, now I have to start all over again,'" said Ronald, 60. His wife is 61.

The Pedersens cleared a major hurdle when they received a green light from the city to rebuild.

Theirs is one of six of the area's 30 or so households that will rebuild, Ronald said.

With no flood insurance, the couple dove into a pool of red tape, eventually securing an $82,700 SBA loan at a 2.67 percent interest rate. About $60,000 was earmarked for a new home, and the rest is allotted for personal items. An additional $28,000 grant from FEMA, along with a bank loan, will cover the difference.

Ronald also hopes to secure Jumpstart Iowa grant money.

And even smaller contributions have helped.

Ronald was hauling trash to the curb in June when a man in a pickup slowed down to offer help.

"I says, 'No, we got it just about done,' " Ronald said.

As the stranger started to leave, he handed over what Ronald thought were a couple of crisp $100 bills.

"I says, 'Well, thanks, you didn't have to do that,' " Ronald said. "I asked him where he was from. He says, 'You don't need to know.' "

When Ronald peeled the bills apart later, he discovered four $100 bills.

Ronald has hope life will soon return to normal. A foundation for his new house has been poured, and the manufactured home is scheduled to be in place in five weeks.

Rebuilding lives

Ingalls' cafe was open for limited business during cleanup.

The coffee pot was on. Sodas and bottled water were in the refrigerator. Ingalls picked up rolls on her way into town each morning.

"It was all on the honor system," Ingalls said. "They all knew what the prices were, and they just came in and helped themselves."

Her sister's boss, Jim Fogdall, rewired a shed that houses four chest freezers. Steege's Meat Market at Benson in Cedar Falls stored the cafe's frozen inventory until electricity was restored.

Ingalls found some replacement appliances at an estate sale. Friends chipped in refrigerators, freezers, a washer, a dryer, furniture and bedding.

Bleaching and scrubbing to kill mold spores was the focus of life for a while, Ingalls said.

"We ran a lot of dehumidifiers, and we had fans every five inches, I think, just starting to get stuff dried out," Ingalls said. "Water kept coming up though the floor tiles. I still don't know how many I'm going to lose. It just needs to really cure out and dry.

"My hands are finally healing from all the bleach," she added.

Ingalls Little House Cafe officially reopened 2 1/2 weeks after the flood. Overflow crowds strained the cafe's 40-person dining capacity those first days.

"I think it was so many people were in town working, and then, of course, the Red Cross pulled up," Ingalls said. "All of a sudden I had to adjust my flow of thinking really quickly and had to have something going."

Afternoon card games have resumed, and Thursdays are once again bustling for hot beef day.

Inspectors told Ingalls her home was unsafe to live in after taking on nine inches of water, so she gave it to a displaced Alcoholics Anonymous group.

She purchased the trailer next door for junk price, although it is newer than her old one. The former owner rented the property and received no federal aid.

Duane Steinkraus, a contractor from Waterloo and longtime cafe patron, has been working almost daily since June to gut her home and rebuild. His wife, Sue, brother-in-law and friends pop in on weekends to replace wallboard and insulation, refinish cabinets and install new windows, siding and flooring.

"I'll be darned if we were outside working, trying to get stuff done, and here come him and his wife walking around the corner, you know, with his tools, ready to go to work," Ingalls said.

A few rooms in her house might be finished by month's end. Ingalls is eager to round up her possessions, scattered among a friend's farm in New Hartford, another's garage and her sister's home.

"I don't know what I have ever done to deserve friends and kindness like this," she added. "I really don't. It's plain out and out family."

Living across the way from her business again will be more convenient than commuting from her sister's in Waterloo. Four o'clock in the morning comes awful early, Ingalls said.

She's arrives about 5 a.m. at the cafe, open Monday through Saturday from 5:30 a.m. till 2 p.m.

"That's the story of my life, and it's coming together," Ingalls said. "Slowly, but it's coming together."

Contact Tina Hinz at (319) 291-1484 or tina.hinz@wcfcourier.com.