Updates...Help your neighbors...flood waters and other problems...

Well Flood 20..this time firedepartment came full force and Emergency Management added others..this time it effect many people include some who had to be evacuated....Mother Nature is the cause..but a good portion of these problems are infastructure that has been let go for years...and years...I cleaned the sluches and dug the holes again..and later today will do the same where they are getting plugged...cleaning them in the summer and opening them all the way up Morrisville-Eaton Road would prevent much of this..how would you like it if the County or Towm dumped all its waste runnoff into your back yard with no where to go but an old stone drain under a driveway????

Update...flood 19 has happened..no stopping the water..no septic or well at this point..power is off at some houses...two pumps running third died..basement is flooded...and reality is it is still raining...have dug out pipes that have now been bent by traffic unfixed by town...ditches full not dug out by town in 2 plus years... no hlep until hours later ...Fire Department saying they have answered 500 calls as West Eaton WeVac has not answered a call in three years and volunteers are tired......but of course we are just a little group of people in a hamlet...unimportant....I am here 19 floods later..think about it..how would you feel!

Well the floods have hit and I feel sorry for those effected. This blog is an appeal for you to help but it tells my story and why I can definitely feel for these  effected people. 

I truthfully escaped my 18th flood while living in Eaton this week by a matter of one or two inches this week.  The truth is I have lost everything I stored in my basement the first year I moved here and was repairing the house.  Didn’t know it could get flooded…of course it seems it is only a few houses that have this problem on our street.

Second time it flooded I lost the wood stove that heated the house, all of the pumps the hot water tank and air tank…and they were the only things in the basement.

By the third time I had three huge pumps going and started building my banks in the back of the house up to stop the water…. Then it washed out the banks and flooded the basement and pushed all the mud and debris into the whole yard. Can’t dig deeper because it is at water level of the Chenango and would bring more water!

Now I have learned that cat litter in plastic bags, covered with rocks, gravel, and indoor-outdoor carpet covered with tires and dirt can hold a mighty flood until it overtops the bank.  I have also learned to clean every item in the basement and repair all the pumps….

So 15 floods later and this past summer I raised the bridge and bank 9” and have a bigger pump in the basement (among the three) ...and it worked but it will only until the water gets higher I guess… When the rain stopped …it stopped right at the top of the bank.

Cleaning up the terrible mess every year is costly as the waters push, mud, waste, debris, manure from the farm lots on the hill and residue heating oil into the basements…

My problem can be solved, as it is a simple one….

The Eaton Street water flows into the drainage culvert that is almost 3 feet wide then into my backyard….at the side of my yard it goes to a drain going under the driveway of the Old Union School that is only 12 inches or so….bang the wall of water stops!  Does not take a rock scientist to figure it out!  So my back yard, side yard or land around me becomes a lake!

Our neighbors have had to buy bottle water for month’s because of oil in their well.. other neighbors have had to buy new furnaces….I put my furnace (boiler) above ground in my garage.

The slushes around the streets have been allowed to fill over the years and today are covered. What used to drain around the streets and into the Chenango now just rolls over lawns.  Even the ditch in front of my house has not been cleaned in 3 years…I dig it out by hand before or during each flood! 

There is money available to cure chronic problems if you document it and submit it and…if your town is declared a disaster area…(and it was one year) .. I went to the FEMA meeting got the paperwork for it and had the proof waiting…took it to the town …but of course…nothing.  The town says it’s the county’s problem, the county says it’s the states; the state says it’s the town’s…and so really it is your problem.

SOOOO…  If  you can possibly help your neighbors and friends in this terrible situation…please do…

Remember, unless you have expensive flood insurance the cost is the homeowners.  Take the time to donate money, shelter or needed items and then help your neighbors find a solution to the problem so that it does not happen again. 

PS …Help the animal shelters that have displaced pets and then…Thank God it didn’t happen to you!

Here is a link to my last flood one and a half years ago..http://youtu.be/HW5NZXAGuD4..took out my basement walls......