Floods

We need flowers these days.  I live near Owego, NY, which is near Binghamton, both of which are on the Susquehanna River.  Currently, not a great place to be.  You may have seen us on the news.  The river flooded as a result of the aftermath of Tropical Storm Lee and the 6-10 inches of rain we got in 24 hours, after Hurricane Irene had slopped through 10 days earlier.  The river rose and rose, 10 feet over flood stage, 8 feet over the previous record set 5 years ago.  All of downtown Owego, all our business, schools, doctors' offices, nursing homes, hotels, grocerystores, parks, flooded.

We live on a mountain, so we were not flooded, but there's no place to go.  We lost power, phone, e mail, cable, and have had to boil all our water.  But we have water and gas, so we have stoves and today we got electronics back.  There is even a grocery store and gas station.  However, there is only one road out of our particular immediate area.  Otherwise, it is either water or police barricades.

The same could not be said for the poor folks downtown, almost all of whom are in some shelter or other.  They may be able to go home Tues. or Wed.  But what will they find?  An awful mess.  We had a flood years ago and the amount of work needed to clean up doesn't bear thinking about.  We shall all just have to help each other through this.

It may seem small of me to say, but in a very tiny way, I have a small idea of the stress and strain people in disaster areas go through.  I am tired and cranky and have little patience.  I look at the news and just want to cry.  I cannot imagine the sorrow and fear the others have.