Down in the Valley
Friday, September 2

I spent most of my day in Schoharie and Middleburgh.  The Schoharie Reformed Church has been greatly effected by the flood.  I don't just mean the church building, although the damage there is substantial, but also the church that is the people and families.  Yesterday one of the members sent out an email message asking people to go and help members of the congregation work on the church building, and in the homes of 16 of their families which have been most significantly damaged.

SRC has a paved lot, although
it appears to be dirt since it was
covered by inches of mud.

About 20 or 30 people arrived at the church by 9:00 this morning.  Teams of 2 or 3 were dispatched to the homes of the 16 families.  I was sent with Ed and Bill.  We were directed to Jim and Jodi's house in Middleburgh.  Their house sits right behind the Middleburgh Reformed Church.  That building is erie looking.  The windows are knocked out and it's easy to see that through the building to the other side.  And no one is there.

Jim and Jodi were working in the kitchen when we arrived.  The water reached  about 4 feet up the first floor walls, so everything in the cabinets below the counter was filled with water and mud.  The mud is everywhere.  The foundation on one side of the house has caved in.

Much of the contents of the house had already been taken out when we arrived.  In the garage were the items that they hope can be saved.  In the driveway was a pile of trash.  On the back patio was a pile of things that need to be rinsed with the hose, before they can go in the garage.

Jodi asked me to take a picture
of this drawer.  When they
opened it to empty it, it was
full of water.

We all crowded in the kitchen for a bit, but eventually worked on separate tasks.  Within an hour or so, the first floor was completely empty, and the carpet in the dining room was torn out.  So then it was time to start hosing it all down.  I worked with the hose.  Ed used the squeegee.  I can't explain how odd it is to stand in the middle of some one's house (practically a stranger) with a garden hose, spraying everything.  To make things even stranger, Ed chased all of the water to the basement, since that was easier than trying to get it out the doors.

Actually, the basement is another interesting part of their problems.  Although they're fortunate to have water, so they can hose everything down, they also have a leak in their plumbing so the basement is full of water.  The same sort of problem exists in Schoharie as well.  Water in the village has been turned off again, since so many homes there have leaks and several basements were starting to fill up again.  It's good that the basements there aren't flooding again, but the downside is that this mean that those homeowners can't hose down the interior of their houses.

The mud is vial, and all sorts of warnings are being issued to volunteers and emergency workers because it's full of chemicals and sewage.  Removing it is also a key to avoiding the onset of mold.

By day two, SRC's volunteer center was
quickly getting established with a tent
for the  coordinators and a tent for
the donated supplies.

Saturday, September 3

Nate went with me today.  We were at the church in time to be briefed with the first group of volunteers.  Within a few minutes the organizer was reading off the descriptions of the locations where the teams were being sent for the day.  When I realized that Jim and Jodi's house was on the list again, I volunteered to back, this time with Nate, and another new volunteer, Lisa.

When we arrived, there were a few other friends and family members already there and working.  The day's project was clear, all of the wooden furniture that had been removed from the house and placed in the garage, needed to be washed and disinfected before it could be moved to a better storage building.  We worked for about four and a half hours, washing, rinsing, bleaching, rinsing, and then drying each piece.  Chairs, dressers, tables, drawers, chests, etc.  Although we managed to empty one side of the garage by the time we headed out, it still didn't feel as though we had accomplished all that much.

The watermelon amid the wreckage.

Before we left, I headed next door to the Middleburgh Reformed Church to take some pictures.  The building and its contents were very badly damaged, the water flowing straight through the building and ripping pews out as it went.  A member of the congregation was there when I went into take pictures.  He told me that they will have a professional company come into do the cleaning stage.  The congregation will try to restore the building once it's been cleaned, but they feel that professionals should handle the mud removal.  The pastor of the church had been at Jim and Jodi's earlier in the day.  He told me that I would find a watermelon in the middle of the Sanctuary, a detail that he seemed to find quite humorous.  He said that the best thing though, is the zucchini that ended up resting on top of one of the urinals.

We headed back to Schoharie on Route 30.  The village was full of people and the traffic was very heavy.  On the one hand, it seems very positive to see that so many people are arriving to help.  But it almost seems as though it hasn't even scratched the surface.  The streets are lined with mounds and mounds of stinking, wet furniture and debris.  The amount of it is astounding.

I noticed that a few of the houses don't have anyone working at them.  I also noticed that those same houses are spray painted with a circled "X".  I suppose that they have been deemed unsound for workers; they're probably condemned.

In the midst of that devastation I saw some unexpected humor.  As we traveled out of town, along the trash lined road, someone had propped up a mattress and spray painted the words, "Free Stuff."   It made me laugh out loud, and it helped me feel a little better.


September 5

I didn't return to Schoharie today.  School starts tomorrow and I have a number of things to deal with here at home.  Kim got a call this evening.  School in Schoharie will not start on time.  As of today, students have been told they will start on Monday, September 12.  The school has become an center for emergency-responders and contractors, and there's no practical way that it can be used for teaching at this point.  Kim was told that many teachers are reporting to school each day and then going down to the village to work.  Tomorrow she may join them.