It's Only Water

My laptop died on June 26. I thought it was a virus so I took it to a local Computer tech and he tried to clean it up only it didn't work. He went online to make sure I'd registered it with Toshiba ( I had) in case I couldn't find the sales slip. Without that I'd have had to deal with Toshiba directly instead of taking it back to Best Buy in New Hartford.

I found the receipt after picking up the laptop from Vinny and debated about going the 22 miles to Best Buy but it was storming so hard I could barely see to drive home from the shop. I decided I'd go Friday the 28th when I wouldn't have been driving in a torrential downpour, only Ma Nature had other plans.

In order to get from my home to Best Buy in New Hartford, I'd have to come off the hill down to River Rd. and travel the distance to route 291. From there I'd be heading for Oriskany Boulevard and then on to Commercial Drive. A trip I've made numerous times since Best Buy is in the same shopping plaza as Michaels.

Something made me turn on the TV for the news the morning of the 28th and that was when I discovered I was going to be without a computer for a much longer time frame than I had planned on. That torrential downpour had continued all night practically and by 6 am, almost every road I needed to travel on to get there was closed due to flooding. This was Oriskany Boulevard.

Driving on that was not going to happen. And then there were all these other pictures I found on the local news site which happened in my area.

The squares in the middle picture are the rooftops of cars in an apartment house parking lot. The road I live on sustained damage to some of the culverts we need to drive over to get from driveway to road. I'm far enough up the hill to have been fine, those towards the bottom had the culverts wash out on the 4th day of rain. We were beginning to wonder if someone had ordered an ark because it was beginning to look like we'd need it.

In Oneida, Herkimer, Chenango and Madison counties the Red Cross and local Salvation Army have been truly wonderful. The Red Cross opened shelters and the Salvation Army set up mobile units which are delivering food, beverages, and clean up kits to those who are cleaning up and trying to dry out the homes that didn't sustain structural damage. Some people had their homes knocked off the foundations and they are looking for other places to live until they find out if they will be able to find the money to rebuild.

FEMA aid will be available for the state, however it will not be in the form of grants to displaced homeowners to help in the rebuilding and recovery. The money is only for the infrastructure repairs to roads and bridges damaged in the flood. The only hope for many is that they had flood insurance and we've been finding out that doesn't pay for everything. For instance, insurance will pay for electric meters, circuit breakers and the boxes they go in but not for the thousands of dollars worth of wire needed to hook these homes back up to the utilities. Many probably will not be able to rebuild.

We're a nation whose focus is on defense. Congress can find money for the Air Force to blow 1 billion dollars on a computer system upgrade that simply won't work and has now been scrapped. It can fund the Pentagon so that 34 million can be spent on a state of the art headquarters building that the Army didn't want built in Afghanistan. A building that no one can use will be torn down when our military returns home.

The pocketbook is always open for the military whose job it is to keep the people safe from our enemies. It's just not open for the very people who elect our leaders and to whom they should be responsible. Somehow I can't help thinking that something needs to change. The government charged with the safety of it's people seems to be intent on killing off our American Dream in favor of those who control the wealth.