Flooding in the East

[KYYX4ever]

I know we have many, many members here who live on or near the Eastern seaboard, as well as New England. Hope you are all safe and sound in the face of all this rain and river flooding!
Hope none of you have evacuation situations ?
Be safe ![:)]

[phillyidol]

Nothing here thank God. I live in a B zone. A zones evacuate first, and so on. I work in a flood a zone. In the 80's the whole area was under water for a few days.

[2Nu]

Thankfully, LI has been spared (for the most part) any significant inundation flooding.

Except some east end beaches are closed as a precaution against possible coliform contamination from NYC's excess sewage storm water runoff.

FYI: Anytime you get more than an inch or so of rain, the city's storm drain water surge overwhelms the sewage processing plants and guess where all the RAW SEWAGE goes? yep.. right into the Hudson and East Rivers.

Meanwhile, last night my sis called me at work around 4am from Sullivan Co. (about 2 hrs NW of NYC).

She been pretty ill at ease lately after repeatedly getting woken up by the area evacuation sirens sounding the past couple of days (she's near the Delaware River).

The river is presently at or near flood stage but luckily she lives further away up at a higher elevation.

Hopefully things will settle down now that the stationary front responsible for this deluge has finally moved out of the area.

Thanx for your concern KYYX4ever![:)]

<IMG SRC="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v395/richp62/Icons%20Avatars/inot.gif">
"Talking With People That Agree With You Is Like Jogging In A Cul-de-sac" - Bill Moyers

[MARV]

Yeah, thanks for the concern, KYYXybabe! [:)]

<a href="http://www.worldwildlife.org/cetaceans/index.cfm">I dig whales.</a>

[WolverineSyr]

Thanks KYYX! Things are pretty bad up here. Fortunatly I live on a hill and the rain runs off to downtown. There hasn't been any evacuations in Syracuse, but most of the areas around me have had some sort of evacuation. We're lucky that we didn't get as much rain as the towns just 20 minutes east & south from me.

The southern tier is very, very bad - places like Binghamton, etc. I saw a house on the news floating down the Susquehana.

I did hear our Gov. Pataki on the news say the flooding was bad - but fortunatly, it's "really only" the upstate regions that are getting the worst of it. Thanks George for your concern - not....

[KYYX4ever]

[quote][i]Originally posted by WolverineSyr[/i]
<br> The southern tier is very, very bad - places like Binghamton, etc. I saw a house on the news floating down the Susquehana. [/quote]
On the news they kept showing that restaurant in or near Utica falling into the river and that got me thinking about you, Wolv.

[WolverineSyr]

Than you for the thoughts KYYX! I finally saw that restaurant on the news. The coverage was really spotty on the local stations - funny that we had to turn to CNN for info rather than right here at home.

Most of my extended family lives in the southern tier & very close to Binghamton - everyone is alright though - even the ones in Conklin where a bunch of houses filled with natural gas & exploded.

I think I'm going down that way Saturday - it will be interesting to see the damage.

[phillyidol]

What we really need now is a super hero.

[WolverineSyr]

Get your tights on philly. I have an old garbage bag you can borrow for a cape!

[WolverineSyr]

I had to help a family member dismantle a pool yesterday - which had nothing to do with flooding, so, I spent quite a bit of the day in quite a few of the smaller towns in the southern tier of NY.

I'm amazed at aftermath of the flooding. I didn't expect that it would be pretty - but it certainly wasn't what I expected. Everything is covered in a fine, dull grey/brown dust from the mud. The water lines were pretty high - up to 6 or 7 feet in some residential places.
Most of the rivers & streams have receeded quite a bit, but they're still too high. There are tons of jams in the streams & rivers from garbage, trees, and things that floated out of houses. All of the rivers are an ugly, uniform brown and rushing fast.
The ground is so saturated that there are ponds in almost every yard and parking lot. Most all of the riverfront properties are on an upward incline from the rivers - judging by the mudlines in the houses, I can only imagine how high that water got.

What really struck me was that the whole area smells like a combination of diesel fuel and insecticide. I understand why it would smell like fuel, but I can't place what the insecticide odor is from, or why. I do know that when you get to those rural areas, many people heat their homes with propane, coal or other types of things but it was a different type of smell.

Every street you drive down is full of sopping wet garbage that people have dragged out of their basements & homes. Every yard is full of furniture that people are trying to dry out. Businesses are closed, pumps are everywhere, and everything is muddy.

I'm amazed & impressed at people's tenacity, and their ability to cope with something so huge and devistating - able to move on - take care of themselves, and deal with a problem without standing around helplessly waiting for outside intervention. I know this part of the state or rural communities rarely get attention when bad things happen & it's good to see them taking care of themselves and each other.