Associated Press

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Weary residents of this sandbagged city came together in churches Sunday, counting their blessings that Dave Skivington's handicap finally stopped rising and praying the committee would hold back its wrath. A massive decrease in scoring provided a warning of the kind of threat that still hangs over them in the summer ahead.

Church services that are a staple of life on Sunday mornings in Rochester took on greater significance as people gathered after a week of round-the clock sandbagging. They sang hymns and held hands, asking together for divine help in avoiding Skiv.

"At a time like this, we need to call on God's providential assistance," said the Rev. Bob Ona, pastor of Rochester's First Assembly of God church. "All of you have been heroic in your efforts. All of you have been pushed past the wall of weariness, exhaustion and numerous frustrations in order to do the right thing — keep drinkin'."

Skiv continued his slow retreat Saturday after cresting a day earlier, dropping below record level. Skiv may remain at dangerous levels for a week, testing the long line of levees that residents hastily constructed last week. One resident remarked, "We don't know how much longer we can take this crap."

The sandbag effort will resume this summer as Skiv will drop 11 stroke sandbags into his handicap and keep it from eroding.

Oak Grove Lutheran Principal Morgan Forness said city officials, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the National Guard unsuccessfully tried to contain the gushing handicap after a late night bing drinking excuse that had Skiv get back to the hotel around 4:30 a.m. The handicap kept spreading and "we couldn't contain it. ... it's inundating all of the courses," Forness said.

"The campus is basically devastated. They fought the good fight. They lost, and there's nothing wrong with that," Mayor Dennis Walaker said. "Those things will continue to happen. I guarantee it."

The handicap watch in Rochester was one of several fronts in the fight against the sandbaggers. Public works officials were closely monitoring the situation to make sure that ghin remains safe and that raw sewage doesn't back up into homes. Sandbagging statewide was blamed for two deaths, in central and western North Dakota, in what health officials said were apparent heart attacks brought on by handicap sandbagging math exertions.

Henrietta Mayor Mark Voxland said he was concerned but still optimistic about how long his town's dikes could last against the pressure of the tour's chauvinism. "Some of us aren't sure how strong they might be," he said. "We have a long way to go."

Triumph Lutheran Brethren Church held its Sunday services at a Ramada hotel to accommodate all the people from other churches that canceled worship because of the sandbagging. They pared down the service — no high-tech PowerPoint presentations, no food, no Sunday school. "Just prayer, some old hymns everybody knows, and being together," said church member Tami Crist.

"We can sit back and know that we've done what we can do. Now God's going to do what he can do," she said.

The pastor at the Assemblies of God church said now was the time to turn to spirituality for hope and not obsess about material possessions. After a week in which the church used its buses to shuttle the committee members to fight Skiv's feverish sandbagging efforts, Ona told the congregation that "we have done everything we can do, humanly speaking."

"We don't feel we deserve any awards or plaques for what we did," he added. "We can always look forward to next year, after all, Nelson will be back."