BS&P Firm Members Assist Gowanda Flood Victims

Keith and his wife live south of Springville, out in the country.  Several weeks ago, Keith woke up in the middle of the night to get a drink of water.  He though he heard water running so he went up to his front door.  To his amazement, his car was floating away in a sea of water.  A flood was upon them and the water was quickly rising.  Keith woke his wife and they tried to escape the waters.  As they left the house, his wife was swept away by the currents.  She became caught under a fence and nearly drowned.  Fortunately, her head bobbed up and Keith was able to save her.

Today Keith is living in a tent in his front yard. His wife is living with relatives and sleeping on the floor.  Their house was so severely damaged by the flood that it must be torn down.  They do own a shed in the backyard that survived the flood.  It was, however, knocked off its foundation.  Keith needed help putting it back on its foundation.  After that was accomplished, Keith's plan was to move whatever he could salvage from his house (which was very little) into the shed before the house was demolished.

Keith was one of five individuals that were helped on Saturday, August 29th by a group of 23 people from Western New York and Pennsylvania.  Members of the group included BS&P employees Tom Grogan, Jim Waggoner, Holly West and Caroline Szydlo along with their friends and family.

Keith's project turned out to be the most challenging.  Moving a shed back onto its foundation sounds simple, but the shed was large, solidly built (by the Amish), extremely heavy and stuck in the mud.  The entire work crew would not have been able to move it.  Keith's neighbor, however, had horses and was able to bring them while the work crew was there.  The horses were strong, agile and a thing of beauty.  The work crew, along with Keith, his neighbors and the horses, were able to complete the task.

The group also helped the following people:

Kevin - a Vietnam veteran who needed a shed demolished and debris removed from his yard.  He lost part of his backyard due to shifting of the creek bed.

Marlene - an elderly lady whose driveway needed to be rebuilt, as it was washed away during the flooding.

Lillian - a 79-year old diabetic with cancer whose basement needed to be cleared of debris and the mud power washed away.  Stones and debris also needed to be removed from her yard.

Trisha - had substantial debris in her yard that needed to be removed.  She also lost part of her property due to shifting of the creek bed.  Trisha is not sure if her house is salvageable. 

All the tasks assigned to the group were completed and the homeowners were extremely grateful. There is, however, still a tremendous amount of cleanup and rebuilding to be done for Keith and others in the Gowanda area.