RURAL BEULAH - Jim Schaefer was one of those guys down Coyote Creek without a paddle.

The pretty creek winds through his small farm and cattle operation in rough break country southwest of Beulah.

Spring flooding hammered the county road creek bridge out of commission, leaving his land on one side and his equipment on the other.

On Tuesday, a crew was out building a culvert detour beside the bridge so that Schaefer and others who live or farm along the road can get across and back while the bridge is being fixed.

He was glad to see it.

He isn't sure if he's overwhelmed or undermotivated, but it's hard not to feel puny next to the size of challenge nature left behind.

Schaefer is one man, but he stands for many men and women whose lives changed in small and large ways because of flood damage.

One bridge, one culvert, one load of gravel at a time, they are being helped.

"I haven't done any farming," Schaefer said. He hopes to get at it now that he won't have to go the long way around to get it done.

Flooding killed his calves, wrecked two miles of fence and left rocks, broken wire and stranded debris all along the creek. He's been fencing, since he's not farming, bouncing around the pasture with his blind dog for company and a pickup box full of fence, posts and tools.

"It's been a real mess. I'm going to do what I can do," he said, figuring he'll get maybe three-fourths the normal planting done with this late start.

Knowing where to start is a problem.

In Mercer County, where Schaefer is, there are 77 "sites," shorthand for the roads, bridges, culverts that need repairing either because of river or creek flooding, or because the flow of overland water was a flood in and of itself.

In McLean County there are 200.

In Oliver County there are 400 sites that need post-flood repair.

Some need a load of gravel. Others need rebuilding. Still others - like the Coyote Creek bridge - need serious money and attention.

All three counties, along with the other 41 counties and three tribes in the flood declaration status, are getting documentation together for survey teams of state and Federal Emergency Management Agency. The damage assessment teams will decide whether the repairs qualify for public assistance reimbursement.

Counties are already financially strapped from snow removal costs, plus there's the normal spring road maintenance work to do. Some of the repairs can't wait for approval.

Steve Mamer, engineer for Mercer County, said it's a Catch-22.

"It's evolving. It's all happening at the same time," Mamer said.

Mercer County has five water crossings that are still closed from flood damage, and he estimates to fix those and damaged roads will cost at least $1.5 million.

The bridge near Schaefer's place is an example of work that couldn't wait.

Road superintendent Roy Braun said his normal crews have worked to get all the roads open in the county, but there's a limit to how much his department can do. Contractors will be called in for the big jobs, but he figures they'll get harder to get as the assistance assurance comes in and bids go out.

In McLean County, road superintendent Ron Wagner said he feels like he's playing hopscotch instead of moving his crews across the county in an orderly fashion.

"We're repairing the roads with the most devastation. Because of the situation, we have to work like that," he said.

He doesn't have money for overtime, and he's trying to do all the work with the seven workers he's got.

"I'm hoping the public can deal with it," he said.

Bruce Nelson, Oliver County road superintendent, said all county roads are open, unless they're closed when holes suddenly appear in the middle of the road.

"This stuff is going to come back and haunt us until July," he said. He's worried to think of 100,000-pound tractors and air seeders moving down roads that might have underlying problems.

Nelson has photographs and global positioning system mapping of every flood-damaged site in the county.

He's approaching the repairs like an ambulance crew at a train wreck.

"It's like triage out there. We're doing the most critically injured first," Nelson said.

When the bills come due, there will be money. It may take a little time.

Because floodwaters are still receding in places and because the scope of the disaster is so vast and detailed, the damage assessment is laborious. The total won't fully be known for another five to six months.

"We don't want to underestimate the damage," said Cecily Fong, spokeswoman for the Department of Emergency Services, which is FEMA's managing agency in North Dakota.

In the meantime, FEMA has already obligated $34 million for public assistance, though none has been released, Fong said.

FEMA will pay 90 percent of repairs rather than the typical 75 percent if statewide damages reach $106 million and the total is expected to be well in excess of that at $150 million.

In the meantime, the Legislature's special appropriations will ensure the local share does not exceed 3 percent in any case.

Fong said counties and public entities should do repairs, document the work and restore roads, bridges and other structures to pre-disaster condition.

Fong said 600 people representing everything from townships to cities attended statewide applicant briefings recently to get educated on how the public assistance program works.

It isn't a matter of "if" the money will come, but "when," she said.

FEMA has 350 people working in North Dakota. DES hired 40 additional workers to get out to counties for the damage assessments, and they will work through the summer to get the paperwork cleared up.

Back at the county shop, the superintendents have their hands full filling out their project work sheets for public assistance, making work plans for their own crews, fielding calls from residents and lining up materials, like gravel. Because of the federal money, gravel, incidentally, has to get archaeological clearance from the State Historic Preservation Office, which pumped through 350 gravel and fill dirt requests in a three-day period earlier this month.

In McLean County, Wagner said the best he can do is go day by day.

Starting with the first snow in November and flooding clear through April, this disaster was a long time in the making. It's probably to be expected that the assessment can't be done overnight, much less the repairs, much less a complex assistance program.

In a summary that could win a prize for understatement, Schaefer said. "It's been a trying year."

(Reach reporter Lauren Donovan at 701-748-5511 or lauren@westriv.com.)