The Vestal Flood-September 2011

Hi all, it’s a guest blog by Aunt Sandy.
     
On September 9^th the boys and I were evacuated from our house by the fire department and police.  They were concerned that the flood walls would be over run and made everyone leave in the neighborhood due to potential flooding.

Flood Walls

Of course, your cousins and their friends left the house but then drove around, parked up on the hill and walked back to the house.  They met up with the local fire chief who lived down the road and he said he wouldn’t make them leave until the water started coming over the flood walls.  They stayed there until the morning and then walked out in ankle deep water.   Below is a picture of my driveway and backyard when the flood first started.

 

 

The boys came back later in the day and tried to create a “dam” to stop the water from coming into the basement but it didn’t work.   The fire chief told them it was time to go and not to come back until the police allowed it.   The 7 boys started walking towards the rail trail and by the time they got halfway down the road the water was up above their waist.   Other people were evacuating our area at that point also.  They had hoped to stay but the water forced everyone out.  The kids ended up making a human chain and helping the people get out of the water because they were having problems walking in it.

I went to your grandparents and we ended up getting land-locked at their house.  We couldn’t go anywhere until Friday.   When we got to the rail trail (above my house) the national guard were posted and wouldn’t allow any of us back into our neighborhoods due to the hazard.

Below are some pictures of the area during the flood.  

 This is the exit off Hwy 17

 

 

We had several town meeting's on Saturday and Sunday regarding the flood and what we could expect.  Down the road from us is the NYSEG sewer plant.  Unfortunately when the flood knocked all the power out; the sewage back up; and YUP; went straight into all of our houses.  They had people that talked about the type of contamination we should expect and I made the decision then that NOTHING could be saved if it got flooded.   On Sunday night we were allowed back in but only if your house had a “K” on it.  That meant that the engineers looked at the outside and determined that the house was safe to be entered.   Below are the pictures as we came into the basement of my house.

We didn’t do anything Sunday or Monday because I needed to talk to my insurance agent to make sure it was okay to proceed with cleaning and what we needed to do.   You might not think so but I considered myself lucky.  One of my friends from work lost her house because 2 sides of her basement caved in.  Another lost her house because the water pushed the house off its foundation.   Several of my neighbors had water that came through their first floor; and the guy across the street had a pipe burst and what the flood didn’t fill with water the broken pipe did.  We had lost the basement and everything in it BUT the rest of the house remained clean and dry. 

 

It was very sad because I lost a lot of holiday stuff; all our winter coats; David’s bedroom was down there so he lost everything; we lost my tools, washer, dryer, furnace, work bench, etc.  The county came and took all our garbage away; which was great. 

 

 

 

As I always like to say everything has a silver lining and even this did.  Some of the positives were:

1) I had flood insurance so they paid for most of my repairs.   I learned a lot about flood insurance and what I found out was that I didn’t have enough coverage (so I upped it).  Also because I live in a flood zone now (we were not a flood zone before the flood); that anything that is considered non-normal basement stuff is not covered.   They covered nothing from David’s room because you  have a “room” below the first floor of the house.   Unfortunately there were only a few of us in this area that had flood insurance.

2) You find out who in life you can count on.   Only a “special friend/family” will go into a basement of contaminated water/muck and help you clean it out.  The boys had some great friends who came over to help us.  Grandpa (of course); the boys father and step mother; a few of my friends.  Eileen (the boys stepmom) and I had to go take care of the food in the freezer.  I had about $400 worth of food in there that was dumped out during the flood and sat, defrosting and rotting in the bad water.  It smelled HORRIBLE and the kids refused to do it, so we were brave and muddled through.

3) I got the basement cleaned out better than I ever could have done any other time.

4) I got all new appliances in the basement (washer/dryer; freezer; furnace/AC unit; hot water tank; new plumbing, etc.)

5) I got a new electric box.

6) All new windows (cause they broke)

 In the end you realize that its just stuff and stuff can be replaced.  My basement can be packed up and relocated as necessary.  HOWEVER you can’t move the appliances because if they aren’t in the basement and get ruined then insurance doesn’t cover them.  OK I have been long winded enough.  Thanks for taking the time to read about another tragedy endured.  Hopefully we don’t have too many more because Grandpa doesn’t like when I move into his house (or at least he likes to complain that he doesn’t like it).  Below are a few last pictures of the basement repairs: