Aftermath

If you read yesterday, you know my mom has been evacuated from her home due to flooding in Oneida, NY on June 29th. She is safe and has a safe place to stay, although her car is totaled due to the waters.

At just about 2 hours before the peak of the flooding she was able to walk down some railroad tracks way behind her home and tell the water was creeping up toward the windows on her back door, which is located several steps below the level of her apartment floor. Sometime after the water crested oil and gas drums leaked, so her back door now has a line across it showing the level of the water at that time.

In the picture below you can see the line the water line about 2 inches above the second step up. The large white thing at the top of the once-blue carpet is a door into my mom’s apartment. Literally inches, so thankful for a high foundation, although you can see the railing to the basement in this picture and the level of the basement ceiling. (In areas of the basement between that point and my mom’s floor are the pipes and wires, etc.) Some are being told to gut everything from the point of the water line and up 4 feet. Thankfully the beams in the basement ceiling were dry, so mom’s apartment should be safe from that worry.

This past weekend I was able to see my Mom’s place and some of the surrounding neighborhood. It was like a twilight zone episode. We drove through Oneida and you wouldn’t think anything was amiss…until you turned to go to ‘The Flats’…go around the corner and you see dumpsters lining the road, police cars and barricades blocking roads, front loaders and people hard at work removing piles of debris from yards, smell the musty water smell in the air, see homes marked with large red X’s indicating the owners could never set foot into them again.

It was surreal, but seeing neighbors helping neighbors, the Red Cross canteen making its way through the streets to make sure people were getting fed, offered a reassurance of sorts that everything would be fine, but never normal, again.

The front loaders had just finished collecting items for dumpsters along this section and already new debris.

Piles of debris like this in front of so many houses.

Like I said, my Mom’s apartment was dry when we entered, but smelled musty and felt damp as there is no electricity or gas to begin quick measures to dry it out. I still encouraged her to remove items if she is too afraid of being there by herself with the windows open to help the drying out. (She overheard some young people bragging about how many homes they have broken into.)

The view from mom’s front window.

Neighbors across the road had a foot of sludge in their home and were literally shoveling it out to be scooped up by the front loaders and placed in dumpsters (those in the gray house in the photo below.)

Two doors down (the green house in one of the pictures I posted yesterday) the door had to be open with much force due to the level of sludge in their home with their refrigerator moved from the kitchen to the livingroom after forceful waters entered through the windows.

I am so thankful for my mom and her belongings being safe from the flood. My heart just aches for her neighbors. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers.