Small ND Town Sees Silver Lining From Flood

"Linton has taken some tough blows," Hoeven said. "This is a real shot in the arm for them."

Linton lost its American Express Business Travel call center, with 46 jobs, in January. The company said economic conditions forced it to close.

Philadelphia businessman Hal Rosenbluth established the call center about two decades ago, saying he wanted to help farm families during the drought of the late 1980s.

American Express took over the center in Linton in 2004, and shared the building on the outskirts of town with tax-preparation company H&R Block Inc., which employs about 50 people.

Sharon Jangula, the Linton-area development coordinator, said MTI had planned to open its call center in the building before it was wrecked by record spring flooding.

"It would have been a turnkey, plug-and-play call center but the building was heavily damaged," Jangula said. Now, MTI will move to Main Street, in a newly refurbished building that had been home to a clothing store and a fitness center in recent years.

H&R Block moved its operations to a vacant building that had housed a grocery store until last year.