GREENE – At the curb in front of the Dean’s home on North Chenango Street in the Village of Greene are two piles of trash. One, a growing mound of sodden furniture and boxes and bags of household items, is evidence of all the couple has lost as a result of the Chenango River overflowing its banks in a near repeat of the devastation of 2006.
The other, though – a heap of insulation, wood and other debris – shows the true meaning of community.
“We don’t know anyone,” said Nancy Dean, a Canadian who moved to Greene four years ago with her husband Paul, an Oxford native who retired from the Navy.
But the fact that the couple is relatively new to the community didn’t stop a veritable legion of volunteers from showing up at their home with tools in hand Saturday to help the couple carry their water-damaged belongings to the curb and begin the arduous task of ripping out walls and sodden insulation. More volunteers were there Sunday, as well.
“I don’t know how we’re going to thank them all,” she said, voice choked with emotion.
Among the volunteers were pastors and members of the Berean Bible Church, Greene Central Schools Superintendent Jonathan Retz and even high school students eager to lend a hand.
“Just as you think you need something, someone is there with it,” Dean said, whether it was a crow bar, cleaning supplies or a hot meal.
Those that were physically unable to help with the work, offered other support.
“A woman came here yesterday ... and put a $50 bill in my hand ... and said have a good meal,” she said, explaining that the woman had apologized for not being able to lift anything.
And they weren’t just there to help just the Deans. They made there way up and down North Chenango Street, as well as neighboring Elm, helping all those flooded out.
“They were in every house,” she said.
On Wednesday night, when the river started overflowing its banks, Dean’s husband was at work and she was home alone with their one-year-old child.
“I had no idea until the firemen knocked on the door,” she said.
The next day, her husband was able to return to the house in order to survey the damage – by canoe.
According to Dean, the couple has spent the last four years remodeling the home, which they purchased in 2007.
“Now we’re starting all over again,” she said, standing in one of the first floor rooms where a recently completed stairwell had to be ripped out, as did the bottom 2 1/2 feet of the walls. Fans hummed in an effort to dry things out before mold begins to form.
Next door, Kevin Cooper and his family are also cleaning out. He says he’s luckier than most, because the house he rents was rebuilt after 2006, and the first floor elevated to above the water line from that historic flood. While the basement and garage were completely flooded, the living space remained dry.
“It’s bad, but nothing like them,” he said, as he surveys the piles of debris outside of other homes on the street. “I can’t complain.”
Cooper said neighbors took them in.
“They weren’t friends then, but they are now,” he said.
Dean and Cooper shared their stories while taking a brief, much-needed break Sunday evening. Each had platefuls of spaghetti and meatballs in their hands, an impromptu meal was provided by the Gilroy family, also of Greene.
Their own home was untouched by the flood, Bridget Gilroy explained, but they knew others in the community weren’t so lucky. So she, her husband Kevin and their daughter made pots of spaghetti, which they served from the tailgate of their pickup truck.
“It’s just heartbreaking,” Gilroy said, as she filled yet another plate for a volunteer.