A map of Palmyra - more about that in the next blogSo just under two weeks ago Pato found out that he needed to go back to Owego, New York again for work. He had been out there several times this year. He was scheduled to fly out the Tuesday after Labor Day. We didn't have plans for Labor Day weekend, and so I had been thinking it would be fun to plan a trip together. When we found out he would be going back to Owego, we decided to change his flight to the Friday before Labor Day and see if we could find a flight for me. That all worked out. Our plan was to fly into the airport (Binghamton) where Paul would be flying for work anyway, rent a car and then drive to Palmyra and see the church history sites since I had never been to them. (Palmyra is about a two hour drive from Binghamton. Binghamton is in the southern part of upstate New York, near the Pennsylvania border.) After we had the flights booked and a bed and breakfast in Palmyra to stay in, I thought I ought to let T-man and S know we were going to be in their general area, even though we weren't planning on enough time to visit them. I sent them an email. A little later S called me and said that they were already planning on being in Palmyra that weekend, along with K-Rae! What a great surprise! We had a wonderful time in Palmyra, part of the time with them and Letty and Gracie and Baby A and part of the time on our own. My next blog entry will be about that. But this entry is about what happened after we left Palmyra.

On Tuesday afternoon we left the Palmyra area and headed towards Owego, driving along one of the finger Lakes. We had a nice dinner together and then headed to our hotel, the Hampton Inn in Owego New York. We were on the third floor, so when it started to rain during the night we could hear it. It rained hard all day Wednesday - harder and faster than I have ever seen except in the worst thunderstorm. But, it was very nice hotel and in the morning there was a great view from the breakfast room of the Susquehanna river. Paul had stayed there before, but I had forgotten it was right on the Susquehanna. We did some laundry and emails and in the afternoon decided to go to the Corning Glass Museum in Corning, about a half hour drive from Owego. As we drove we turned on the radio. We found out that all the schools in the area had been closed and flooding was expected. They said they thought the flooding would be the same or a little higher than a big historic flood they had had in 2006. They said a storm had stalled in the area and the heavy rain had not been expected, but that, coming right on the heels of Hurricane Irene, the ground was already saturated, thus, the expected flooding. On our way back to Owego from the Corning Museum (which by the way was awesome) it was still raining hard and we started to notice flooded fields and farms as we drove along the 17, parallel to the Susquehanna. We did pause to question whether we should even be going back, but it seemed like the right thing to do so we kept going. Besides, all our things were in the hotel. By the time we were getting back to Owego, a state of emergency for the county had been declared. They said to get what you need and get inside by dark.

We went and got gas and went to the grocery store across the street, then went back to the hotel for the evening. By then the water was creeping from the river up into a field at the west end of the hotel.

That night the power went out about 4 am. It was pitch dark in the room - the power was out throughout the whole village of Owego. A little while later the hotel generator came on with lights illuminating the parking lot below our window. Suddenly we could see that nearly the whole parking lot was flooded, at least somewhat. Our rental car, right below our bedroom window was still on dry ground, but most of the rest of our lot was flooded, along with the neighboring parking lots (there were two other hotels next to us along the river) and the street and the parking lot of the grocery store across the street. Although the water was creeping toward our car, there was nothing to do about it since the way out of the lot was too deep to drive through. But anyway, we weren't too worried because we had seen some photos the night before of where the water had gotten to in 2006, so we thought the water would probably reach its peak soon. For the next hour or so we just sat by our window and watched the water rise as it gradually got light.

Eventually we went downstairs and got some breakfast. They had put out all the cold food, so we had cereal and fruit and yogurt and hard boiled eggs. All the hotel guests were very chatty, so that was kind of fun. We heard from someone then that the water wasn't supposed to crest for quite some time - several hours at least. Everyone sort of wandered around and watched the water rise. The Hampton was built in 2007 and so it was built on struts, elevating it higher than the flood levels had been in 2006. Although the parking lot was flooded and we couldnt leave, we had at least lights in the halls at at the front desk and could see that it would be quite some time before the water would get up to the first floor of the hotel.

Hotel guests sitting under the Hotel entrance portico, watching the water rise.

Pato by the windo in the breakfast room looking over the Susquehanna RiverPika standing in the hotel front portico area. The photo shows where part of their driveway was washed out (weakened from below) earlier this spring.

A couple people in a canoe paddling down what had been the street in front of the hotel. The Arby's in the background was a little higher and the cars there stayed dry until late in the day.

As the water kept rising it eventually started to get into our car. We watched random electrical failures happen on other cars in the lot - windshield wipers coming on, parking lights fading on and off, even a truck popping open. The light blue car in the middle of the photo below is our rental car. It was parked by the ramp leading up the the hotel entrance on the side of the building away from the river.

This photo shows the village of Owego when the flooding was at its height. Some people told us later they had never seen flooding go beyond Front Street, the first street parallelling the river. As you can see, this flooding went through almost the whole village. Here is an aerial shot of our hotel and the neighboring Treadway Hotel. Our car is parked below the red arrow. The front entrance portico of the hotel is at the left end of the hotel in this shot. The water at this point was quite a ways up the first floor of the Treadway hotel, but was just to the first floor of the Hampton Inn we were staying in. The generator for the hotel can be seen at the bottom right hand corner of the hotel. It was starting to be threatened by the rising water.

A view of the end door of the Treadway hotel from the portico/front door of the Hampton Inn.

Eventually the hotel let us know that the National Guard would be coming to get us. We packed up our room and packed small bags to take with us. Some friends we had made who had rooms on the first floor left some of their luggage in our room for safekeeping. We waited a couple hours, still watching out the windows until the trucks arrived. They had big wheels and were able to drive through the deep water.

Below - a view out of our hotel room window of where the trucks parked. You can see part of our car in the lower right hand corner of the picture.

We had to walk through just an inch or so of water to climb into the trucks, twenty people per truck. Below - a shot out the back of the truck as we drive away from the Hampton Inn. Treadway Hotel is to the left of the photo.

We rode through water and uphill in the trucks. They eventually brought us to an elementary school. We had not had cell phone service all day, and we didn't here either, although some others had some reception. We all went to the Cafeteria of the school and hung out. Well, I need to tell you the happy ending of this adventure, but I'm out of time for the moment. Oh, by the way, Thursday the 8th of September, the day we were evacuated, was our wedding anniversary. Quite the memorable one!