The water may have receded from flooded neighborhoods, but the recovery process has just begun.
Walking down riverside streets in the Stockade Historic District in Schenectady on Friday, Sept. 2, revealed piles of ripped out floorboards, furniture and other items destroyed by Tropical Storm Irene in front of homes. Water was still being pumped out of basements and trails of Tropical Storm Irene could be seen throughout the community. Residents in the Stockade know what destructive power flows in the Mohawk River, but recent flooding served as a reminder.
At the bottom of Ingersoll Avenue was Stephen Boese cleaning off a container with a hose. The house he’s lived in with his wife, Cathy, for four and half years, had flood water up to the first floor windows.
The day after floodwaters pulled out of the neighborhood, he returned to assess the damage.
“We pretty much lost everything on the first floor of our house,” said Boese. “We got all the walls torn out and we are working on drying out the downstairs. We lost a lot, but we are doing well in terms of cleaning up and rebuilding.”
Boese hired someone to do “heavy duty” work at the home, but he has had a neighbor also help him out with some of the lighter work needed. Although, he was glad to see the water didn’t rise as high as predicted and his home was still standing.
“When we left the forecast was that the water would be so high that we would lose everything,” he said. “We just fit what we could manage to put in the cars and we left, so I was glad the house was still standing and we got repairable work here and repairable damage. It is going to take a long time.”
While he knew it was possible for floodwaters to reach into the Stockade, he didn’t expect anything like the recent flood to happen.
“I knew it was possible, but I didn’t think it was that probable,” he said. “It was probably the second worst flood in Schenectady history. The last time Erie Boulevard was the Erie Canal … I think it was a bit of a surprise that it hit so bad.”
For now, Stephen and his wife are living on the second floor of their home until repairs are completed.
Midway down Ingersoll Avenue, up the street from the Boeses, was Peter Nicodemi, a 73-year-old, carrying flood-damaged items out of his house. His wife, Eileen, remained inside.
The damage at Nicodemi’s house was less severe than what Boese was facing.
“It is not that bad. We cleaned a lot of stuff out of it,” said Peter Nicodemi. “We are getting there.”
The second floor of his home is an empty flat, so like many Stockade residents he moved items up to the second floor. The bedroom set and dressers they couldn’t move before the flood, so
“The city pumped the basements out and then we have a sump pump and we just let it run,” he said. “The basement is already starting to dry up … there wasn’t too much mud in the house because that brand new carpet and the backing is real thick so it sucked it all up. When we pulled it up there was hardly and mud on the floor.”
He said he couldn’t shed enough praise on the city for the job they did helping him out. The total damage he couldn’t put a monetary value to yet.
“They said whatever you people need we’ll do,” he said. “They even went in the cellar and took a lot of the stuff out and they don’t usually do that.”
Even without a flood, he said the street commonly has neighbors helping out each other.
“This street is unique, because everybody helps each other,” he said.
