Church Situation

Justin & Nathan:

I went to church late yesterday afternoon after passing through a roadblock in Andes where I was asked what I was doing on the closed roads due to the state of emergency. By 5pm yesterday the church admin. bldg was in pretty good shape. All the furniture was removed to clean and dry out. The CAP warehouse had very little in it and all the boxes (and contents in them) on the floor were thrown out. The water level did not go above the first level of boxes, fortunately.

The pastor said that they were spared the worst and many businesses and homes along Main Street had received several feet of water. While the water rushed down Main Street toward the church the Binnekill Stream got jammed up with debris and caused something of a barrier preventing the highest of waters from inundating the church. Yet, the pastor and Rob Allison, the Engineer from Retew Engineering & Surveying located next door worked at creating a sandbag wall to prevent a lot of the water from coming into the admin. bldg.,. The bldg has the distinctive odor of Clorox but that is better than it could have smelled. According to Pastor Bob there were about 30+ people as of 11am yesterday all pitching in to help. They were busy and happy. He said it (the flood) is one of those events that brings out the best in people.

Meanwhile, the rest of Margaretville (the Central School, and Upper Main Street going toward the traffic light) remains a mess. People started working at 5am yesterday and were still very busy with the clean-up at 5pm. Round bales of hay are all over Main Street and a tractor was busy carting them away one by one. Bridge Street, where Foodtown and CVS are located is a disaster and the road looks like a lunar landscape. I have heard that they purposely demolished CVS but did not do so with Foodtown. People wondered if they dare build there again. Lots of gawkers could be seen roaming Main Street last night with their rubber necks and digital cameras. They were an unwelcomed parasitical sight but one easily explained due to the downside of human nature and man's curious nature. The same curious nature that has always gotten him/her in trouble since the time of eating the fruit of the tree.

Route 30 was a mixed bag of damage. Up by the Hanna golf course it was covered with water. Up by the intersection of West Hubbell Hill Road (the Road the Engelhardts live on) was a disaster. Roxbury took some damage in the village, but Grand Gorge and Stamford all looked good. I know because I drove home that way. I would not have gone that route except that the pastor asked me to check on the Kliza in Gilboa. They were the last family on the outskirts of the church to be heard from. It turned out that they were fine and, in fact, busy barbecuing when I pulled up in their driveway. It was a sight of something akin to normal living in an otherwise chaotic and damage landscape (at least in Margaretville).

Well, that 's about all there is to report for now. Both of you are in our thoughts and prayers. Please  let us know how you are doing.