The LuLac Edition #1751, September 10th, 2011

PHOTO INDEX: OUR "INTERVIEW" LOGO.

INTERVIEW

This week we had an incredible time of it with the rampaging waters of the Susquehanna River. I had the opportunity to speak to an individual who was through four flood events, Agnes in ’72, the flood of ’96, the scare in ’06 and of course the latest one this week. No longer a resident, her story is interesting and topical given the events of the week.
Q: You’ve been through four of these events, tell me the chronology of the events.
A: In 1972 I was a junior in high school. We lived in Kingston and we got wiped out. It taught me real fast that nothing was forever. Our house was gone. Everything we owned was gone. I became a nomad.
Q: From that event did you become a hoarder or a person that never saved anything?
A: The latter. Te only thing I kept from that era, and I still have it to this day is an old tee shirt that said “I Survived Agnes”.
Q: What happened in ’96?
A: I was living away and decided to come home on an extended visit. So I wound up staying with a girlfriend in Plains. My dad had already passed and my mom was living in a high rise. So I stayed with my friend not wanting to put her out. Because my friend was in Plainsville, I spent a lot of my time moving her stuff to the second floor and then helping with cleanup.
Q: Not the vacation you imagined?
A: No. I beat a hasty retreat back to Ohio.
Q: How did you get involved in the ’06 event?
A: I came to town for a June wedding. A friend’s son was getting married and I had a nice room at the Ramada. Again I came in a few days early to catch up with old friends from Valley West. Mom was gone but there were still relatives. I’m in the hotel and boom I get evacuated. Thank God the wedding went off without a hitch.
Q: And now in ’11, how’d you get hooked up here?
A: I just retired and was supposed to visit around July 4th. But I wound up with an emergency procedure. So I told my friends I’d be here during the next holiday which was……….
Q: Labor Day!
A: Yes. The weather was rainy, but we had wonderful get togethers with friends and relatives. We ate at “Really Cooking”, “Peking Chef” and had some nice visits. But Wednesday night they shut down the bridge and Thursday they called for an evacuation by 4PM.
Q: What did you do?
A: I called a friend in Maryland, drove down 81 to 83 and spent the remainder of my visit with friends down there. I just didn’t want to be around it.
Q: But you seemed to pick these events, ever think about that?
A: I’ve started to ponder the probabilities of it and wish one thing.
Q: Which is?
A: That my luck with picking lottery numbers was just as good as my homecomings and the Susquehanna.