Dan,,, they're evacuating the town again

Those were the exact words as I pulled into the resort in Orlando, late June 2006. I took a deep breath,,,, the family just drove 17 hours and were looking for a little leg stretching time out of the confinements of the family van. We checked into the beautiful Caribe Royale and found our room. This was my families first 2 week vacation EVER and suddenly I'm faced with the reality of another major flood hitting Yardley now 1700 miles away.

In the back of my mind I kept thinking that maybe this wouldn't hit our portion of the town,,, maybe we'd be lucky like we were during the first hit a mere 18 months prior. I tried to relax, found the remote and flipped on the tube as the family browsed the resort to get a feel of our surroundings. Surfing the channels, I was drawn in by a familiar site on CNN. The reporter was standing on the end of Afton Road just 3 blocks from my house,,, the view of the Delaware in the background, running high and extremely fast wasn't new to me it was just something I had a hard time dealing with while on so called,,,,, vacation.

Keep in mind,,, this was late June 2006. Since the last flood of Yardley in April 2005, we all experienced the wrath of Hurricane Katrina and the reality of how a catastrophe could happen. Think about it,,, all the weather reports and radar and all the technology in the world told the people of New Orleans what was coming and still our federal government, local governments in New Orleans and Biloxi and the people as a whole weren't prepared. The storm, like many others before came, did it's business and left the government and anyone else who cared to pick up the pieces after the fact. Scared to death almost captures the emotions.

I kept receiving updates from friends and neighbors about the events going through Yardley as I made the best of the vacation. Truth is, I realized that with the town evacuated, there was nothing much to think about,,, when the town was let back in, I would know what was actually going on.

Day 3,,,, "Dan,,, the good news is that they have let us back in our homes,,,,, the bad news,,,,, sorry to say but there is about 4 feet of water in your basement again" That call came when I was in the China section of Epcot. Funny when I think about that, 1700 miles as well as half a world away from reality at the same time. We finished our visit and went back to the resort. I booked the first flight in the AM back to Yardley to do what I needed to do.

Arriving in town was the all to familiar site at this point, mud everywhere, personal belongings on the curb sides, Red Cross vans handing out water and sandwiches. Neighbors of mine were kind enough to start the pump in my basement so the water was just about gone when I arrived. Fact of the matter was that we were getting good at this around Yardley, we had our share of practice and we could get our surroundings water free and ready for power to be replaced with the workforce we developed, friends helping friends. The real scary thing is that the areas closer to the river and canal were virtually destroyed again. some of these folks now lost their homes 3 times in 18-20 months. How the government responded was even scarier.

Let me first say that FEMA did provide for the people who had flood insurance. In a flood plain you can't hold a mortgage without flood insurance and it covers belongings above the first floor and things in basements that belong in basements. Adjusters spent weeks in our town taking reports and checks were cut. That portion I can say went smoothly, as smooth as one could expect. However, being as this was the 3rd flood in our area, FEMA did what it usually does. FEMA started looking at properties to be purchased and turned into open space. And believe me, when you've been hit so severely in such a short period of time, the prospect of leaving sounds good, sure,,, pay for my property and I'll go to higher ground. Unfortunately, this brings on it's own problems to towns.

What kept troubling me in this whole process is, I saw the money that was going out to make repairs, I was reimbursed for basement items twice totaling more than I paid in premiums and my payout was small in comparison to an entire house full of belongings that some folks lost three times. I kept remembering the articles and the town meetings with the prospect of a solution to end the floods. This to me made so much more sense. I am sure the cost to prevent recurrence would cost less than paying out insurance claims every time this happened. And from the looks of things,,, it WILL happen again.

DD