When Robert Miller returned to his hometown of Margaretville, N.Y., after Tropical Storm Irene, the area was barely recognizable. Half of Main Street was devastated, entire buildings were washed away and roads were impassable.

Miller, a senior polymer chemistry major at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, organized a group of five students to spend the weekend of Sept. 10 helping repair the damage done by the storm.

Along with Miller’s group from ESF’s main campus, there were also multiple groups from ESF’s Ranger School in Wanakena, N.Y., that visited damaged towns in the Catskills region.

‘We wanted to help out businesses that were destroyed or flooded and help out families,’ he said. ‘We pulled the group together and did some work.’

The group spent the first day in Arkville, N.Y., a neighboring town, cleaning up debris in a park, and the second day was spent on Main Street in Margaretville helping businesses, including a drug store owned by Miller’s family.

Most businesses experienced flooding in their basements and first levels and some fared even worse, Miller said. A recently renovated plaza in a low-lying part of town was completely destroyed and partially washed away, he said.

‘The CVS Pharmacy is gone and the grocery store was basically destroyed,’ Miller said.

Miller said the floods after Irene were the worst he’s seen since 1996, when there was 14 feet of water, compared to 16 feet in the most recent floods. While cleanup efforts are still going on, almost half of the businesses in town are still closed because the buildings aren’t structurally sound. During the week, the town tries to carry on with life as normal as possible, he said, and then focuses on cleaning up and repairing damage on the weekends.

Miller said the small town, where he graduated with about 35 people, banded together to help.

‘A lot of projects are going on where local construction companies are offering free labor and free equipment for buildings that revitalize instead of demolish,’ he said.

Miller said that it was important to him to go back and help his family and friends return his town to normal.

Julia Brophy, a junior landscape architecture major, also from Margaretville, was part of Miller’s group. Brophy said her house wasn’t seriously damaged, but several of her friends’ houses were hit hard.

‘There was debris in trees way up where there should never be water,’ said Brophy. ‘It was pretty unbelievable, and it was one of the weirdest things I’ve seen.’

Like Miller, Brophy said she was struck by how the people in town came together. Because people are still trying to repair the damage, several local businesses are operating out of temporary locations to keep things as normal as possible, Brophy said.

Despite the severity of the damage, the floods haven’t received much attention, which Brophy said she attributes to the town’s size.

‘If it’s New Orleans, there’s so many people there and everyone knows where it is,’ Brophy said. ‘But if you say Margaretville, New York, no one knows where it is.’

Kelly Long, a senior conservation biology major, joined Miller’s group because she saw how the floods affected the two. Long has experience with flood damage cleanup, having spent last spring break in New Orleans at St. Bernard Parish.

‘The thought of letting my friend’s hometown sit in that disarray was not OK,’ said Long. ‘We knew that people needed help and that it really couldn’t wait.’

Long was amazed by the amount of debris the group saw at the park in Arkville on their first day. The group collected the debris and put it in piles for government organizations to haul away. She said they picked up many things that had washed away from houses like tires, fencing, furniture, televisions, stairways, picture frames, tackle boxes and Christmas ornaments.

Long said that while some areas were relatively unscathed, other parts of town have homes that are partially or fully submerged in sinkholes.

Victoria Reinhart, a senior environmental science major, also helped with the cleanup.

Reinhart is from Prattsville, N.Y., which now has more than 40 houses condemned and a trailer park that no longer exists.

‘I went home Labor Day weekend with a large suitcase filled with donations, and I cried at how much devastation there was within the valley and my home itself,’ she said.

‘People I grew up with lost their homes and everything thing in them on the day Irene hit and the days after,’ Reinhart added. ‘I watched them all suffer, my family included, for four days while sitting in Syracuse going to classes, doing assignments and essentially doing nothing.’

To help do her part, Reinhart organized the Hurricane Irene Relief Drive. Donations can be made at ESF’s Moon Library and are then distributed to towns affected by the floods in Schoharie, Greene and Delaware counties.

During her time spent at home, Reinhart said, she and her family worked from sunrise to sunset cleaning out homes and buildings and disposing damaged property. Reinhart said she’s not sure when she’ll be able to return to the area, but she will continue to run the drive until supplies are no longer needed.

‘I know that in the long run,’ she said, ‘the people back home will help each other and someday get back to normal lives.’

jlsiart@syr.edu 

Published on October 1, 2011 at 12:00 pm