It will be one year Monday since the devastating flood changed northern Chautauqua County forever. From the hundreds of flooded basements to destroyed mobile homes, lives were changed and when you thought the skin of weathered Western New Yorkers couldn't get any thicker - it did.
For one day, and in the recovery afterward, damage may have devastated the Silver Creek and Hanover residents but everyone was in it together, every organization that could and every group willing lent a hand. At that time it may have never seemed capable of feeling normal again but over the past year incredible progress has been made.
HANOVER?RECOVERS
According to Town of Hanover Supervisor Katherine Tampio, the town has gone through several changes, from repairs to deterrents for future events. The biggest, however, came to the several town roads that took a beating from the damaging flood waters.
"King Road had a major reconstruction in the area of the lower reservoir in Smith Mills. Culvert and ditch work was completed by our town highway crews under the leadership of Highway Superintendent Steve D'Angelo, and the King Road reconstruction was done by a contractor," Tampio said. "Many of our businesses along Route 5 and 20 were impacted, especially Gernatt's gravel pit, Just Pets, Stagecoach West, Tom's Restaurant, the Hanford Market, and the Lake Shore Hospital ER was also flooded and they repaired the facility quite quickly in order to maintain service."
All of the town's Federal Emergency Management Agency projects have been completed and most reimbursement payments have been made with only a few pending.
"Most properties have recovered now. Gernatt's plans to replace their scale/office building, which had water about four feet up their walls. The hospital emergency room has been completed. The other businesses worked very hard to clean, replace damaged appliances, and replace flooring where needed in order to get back in business within days of the flood," Tampio stated. "(Homes) seem to have recovered well. A lot of the credit goes to the homeowners and the volunteer groups who have assisted them from the initial disaster response clean-up to full recovery in addition to FEMA funding."
All of the public projects in the town and village were funded by FEMA and New York's State Emergency Management Office with a local share of 12.5 percent. The business cleanup and recovery had funding available in the form of low-interest loans through the Small Business Administration.
While a full recovery may never be reached, the clean-up process is essentially complete. At the Lake Erie beachfront, town crews cleaned up the town beach park this past spring, and private property owners on the lake have also managed to clear any debris that resulted from the flood - trees, tires, house parts, decking, etc.
VILLAGE MAKING STRIDES
While the destruction from the flood ultimately led to federal disaster declarations for six counties, one of the highly concentrated areas in terms of residential impact was found in the heart of Silver Creek. The village saw main stretches under water, a 35-unit mobile home park destroyed, and municipal structures heavily damaged.
One year later, there is a sense of relief in the air as the village returns to a sense of normalcy. For starters, the previous Department of Public Works building heavily damaged by the flood is demolished and removed. In June of this year, the village accepted the alternate DPW project, making itself eligible to receive about $1.7 million in FEMA and SEMO reimbursements. The new DPW facility will be modified to fit in the Bentges Warehouse, which had an asking price for purchase of around $725,000. That price will be reduced by rent the village has already paid during the time the DPW has been using the facility. Renovation costs are estimated to be about $65,000 and money leftover after the DPW project can be used to fund FEMA-approved capital projects which DPW Superintendent Ralph Crawford plans to use for equipment lost in the flood.
"At this point in time we get the existing building, we can buy the equipment we need to replace and then the village can take the money from the trades from old equipment and put the money in the bank and setup a replacement schedule with a bulk of money to work for," Crawford said.
Capital project and equipment purchases from the FEMA and SEMO aid that Crawford is eying are items like a sewer vac truck ($150,000), a single axle truck ($100,000), a leaf machine ($20,000), and a pavement machine, to name a few.
Continued strides to improve the areas in and around the Silver Village Mobile Home Park are being made as well. It took about four months to resurrect Silver Village after the August 2009 flood, and as of May 2010, six months after the flood, 11 mobile homes were occupied. Ten of the 11 units are filled with returning residents. The other is occupied by a newcomer to the park.
In the same vicinity, the village has recently appointed itself as lead agency in the joint effort between the county and village and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, or NRCS, for a continuation of the rip rap wall along Silver Creek. About 350 feet of rip rap will be installed on one side of Silver Creek, continuing the streambank-protection wall already in place downstream. A portion of the new rip rap will be laid along the creek behind Petri Baking Products. Across the creek from Petri is the Silver Village Trailer Park. The total project cost has been estimated to be $133,700. The local share will be approximately $33,425 that of which was paid for by Petri's.
While only a few projects remain withstanding, like the DPW project, the village has already closed out on the remaining FEMA projects and has received more than $1 million in reimbursements. The village received $372,133 in insurance recoveries, $593,918 from FEMA and $98,986 in state aid. Mayor Kurt Lindstrom noted the village will eventually receive additional reimbursement money.
"We still have money outstanding," Lindstrom said. "We still have money outstanding from this building (village hall), and the DPW work may not be reimbursed for up to two years."
TOOLS FOR THE FUTURE
"I think that the most important lesson we can learn from this experience is the knowledge that when an emergency occurs, there are many highly professional, well-trained, and very competent emergency responders from the local community on up to the county, state and federal levels that will be there to help as long as help is needed," Tampio said. "Their dedication, as well as the dedication of the many volunteers from near and far, gave the hope and the help necessary to our families and businesses that needed it most. The outpouring of support for our communities was outstanding and truly appreciated."
In March, the Chautauqua County Office of Emergency Services hosted a meeting of all the Emergency Response and Recovery participants to go over the flood event. There were representatives from the state, county and municipalities, including law enforcement, fire services, EMS, organizations such as the Red Cross, Salvation Army, & Americorp, SEMO & FEMA, and the New York State Department of Transportation.
Discussion focused on what worked well and what did not go as well in terms of emergency services and plan of action. According to Julius Leone, Chautauqua County Director of Emergency Services, despite the type of event that occurred there was a chance given afterward to learn and to grow from.
"I've talked with the town highway supervisors, and some of them do a very good job of this, but taking care of debris in the creeks. Actually on a county level, putting together a plan to maintain creeks to keep water from backing up," Leone said referring to plans on the drawing table. "Looking at a creek/stream maintenance man for the county, those are the kind of things that can make a difference and we've actually started talking about that at the county level."
Like the flood, like the Masonic Temple fire in the City of Dunkirk, and like the recent tornado in the Mayville area, when it comes to emergency services communication is key. Leone said lessons learned from the flood actually benefited services needed after future disasters.
"Each time we have a large event the rate of communication is so important, being able to communicate with law enforcement, and EMS, and the fire department and streets departments ... that was the perfect example of that," he said. "We just completed a tornado a couple of weeks ago. Some of the lessons learned in Silver Creek we applied to Mayville and Dewittville and the surrounding area with the tornado. The faster we're able to put together a command group with the local fire department, the local municipality and the county with mutual aid partners, we're able to do that real quick with the tornado and I think it's because of lessons learned in Silver Creek. We know we have to put together a command structure very quickly and the sooner we get our arms around that I think the outcome is much better. We got on the ground real quick, working together, and coordinated our efforts and that's key to success."
In a joint effort, Leone reiterated, the county is working with the village of Silver Creek to continue rip rap work along the creek bank to help stabilize it and to keep debris from backing the water flow up.
"We're looking at those kinds of things right now in Silver Creek and have applied for mitigation dollars and working our way through the process with SEMO and FEMA. They don't have an ultimate determination yet but we're hoping they'll hear soon," Leone said. "There are still a few projects in the hopper. We're making progress though and we can see the light at the end of the tunnel, no question about it."