Binghamton area flooding update

[ScoobMaster]

Hi all.

Last week I posted THIS thread about the tragic and historic flooding in my hometown

I thought I would post an update just to illustrate the sheer magnitude and destruction that was unleashed by the rivers and streams. Recovery has started, but the horror of this disaster will be a long time in going and some scars I fear will remain for many years. We've been hit very hard up here as a community. The villages and towns are slowly drying. The river is back in its bed, but there are still pools of standing water all over. The drive to the school district is depressing as there are piles of ruined possessions and housing materials 6-7 feet high on both sides of the roads for miles. It looks like a war zone. There are high water marks halfway up the walls of the first story of many homes. We have lost a school building (an elementary school) and I am in the process of setting up spare computers in a relocation school. Thankfully the district here in my village where my son attends just vacated an elementary building and were gracious enough to let the district I work for borrow it. It is just heartbreaking driving by and seeing people tearing their homes apart will watching all their possessions being picked up by a bucket loader and tossed in a dumpster.

I think this image says more than I can describe in words:

Photo gallery of cleanup in owego, NY

More flood cleanup photos

 

[Anubis]

random question. is the highway fine? im driving through there tomorrow

and yes it sucks, im well west of you and was fine but i know people who got hit pretty badly

 

[ScoobMaster]

Yeah - the highway is clear and fine to drive on. As you come through the Owego - Apalachin - Endicott - Vestal area be on the lookout for the muddy high water marks on the leaves of trees along the highway. I think you'll be amazed (if tonight's rain doesn't wash it all off)

 

[RedArmy]

Hello there fellow Endicott dweller. I live on a hill so I didn't have to worry about the water. Take a drive down Oakdale Road or around the neighborhood next to Home Depot if you haven't yet. Besides the terrible smell, I've never seen so much debris in my life. I don't know how they're going to get rid of all of it!

 

[Bignate603]

Photo gallery of cleanup in owego, NY

Picture #7... That's a great picture of a terrible situation. I don't know why but for some reason those massive piles of books drove home how many things were destroyed.

My family lives closer to Albany. They're ok, the barn flooded and ruined some stuff but the worst that they lost was their ancient lawnmower. Unfortunately though an older woman in their town got swept away and drowned.

My father has been spending all his free time driving over to Schoharie which really had been pounded and helping people with cleanup. He said it was heartbreaking and backbreaking work. One house he was helping at had its basement and part of its first floor flooded. In the basement the whole place was filled with a lifetime of projects and memories. Some of it could have been saved if they had the time to properly clean it and prevent it from getting moldy, but if they spent the time on that they would lose the house. They needed to gut the inside of the house to the studs and spray it down with stuff to kill any mold or it wasn't going to be salvageable. All their stuff was just getting literally shoveled out of the basement and thrown away...

As bad as that sounds, across the street was a line of manufactured homes (double wides and things, but nicer versions). All of those had been knocked off their footings, split apart and broken up. The people were taking just a few keepsakes out of them and then the front end loaders were coming in, breaking them into smaller pieces, and tossing the whole home into dumpsters. My father says it was painful to watch.

 

[lupi]

Mr. Tony is not happy about this.

 

[ScoobMaster]

Picture #7... That's a great picture of a terrible situation. I don't know why but for some reason those massive piles of books drove home how many things were destroyed....

I know - I found that picture very surreal. I used to love to browse in that bookstore. They had lot of OLD local history books. Those are all gone now

 

[ScoobMaster]

Hello there fellow Endicott dweller. I live on a hill so I didn't have to worry about the water. Take a drive down Oakdale Road or around the neighborhood next to Home Depot if you haven't yet. Besides the terrible smell, I've never seen so much debris in my life. I don't know how they're going to get rid of all of it!

Hey Red - nice to see another local on here.

Sorry to hear about your friends in Westover.

 

[Eli]

Very moving pictures, thanks for sharing.

 

[flyboy84]

I lived in Owego for a little over a year back in 2006/7...very sorry to see the damage

I remember moving in around July 2006, and there was a huge flood the month before...apparently this was much worse!