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July 19, 2006
Flood Picture Essay Part 4
Monday 7-3-2006
The flood waters had finally receded enough so that we were aloud back into lower Sidney. With Police, Firemen, Emergency Squads, Forest Rangers, E.P.A., D.O.C.-NYC and the National Guard clamoring over every street. We, the inhabitants stood at the RR Crossing waiting for the Mayor to give us a speech and announce that we could return to our homes.
After the speech, long lines formed and everyone signed liability wavers against accidents. Sign in - Sign Out.
The town smelled of fuel oil and raw sewage. There was mud and muck 3 inches deep every where.
So home I went. The first thing I saw was a brown line on the house wall.
About 3 feet or a little more.
Here is me standing in front of the water mark to give some perspective.
When I went in I was shocked.
These stains were all the damage there was to the first floor. They were caused from the underside where the water was sloshing around in the basement.
There wasn't even any secondary damage to the boxes of books I had sitting in the corner. Of course I had picked up what of the loose ones before the flood and put them on top of the desk.
So, I grabbed some changes of clothes for everyone, after checking the inside and headed back to the shelter to get every one else.
Tuesday 7-4-2006 - Happy Independence Day!
That it was, with the coming of the Red Cross and the Gestapo authority they wielded, we had taken our leave of the evacuation center. Now the only rule we had to worry about was the 6PM curfew.
No electric, no phone, and a lot of work ahead of us. But we were home....
We all did a collective sigh of relief, for the first time in six days I slept more than 3 hours.
The only thing that we did that day was to get some pictures.
Here you can see the inside of the landing and how close it came to the first floor. The black line is the water mark.
Who ever designed and built this house expected there to be flooding. The foundation is almost two feet higher than that of almost every other house on the block and it sits also on a mound about a foot higher than all the other yards.
Here again is the stairs to the basement. There is about 3-4 feet of water.
For perspective, The washer in the back ground sits on a 12 inch concreate pedistal.
During this time I'm freating about the books that I have stored across the river. We are still an island, cut off from every one until the engineers finish their inspection of all the bridges. And that can't happen until the water receds even more.
Wendsday 7-5-2006 Clean up
This picture was taken Wendsday 7-5-2006. The water was still a raging torrent, but at least it was back into its standard flood plains and out of most of the village.
The village looks like a war zone!
The park's restroom with sink holes. Looks like a bomb hit near by.
Service Road next to the restroom.
Behind the camera is a water dug trench 8 feet wide, 3 feet deep, and about 350 feet long that used to be the rest of the road. It ends at the river for a rescue boat launch.
Piles of water damaged stuff littered the streets. Adding to the ambiance of a war that took place.
With our own war against the raveges of nature, we here could care less that Isrial was conducting the start of a real war or that we still had troops in Iraq fighting. Our wold began and ended with the river banks.
Flood Picture Essay Part 5: Aftermath and life goes on.
Posted by derstaffo at July 19, 2006 08:53 AM
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