After devastation of 2019, Salvation Army building in South Sioux City

The flooding of 2019 ruined 52 buildings of the Salvation Army's campgrounds in northeast Nebraska. A levy next to the Platte River, destroyed, took the evangelical nonprofit's sanctuary with it.

 

"My only comment was - I just broke down crying," Western Division leader Lee Anne Thompson said. 

 

Thompson is leading the Salvation Army's ten million dollar project to create new campgrounds in South Sioux City, together with her husband of decades, Gregg Thompson. 

 

"'Poppy' and I met at the Salvation Army in Minnesota," he noted.  The Thompsons have led their life alongside the Salvation Army since they were teens -- and individually, even earlier. "My parents were involved in the Salvation Army church since I was a kid -- so I was carried in at two weeks old," Major Gregg Thompson said. 

 

They're making sure this new property supports kids, religious retreats, and businesses in South Sioux.

 

"Anytime you have a business come into a community people drive to it, stay in hotels, buy groceries [...] that's a halo effect," Anne Thompson said. 

 

Western Plains Campgrounds will have an upgraded nurse station, a boathouse, fishing, restrooms, gas, electricity, and space to hold 350 kids at a time. 

 

The Thompsons say COVID did affect the finances of the project, but that lumber prices are finally becoming more manageable.