Two Years Post-Invisible Flood of 06
Tonight will mark two years since the Invisible Flood of 06 came to pay it's call on our area of New York State. The date varies locally, depending upon which day the Susquehanna River finally spewed it's nasty floodwater into our homes.
On June 27th of 2006, we first spotted the river spilling across the street in the late afternoon hours. Later that same night, after the hour-hand on the clock had passed midnight and the date had moved on to June 28th, we woke to find our home filling with floodwater.
I'm fairly certain, based on the amount of water we discovered at 1:30 AM on the 28th, we must have already been taking on floodwater prior to the change in date at midnight.
Only good old Spotty could have told us for certain the exact timing of the floodwater pouring into our home, and poor old Spotty - the flood victim dog - is no longer alive now to let us know that precise information. Not that she could let us know anyway - even if she'd wanted to - she was a dog after all.
Later in the afternoon of June 28, 2006 - I learned that our family friend had also evacuated his family home. He'd loaded up his vehicle, his elderly mom in tow, and headed off for his very own shelter in Sidney.
Never would I have imagined his home being at risk for flooding - his home was blocks from the Susquehanna River - and the riverbank in that area seemed high enough to keep any flooding far away in a farm field downstream and only a figment of someone's wild imagination.
Sadly, it was true, and when the water finally washed away - going back to it's source - the damage was unimaginable. His home was destroyed, it's foundation damaged beyond worth of repair. I'm not even going to mention the toxic mix of floodwater and fuel oil that left it's mess in the basement, I've long ago written about that unbreathable combination the flood left behind.
Quite a few months ago, I mentioned that his family home was finally lucky enough to have been bought-out. The right people found it worthy of being declared too damaged for repair. Ownership changed hands, and during the time the county was the new owner, the former family home sat and waited for the demolition crew to arrive.
In the meantime, the leadership in Sidney couldn't seem to get that 'transfer of ownership' straight in their minds - no matter how many times our family friend had to drop things and pay them a visit or give them a call. Nope - they just kept on sending him tax bills for his former home.
There was also the evening I gave our family friend a call. We'd driven past his former family home after piano lessons that day and noticed the windows were being removed from the house. I asked him if the demolition was about to begin. He said he'd check on that and get back to me.
When he called the next day, he told me that it wasn't demolition preparation we'd noticed - it was in fact - someone trying to steal the windows! Whoever that person or persons were - they were apparently trying to do that window stealing right in broad daylight too.
That irritated the heck out of me, only because I really wanted our family friend's former front door. I'd kept asking him to ask permission to take that darn door - I figured it would be a good replacement for our 1960's kitchen door - and in keeping with the era of this lovely home since they were of similar vintage.
"Did they take the front door?"
"No, they didn't even get away with the windows, they're still sitting on the front porch."
I never did get that door, but at least those 'robbers' didn't get it either.
Last week, the former family home of our friend was demolished. None of us knew it in time to get there to take photos.
Luckily, a friend of our family friend happened by at the right moment. And as that great good luck would have it, the friend had a camera with him too. He took the photos we'd hoped to take, and our family friend brought a few of them over for me to scan for the blog.
It seems fitting, at least to my mind, to show those photos today - on the 2nd Anniversary of the Invisible Flood of 06.
Two years post-flood, this photo shows the last moments of our family friend's home.
We marveled at the way the house came down in sections - as if it had been built in those odd sections. Here you see the front facade - with the bucket poised to do it's demolition. The garage was gone, the rest of the house was gone - this was all that remained.
His friend did a great demolition photo-shoot, I can't wait to see the rest of the photos he took.
In this photo you are seeing the next step in the demolition of the front facade. That bucket is making quick work of the final removal of what the flood destroyed first.
I'm sorry to say that this photo would not scan well - believe me, I tried several times. I'm hoping if you zoom in you'll still be able to get a good view of the final moments of the demolition job.
The bucket sliced right down the middle of our family friend's former home as is it were a stick of butter.
Soon - all that was left of several lifetime's worth of memories was a large pile of rubble.
Once the rubble is removed, the land will become a 'greenspace' - never to be built upon again.
Our family friend reports that the demolition was difficult for some of the neighbors to witness. It was hard for them to see a home they'd known for their entire lifetime be destroyed in a blink of an eye. They'd looked out their windows at that home each day - they were missing their familiar sight already.
I guess what they hadn't realized for the past two post-flood years was that the house they're missing now was in reality already long gone. It was only a shell standing across the street these past two years - the family home was already long gone - destroyed by the floodwater during those awful days in late June 2006.
A few days later, I checked in with our family friend's elderly mom. I wanted to know how she was handling this new information - that the family home was gone.
I'm happy to report, she's taking it in stride. She hadn't seen the photos yet, she only knew that the home was gone. Her concern was aimed at those neighbors who were feeling distressed, rather than for herself and her own loss. Those neighbors were her good friends, folks she'd formed friendships with long, long ago.
She reminisced about how 'this one and that one' were so helpful at various times in her past, during good times and bad times - they were true 'neighbors.' Her only concern was that the 'view' is now difficult for those good neighbors and friends, not for her own loss at all.
On this 2nd Anniversary of the Invisible Flood of 06, I think that's probably true of most of our flood victims. We're hanging in here, we're doing 'OK', we're slowing moving back towards something remotely appearing like it might be 'normal life' again. We've slowly weathered our losses caused by the flood, we've moved forward one step at a time.
We've grown as people too - we know now what folks in flooding disasters are facing, we feel their pain in ways we couldn't before the flood entered our lives firsthand. We've been in their shoes, and it's an experience you need to survive to truly appreciate it's devastation on a life.
The Invisible Flood of 06 didn't win though - we have. We've survived, we've rebuilt, replaced, regrouped and regained something of our former lives along the way during these past two years.
Some of us are still not quite done with the hard work of repairing and replacing - I know we didn't quite make that two year anniversary date I'd been aiming to accomplish. It's OK though, the end is finally in sight, it won't be long now - maybe another couple of weeks.
On the other hand, we have those lingering side-effects of being a flood survivor - that 'waiting for the other shoe to drop' syndrome. Waiting for that next flood - while hoping that we get our home repaired and it stays that way for a long, long time.
Our new friend Alicia reports that she still hasn't been able to get near her home to see what's happened. She hasn't seen her home since June 13th, which was two weeks ago. Here's her latest message on her situation out in Wisconsin:
Hi Pam-
OH how I've been enjoying your blog, I still have a ways to go but it's been lots of laughter & some tears.....ever think of writing a book?
Well FEMA has finally declared Jefferson a disaster...I'm not sure if this means anything for our family but I do know many families that didn't have flood insurance so I really hope this helps them!
The water is still too high to go anywhere near our home, I haven't been back since June 13th and I'm really,really missing it! I'll keep you posted when I get a chance to check out the mess....ugh.
Hope everything goes great with the selling of your home, you deserve it!
-By the way did anyone that you know of have their home considered "structurally unsafe" or NFIP pay out the entire amount of the policy?? At this point all a girl can do is dream:)
Thanks for everything,
Alicia
I have to tell Alicia she'll be missing her home for a long time to come - even once she does get back to it. From our experience, she'll be missing it for at least the next two years.
Her timing for missing might actually be much greater than ours in NY. I can only imagine what her family will be facing once they return home - with having floodwater sitting in their home for two weeks now. Our three or four days was enough to start a nasty stew brewing, I can't fathom what it might do in two weeks worth of time.
Today's thought: Take a moment to be thankful for your blessings, and then take the next moment to send up a prayer for the folks in the Midwest - they need them.
'Til next post, Pam
On June 27th of 2006, we first spotted the river spilling across the street in the late afternoon hours. Later that same night, after the hour-hand on the clock had passed midnight and the date had moved on to June 28th, we woke to find our home filling with floodwater.
I'm fairly certain, based on the amount of water we discovered at 1:30 AM on the 28th, we must have already been taking on floodwater prior to the change in date at midnight.
Only good old Spotty could have told us for certain the exact timing of the floodwater pouring into our home, and poor old Spotty - the flood victim dog - is no longer alive now to let us know that precise information. Not that she could let us know anyway - even if she'd wanted to - she was a dog after all.
Later in the afternoon of June 28, 2006 - I learned that our family friend had also evacuated his family home. He'd loaded up his vehicle, his elderly mom in tow, and headed off for his very own shelter in Sidney.
Never would I have imagined his home being at risk for flooding - his home was blocks from the Susquehanna River - and the riverbank in that area seemed high enough to keep any flooding far away in a farm field downstream and only a figment of someone's wild imagination.
Sadly, it was true, and when the water finally washed away - going back to it's source - the damage was unimaginable. His home was destroyed, it's foundation damaged beyond worth of repair. I'm not even going to mention the toxic mix of floodwater and fuel oil that left it's mess in the basement, I've long ago written about that unbreathable combination the flood left behind.
Quite a few months ago, I mentioned that his family home was finally lucky enough to have been bought-out. The right people found it worthy of being declared too damaged for repair. Ownership changed hands, and during the time the county was the new owner, the former family home sat and waited for the demolition crew to arrive.
In the meantime, the leadership in Sidney couldn't seem to get that 'transfer of ownership' straight in their minds - no matter how many times our family friend had to drop things and pay them a visit or give them a call. Nope - they just kept on sending him tax bills for his former home.
There was also the evening I gave our family friend a call. We'd driven past his former family home after piano lessons that day and noticed the windows were being removed from the house. I asked him if the demolition was about to begin. He said he'd check on that and get back to me.
When he called the next day, he told me that it wasn't demolition preparation we'd noticed - it was in fact - someone trying to steal the windows! Whoever that person or persons were - they were apparently trying to do that window stealing right in broad daylight too.
That irritated the heck out of me, only because I really wanted our family friend's former front door. I'd kept asking him to ask permission to take that darn door - I figured it would be a good replacement for our 1960's kitchen door - and in keeping with the era of this lovely home since they were of similar vintage.
"Did they take the front door?"
"No, they didn't even get away with the windows, they're still sitting on the front porch."
I never did get that door, but at least those 'robbers' didn't get it either.
Last week, the former family home of our friend was demolished. None of us knew it in time to get there to take photos.
Luckily, a friend of our family friend happened by at the right moment. And as that great good luck would have it, the friend had a camera with him too. He took the photos we'd hoped to take, and our family friend brought a few of them over for me to scan for the blog.
It seems fitting, at least to my mind, to show those photos today - on the 2nd Anniversary of the Invisible Flood of 06.
Two years post-flood, this photo shows the last moments of our family friend's home.We marveled at the way the house came down in sections - as if it had been built in those odd sections. Here you see the front facade - with the bucket poised to do it's demolition. The garage was gone, the rest of the house was gone - this was all that remained.
His friend did a great demolition photo-shoot, I can't wait to see the rest of the photos he took.In this photo you are seeing the next step in the demolition of the front facade. That bucket is making quick work of the final removal of what the flood destroyed first.
I'm sorry to say that this photo would not scan well - believe me, I tried several times. I'm hoping if you zoom in you'll still be able to get a good view of the final moments of the demolition job.The bucket sliced right down the middle of our family friend's former home as is it were a stick of butter.
Soon - all that was left of several lifetime's worth of memories was a large pile of rubble.
Once the rubble is removed, the land will become a 'greenspace' - never to be built upon again.
Our family friend reports that the demolition was difficult for some of the neighbors to witness. It was hard for them to see a home they'd known for their entire lifetime be destroyed in a blink of an eye. They'd looked out their windows at that home each day - they were missing their familiar sight already.
I guess what they hadn't realized for the past two post-flood years was that the house they're missing now was in reality already long gone. It was only a shell standing across the street these past two years - the family home was already long gone - destroyed by the floodwater during those awful days in late June 2006.
A few days later, I checked in with our family friend's elderly mom. I wanted to know how she was handling this new information - that the family home was gone.
I'm happy to report, she's taking it in stride. She hadn't seen the photos yet, she only knew that the home was gone. Her concern was aimed at those neighbors who were feeling distressed, rather than for herself and her own loss. Those neighbors were her good friends, folks she'd formed friendships with long, long ago.
She reminisced about how 'this one and that one' were so helpful at various times in her past, during good times and bad times - they were true 'neighbors.' Her only concern was that the 'view' is now difficult for those good neighbors and friends, not for her own loss at all.
On this 2nd Anniversary of the Invisible Flood of 06, I think that's probably true of most of our flood victims. We're hanging in here, we're doing 'OK', we're slowing moving back towards something remotely appearing like it might be 'normal life' again. We've slowly weathered our losses caused by the flood, we've moved forward one step at a time.
We've grown as people too - we know now what folks in flooding disasters are facing, we feel their pain in ways we couldn't before the flood entered our lives firsthand. We've been in their shoes, and it's an experience you need to survive to truly appreciate it's devastation on a life.
The Invisible Flood of 06 didn't win though - we have. We've survived, we've rebuilt, replaced, regrouped and regained something of our former lives along the way during these past two years.
Some of us are still not quite done with the hard work of repairing and replacing - I know we didn't quite make that two year anniversary date I'd been aiming to accomplish. It's OK though, the end is finally in sight, it won't be long now - maybe another couple of weeks.
On the other hand, we have those lingering side-effects of being a flood survivor - that 'waiting for the other shoe to drop' syndrome. Waiting for that next flood - while hoping that we get our home repaired and it stays that way for a long, long time.
Our new friend Alicia reports that she still hasn't been able to get near her home to see what's happened. She hasn't seen her home since June 13th, which was two weeks ago. Here's her latest message on her situation out in Wisconsin:
Hi Pam-
OH how I've been enjoying your blog, I still have a ways to go but it's been lots of laughter & some tears.....ever think of writing a book?
Well FEMA has finally declared Jefferson a disaster...I'm not sure if this means anything for our family but I do know many families that didn't have flood insurance so I really hope this helps them!
The water is still too high to go anywhere near our home, I haven't been back since June 13th and I'm really,really missing it! I'll keep you posted when I get a chance to check out the mess....ugh.
Hope everything goes great with the selling of your home, you deserve it!
-By the way did anyone that you know of have their home considered "structurally unsafe" or NFIP pay out the entire amount of the policy?? At this point all a girl can do is dream:)
Thanks for everything,
Alicia
I have to tell Alicia she'll be missing her home for a long time to come - even once she does get back to it. From our experience, she'll be missing it for at least the next two years.
Her timing for missing might actually be much greater than ours in NY. I can only imagine what her family will be facing once they return home - with having floodwater sitting in their home for two weeks now. Our three or four days was enough to start a nasty stew brewing, I can't fathom what it might do in two weeks worth of time.
Today's thought: Take a moment to be thankful for your blessings, and then take the next moment to send up a prayer for the folks in the Midwest - they need them.
'Til next post, Pam
posted by Pam at 6:11 AM
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