mother nature often threatened wing readiness. the organizational history referred to "the great blizzard of '66," " the storm of '75 that caused $10,000 in damages," and "one of the harshest winters 1977 which 'hampered maintenance efforts' and had 'ice storms snapping power lines'." when the heavy snows melted, floods occasionally resulted. a quick thaw in april 1979 created one of the most devastating floods within the red river valley basin during this century. in addition to protecting the silos from flood waters, wing personnel volunteered to join the mostly successful 2-week struggle to keep grand forks and east grand forks dry. this effort was repeated in april 1989.