Staring down disaster

BY KATIE SULLIVAN

Times-Shamrock Writer

Two-year-old Christopher Gallagher slid down the stairs on his behind, squealing gleefully, rumbled across the living room on his wobbly legs and wrestled his older sister, Jennifer, to the ground, the 4-year-old girl giggling as the two rolled around on the newly carpeted floor.

The scene wouldn’t have taken place just six months ago when the kids, along with their parents and two older brothers, were living in the American Red Cross shelter at Tunkhannock Area High School – the kids had to be quiet around the other residents, said their mother, Kimberlee Fletcher.

“To be home, oh, I love it,” Fletcher sighed, relaxing on her couch cuddled in a blanket as she watched her kids play.

Fletcher’s family is one of many who had their lives put on hold by last fall’s flooding from Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee. Six months later, families like hers are working to get life started again.

With a newly renovated kitchen, bathroom and living room in their Mehoopany rental home, Fletcher and her kids are getting back into the swing of things after their month-long stint in the shelter. Surrounded by new furniture and in the comfort of their own space, the family is glad to be moving on.

“Every time we go by the school my kids say, ‘That’s where we used to live,” Fletcher said.

Fletcher, a first-time flood victim, still feels the strain from the disaster that left her and her family sleeping on cots, relying on friends, neighbors and complete strangers to get them through and help replace what the greedy waters washed away throughout the past six months – especially when it starts to rain.

“I get nervous when it rains more than one day. It all comes back and I start tearing up. I don’t want to go through that again,” Fletcher said.

Almost six months later, she is grateful for the support and generosity of so many people. An anonymous person donated enough money for her and her family to stay in a hotel for four nights after their stay at the shelter. Her oldest son’s school supplied the family with gift cards from local stores to help them rebuild when they finally came home Oct. 1.

Martin Stover also felt the love and support of community in the form of food and supplies, not only when he was stranded just offWindy Valley Roadby flood waters, but when he was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer just a month after he was reconnected with civilization.

The washed out roads and wiped away bridges left him and his family stranded after the torrential flooding in Forkston Twp., with people shuttling food and supplies across the rushing, brown Mehoopany Creek, riding mud-splattered all-terrain vehicles over metal beams to traverse the angry current.

After more than a month of living on “SurvivorIslandwith no option of being voted out,” as Stover described it, the metal bridge connecting his small community to the rest of Forkston was completed – but life didn’t go back to normal.

In November, Stover was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer, with doctors finding a one-inch tumor in his brain and the disease in his lungs. He’s grateful the bridge was up and running by November, allowing him to get diagnosed and undergo emergency surgery.

The past six months have also been a rough go for Joe and Betty Sturek in Hallstead. The flood cleanup left them exhausted mentally and physically. Aftermidnightrobbery in February at their home, the couple thinks it would be best to leave the house Sturek, 92, has spent more than the past 50 years in and move to a senior citizens center.

“I’m getting tired of it. We went through two of them (floods),” Sturek said. “I don’t want another one, I’m going on 93. It’s devastating.”

The garden where he grew all his own produce was wiped away, his backyard is now a swampy mass of unusable ground. The tools and machines he collected after years of carpentry work were destroyed, with many of his possessions thrown out after the flood turned the contents of his basement upside down.

In spite of an outpouring of support from their church, the Red Cross and neighbors and family, Sturek said the stress of dealing with the cleanup has taken its toll on her.

“It was one great big event and it doesn’t seem to go away,” said Sturek, 80. “Every time it rains it’s, ‘Oh Lord, not again’.”

The floods shifted their lives, temporarily uprooting some people from their homes, destroying others. But it makes Fletcher and her children grateful for the little things, like roughhousing in the living room.

Since his diagnosis – shuttling across the new bridge not for food, but chemotherapy and radiation – Stover married his wife, Trish, in January. He’s taken a continued interest in the post-flood process, following the battle with the Department of Environmental Protection to dredge the stream, which he thinks will help prevent future floods.

Stover has learned a lot from recent events, including to take tough times in stride with humor and faith.

“They’ll get better. The good Lord’s watching out for me,” he said.

The Stureks agree. Despite the bumpy ride the last six months have been, there’s one thing they don’t want – pity.

“I don’t want someone to feel sorry for me. What happened, happened,” Sturek said. “There’s people out there who lost everything.”