Flood of 2011: Day 5 and 6

Sunday, September 11, 2011

While the rest of the country was memorializing the 10th anniversary of 9/11, Binghamton was still very much grieving over the floods.  In regards to flood related activities, Andrea and I took the Sunday as a day of rest.  The church was primed to do some community service on Monday, and with grandma out-of-town, it was a much needed Sabbath.

The sermon by Rev. Matt Kennedy was also superb considering he only had three days to prepare it.

Monday, September 12, 2011

Personally, I was surprised how many local schools that had students report.  I was one of the "lucky" ones, and had the day off.  So Andrea and I joined up with some people from the church to help some parishioners in need.

The first house in the southside had minimal damage to the floors, but the basement had to be mucked out.  So we split into two teams and made pretty short work of the house.  The homeowner was very grateful for us being there and helping him clean, but you could tell that he was completely shell-shocked over the whole experience.  Shell-shocked and unnerved.  You could tell he hadn't slept well for days and the dramatics of the whole situation really got to him.  After offering him our future services as well as our prayers, we headed out to another home.

Our second destination had plenty more damage.  Conklin was one of the hardest hit areas in the 2006 flood, and this year's flood wasn't any less merciful.  We had already sent another team there earlier in the morning to start and by the time we arrived, dry wall and insulation were being removed and disposed of.  Although it was under unfortunate circumstances, it was fun and stress-relieving to swing sledgehammers around and gutting the house.  In addition to our church team that was there, family had also come to help so there was a lot of people putting all their energy in bringing the house back to normal as soon as possible.  The proverb, "many hands make light work," had never been more true.

Earlier that morning, mom called with some new developments on the house and insurance procedures.  As it turns out, the pictures act as legal documents so they gave us the green light to start rummaging and cleaning out the house.  So with mom and grandma back up from Scranton, it was time to start actually going through everything.  But things went horribly wrong that day.  Between ineffective communication and the family sin of pride, what was supposed to be a day of cleaning and restoration turned into an argument that divided and embittered family members.  The result left us all emotionally drained, mentally tired and beyond frustrated.  Furthermore, the mini-vacation in Scranton did little for grandma's state of mind.  Not only was she still very heartbroken, emotional and confrontational, but she also started pushing away those who were there to help.

After a full day of physical work and being certain that school would resume the next day, I prepared for classes and prayed that better days lie ahead.  And I will continue praying, knowing that is the only way that restoration will come back to Binghamton, as well as my family.