CHENANGO COUNTY – Traditionally, the Fourth of July weekend is spent by the pool, around the barbecue, and enjoying the outdoors with family and friends.
Not this year.
Brenda Caldwell, Bainbridge, spent her holiday weekend recovering from last week’s flood.
“It’s been a horrible, horrible mess,” she said. “The main road to get here (route 7) is still closed. My land is completely devastated.”
Caldwell said she and her family usually host a reunion, which brings visitors from as far away as New Mexico. This year, she told them all to reschedule.
“My brother-in-law still came from New Hampshire to help us clean up,” she said. “We weren’t sure how he was going to get here, but thankfully, he found a way.”
Caldwell’s neighbors, Jack and Margaret Butler, said they were mortified when they saw what four and a half feet of water had done to their home, car and property.
“You never think something like this will happen,” Margaret Butler, 84, said.
The Butlers, fortunately, had family members free to come and help with the aftermath.
“As soon as I heard the news, I began to cry. I just felt so bad that they were dealing with this all by themselves,” daughter Christine Lanford, St. Petersburg, Fla., said. “You would not believe what I had to go through to get here. I got on a plane first thing Wednesday morning and I didn’t get here until late (Friday). Thank God for the fire department, and all of the other volunteers who got them pumped out.”
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