BAINBRIDGE – Sump pumps droned and the odor of fuel oil hung heavy in the air Sunday as residents living along Front Street in Bainbridge shifted load after load of household debris to ever-increasing piles at the curb with the help of family, friends and neighbors.
Two days after the floodwaters finally began to recede, a coat of slippery river mud still covered the streets and sidewalks. Every blade of grass at a nearby little league field bears a similar residue. Apples dot the chain link fence surrounding the field, wedged there by the force of the waters which surged through the neighborhood.
Someone cleverly inscribed “Aqua Man” on the side of a silt-covered car, which was submerged after being abandoned by its driver on the shoulder. Next to it is a stop sign. The water line, a few inches from the top of the red octagon, shows the height to which the waters ultimately rose, well over the roof of the vehicle.
Across the street, at the NYSEG substation, a black line some 7 feet off the ground, also marks the height at which the Susquehanna crested late Friday night. Less than a foot above that line is another marked with the year 2006.
The residents of Front Street, of course, are not alone. The scene there is similar to what you can find throughout the Village of Bainbridge and in neighboring communities up and down the Susquehanna, as well as in the Chenango and Unadilla valleys where the rivers also rose to at or near record height due to heavy rains which ravaged the region last Wednesday and Thursday.
Some houses in Afton were still surrounded by water Sunday afternoon, where the combination of the Susquehanna and Kelsey Brooks, which was transformed into a raging river by the storm, caused significant flooding.
But still, some say, it could have been worse.
“There was a lot more structural damage (in 2006),” explained Matt Currie from the Afton Fire Department.
Currie and his colleagues from volunteer departments across the county have worked tirelessly, and veritably around the clock, since Wednesday to clear roadways, evacuate residents, pump out basements and more.
And, of course, it isn’t over yet. While the Red Cross and community shelters established around the county have been closed, many people displaced by the flood waters have yet to return to their homes, according Chenango County Emergency Management Officer Matthew Beckwith.
Currently the county, Red Cross and other organizations are distributing cleaning supplies in the affected communities, and Beckwith said he has requested more than 300 cleaning kits as well as dumpsters from New York State in order to help with the clean up process.
At present, some 40 roadways, primarily town and village maintained, remain closed, Beckwith reported. It is a vast improvement since Friday evening, when over 100 roads remained inaccessible. State, county and local road crews continue to reopen blocked or washed out roads, he said, but some - such as Buckley Hollow Road in the Oxford and Smithville and Melody Hill Road in Bainbridge, are expected to be closed for some time.
And there will be other long term issues as well, such as the Stillwater Road section of County Rd 32 south of the Village of Greene, where a once-seasonal stream adjacent to the home of Jennifer and Paul O’Brien has become a perpetual threat both to the homeowner’s property and the roadway. This is the third time in the last two years the babbling brook has swollen into a raging river, flooding the county roadway with water and debris.
“This stream just wants to go somewhere else,” said Jennifer O’Brien, who says she has had multiple conversations with county officials and state legislators but has yet to see a satisfactory solution to the problem.