In my last post, I told you all about the flood Pato and I got to be a part of. I left off where we had gotten evacuated to an elementary school.
We had been aimlessly wandering around the cafeteria for a little bit when the janitor came. He said he would be opening up the gym and getting out basketballs (several men in the room cheered) and also that he had opened the library and turned on the TV in the library with news from the area – something we were all hungry for. He also introduced a lady from the community who said they would do whatever they could for us. Pato and I went into the library for a few minutes. I was just checking out what young adult fiction I would want to read to pass the time when they announced over the PA system for everyone to come back to the cafeteria. We went back and they announced that the Red Cross would not be able to set up at that school and so we would be moved. They would move us by school bus to a sports arena on the campus of the university in Binghamton. Around this time some of the friends we had made were starting to leave. There were two couples on vacation to the Finger Lakes area who were being picked up by one of their daughters who lived in the area. Also I had gotten to know a lady who worked at the Wendy’s across from the hotel and around this time a friend or relative came to get her.
As I was walking around saying goodbye to people I knew, a lady walked by who I thought must be from the community. The community people had meanwhile brought in PB sandwiches and snacks that they were handing out. I stopped her briefly to say “Thank you so much for coming and helping us!” Pato was there too while I was talking to her. She asked where we were from and I briefly told her our story. Then she said “Would you like to come stay at our house? We live nearby.” Pato and I were struck dumb. My first thought was “Wow, what a kind offer, but why us?” She noticed both of us didn’t know what to say and repeated the offer, saying her sons had just moved out to go to college and that they had room. We still hadn’t got our voices back and she said “Oh, I can let the two of you think about it.” Pato and I looked at each other. There was no question as to whether this was a wonderful, amazing offer. We said, no, we don’t need time to think about it, we just were so caught off guard by your generosity that at first we didn’t know what to say. A few minutes later the announcement was made that the busses had arrived. I think she could see that we might get pressured into getting on the busses, so she talked to her husband who was there and he said he would walk us to their house. It was cloudy and damp, but wasn’t raining. We walked through the school yard and about half a block through a nice neighborhood and were at their house. I think Pato and I were a little dazed and didn’t even really realize it for awhile. Kevin – that was the husband’s name- said when he had arrived at the school and looked through the windows of the cafeteria he thought that everyone in the room “looked like their dog had just died.”
Kim stayed at the school to help out for awhile since right before we left they found out another group of evacuees was going to be brought there before being taken to BU sports arena. Kim was a teacher at the school, so she thought she ought to stay and help.
We talked with Kevin out on their patio when we got to their home. Since it wasn’t raining it was nice to be outside. It was also the only place we could get any cell phone coverage. The coverage was intermittent, but we started being able to make some calls and sending some emails.
It was funny, we felt like we were holding up well through everything: just kind of watching the flooding and just going along with the experience. After a few hours at their house though a sense of normalcy started to return and we realized that we really had felt somewhat displaced. But the overarching feeling was one of wonder and gratitude that we had been taken home by these lovely people and that we had been so protected and taken care of throughout the day. When I thought of all the people who had just lost their homes, or large amounts of property, or who had been without power completely we were just amazed that we had passed through all of this with so little problem or hardship and now these kind people had given us a place to stay.
I was due to fly out the next day, Friday, so the most important thing we found out as we talked to Kevin was that the Binghamton airport wasn’t far from there and that there would be a way to drive there without going through flooded areas. I started to say “I could get a taxi” but then realized that would probably not be possible and anyway, they said they would be happy to take me.
Pato’s plan was to have stayed at least until Monday since the equipment from work was supposed to arrive sometime, but in talking to Kim we realized that it would be a few days until things got back to any kind of normal operations in the area. We found that there was room on my flight, and so Friday afternoon, after spending a delightful 24 hours with Kim and Kevin, we were both on our way to the airport. Kim and Kevin didn’t mind the chance to go for a drive and also wanted to drive out a little further to see if they could find a grocery store that still had some groceries.
At the airport Kim stayed until we made sure our flight was going to leave (most of the flights Wed and Thurs had been cancelled).
We flew out two hours less than exactly a week from when we had flown in.
The whole week was filled with wonderful and amazing experiences. The thing Pato and I pondered as we waited at the airport was how much harder it would have been for us to leave and fly home if we had ended up in that stadium. There were thousands of people there, and by Wednesday or so of the next week, we heard there were still displaced people there. Pato had a work colleague in the area who offered to come get us, but his area was flooded too and it might have taken some time. As it was, instead of spending Thursday night in cots with thousands of people in an arena, we stayed in Kim and Kevin’s comfortable basement apartment. Although staying in the arena would have been an experience too, we were grateful for the chance to get to know these kind, gracious people.
The quote I left in the note for Kim and Kevin expressed our thanks: “God does notice us, and he watches over us. But it is usually through another person that he meets our needs.”
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