I have never rally been a fan of Facebook, but I have changed my opinion. While we were traveling on September 7th, I had the laptop open and I was browsing a lot of my favorite sites. I knew that there had been a lot of rain at home from Hurricane Irene but now they were being pounded by the tropical storm. The first I read was that schools were dismissing early. Then I read that NEB was not dismissing children because the roads were too dangerous for the busses. OH, oh….Then pictures started appearing on Facebook of bridges that were collapsing all over the place in Bradford County.
Flooding has closed roads all over Bradford and Sullivan Counties as well as north up in the Owego and Vestal areas. Many stores and homes are flooded and destroyed. Devastations were everywhere close to the Susquehanna River and near local creeks and rivers.
Shannon made her way to Athens, where Keith works. They took the shop truck to try to make it home. They were able to take a round about route and get to the NEB school to pick up the boys. They made it safely home to Warren Center from there. They were home Thursday and Friday with no power, but Keith ran a generator to keep the sump pump working in the basement as well as keeping their food cold in the refrigerator. Thankfully, they have a gas stove so they were able to cook their food.
Keith made it to our house and called to say that all was well there except that there was no power. I heard from a neighbor that the power came back on Friday evening. The pond was very full but Keith said it appeared to be draining out the emergency spillway, which was what it was designed to do.
Most damage appears to be to roads, buildings and to cars. Shannon’s van and Brandon’s car that were left in Athens are now history, water up to the roof. Keith was able to make it to the shop and help with some clean up there. They are hoping to reopen on Tuesday. Shannon’s residents were all evacuated to Ithaca NY and she does not know if she can even get there to work, so many roads are closed.
I have heard that Towanda School District will try to open on Monday but I have not heard about any others. Trying to route the busses to pick up the children will be a monumental task. There are four bridges out on Route 187 I think, maybe more. Pennsylvania Avenue from Vestal down to PA is closed due to a bridge being out.
Our prayers are with everyone affected by the flood. At this time we are not sure what route will be open for us to get home. We are hoping that we will be able to get the RV home…….Not sure at this time.
Wow Cindy hope you will be able to go home. We found out that our area is about the same as yours. My sister told me trees were all over the place and lots of roads were washed out. We live off of about a mile of dirt road so she was going to drive over there and let me know. But did not hear back from here. But we have no cell phone coverage here. We are camped at New Germany State Park in Western Maryland hoping to arrive home tomorrow before the afternoon rush hour as my first doctor appointment is Friday morning. Yippieeee.
ReplyDeleteAnyway hope the RV will make it home. If not we will park it in an empty school parking lot and continue to live. At least we have a home with us (smile) Enjoy Chapter 20 Rally tell everyone hello from us.
Tom and Debbie Abernethy