Yulonda and Amy are among thousands of people who were affected by the flood of June 27, 2006 in the Southern Tier of NY and the NE of PA.  Their house was destroyed and their lives were devastated.  Except for food and cleaning kits received from the Red Cross, they have received no help from FEMA nor any of the other public or private sector grants/help that was given to people because they got up and went to work every day, paid their bills on time and had flood insurance. Their village supervisor was instrumental in making sure they were not raked over the coals by their insurance carrier.  Thank you Sir.  They are not alone in this dilemma.  Despite all this they have kept their chins up and tried to do the best they can.

They had been out of town for the weekend and had no idea of the amount of rain the region had received.  They were doing some renovations on the house and were planning on having new kitchen cabinets installed.  The old cabinets had been cleaned out and all their food and dishes were in bags and boxes in their computer room.  When they heard of the rising water they moved their new kitchen cabinets, all 10 of them, into the house.  They were still in the packing boxes.  The house had never been flooded inside since it had been built in the 50's.  $3,500 worth of cabinets.  The price of their flood insurance being what it was they were only insured for $3,300 on contents, but at least they had some insurance. They took their motorcycles to higher ground and went back to move more possesions up in the house.  That night, Tuesday June 27th, they left with their 2 dogs and a few clothes in a bag. Just getting out of town was a nightmare because already SR11 was closed in various places both north and south of them.  I81 was also closed in both directions.  Culverts were being overrun with fast moving ground water and it was washing out the roads and bridges.  Low lying areas of local highways were underwater from the rivers in the area.  They spent most of the night at a gas station near I81 exit 1 waiting for word....  word on how soon roads would be open, word on what was happening to their village, their house, their lives.

**As a footnote, Not only have the people of this area had to deal with the flooding and lack of help, they also have to deal with theives.  On a personal note they cleaned up their stove and refridgerator and moved them right up next to the garage. They hoped to be able to salvage them, since they were less than a year old and had paid close to $2,000 for them.  They looked good. Must be someone else thought so too because they helped themselves to the stove!  The ladies decided to check the refridgerator, the compressor would not come on... they took sledge hammers to it and set it out to the curb.  Another neighbor, a 70 year old woman, came home to find out that someone had stolen her kitchen cabinets right off the wall and her ceiling fans too!