(no subject)
This past weekend I went up to Frost Valley and helped clean up Biscuit Creek and the Neversink River. Driving there was interesting. My normal route is completely gone...there's a 52ft wide crevice in the road now. The towns I would drive through on Rt 28 are mostly washed out and condemned. So instead I got to add an additional 1.5 hours onto my drive and got to drive on closed roads filled with boulders, no pavement, machinery, and no barriers. Regardless, I made it to Frost Valley.
Saturday was a lot of work, a LOT of work. The entire day was spent in the rivers pulling out walls, ceilings, shower stalls, toilets, tiles, shingle, blankets, carpeting, mattresses, bunk beds, etc. An entire 40 person lodge was washed into the rivers and the debris traveled for miles. 14 people volunteered to clean up the rivers...it was sad and awesome all at the same time. Frost Valley was hoping to get between 30 and 40 volunteers, but the 14 of us worked for 10 hours straight and did everything that man's hands can do. We all worked together...all people who held Frost Valley extremely close to our hearts, as one man said "Frost Valley is in my blood".
From my family me, my brother, my cousin Lisa, and her boyfriend were there. We were waist deep in water and loving it. Lisa fell backwards once and totally submerged herself. Craig fell foward once onto a pile of rocks. I was walking in about knee deep water and then totally sunk into some silt all the way up to my waist. I also slid down a mountain of rocks and skinned up both my knees. These were the only casualties of the weekend.
Jay kept Colton and Daphne for the entire weekend! I wrote him out a 4 page outline of food to eat and when, daily routine, naptime and bedtime routine, medicine dosages, important phone numbers, and tips. He had them all day Friday, Saturday, and most of Sunday. Apparently the weekend went really well for him. He even took the kids out! They went to the bank on Friday, out to dinner just the 3 of them on Saturday, and he took them to a 6am work meeting at the Depot on Sunday. He's proved that he can do this dad thing.
The remains of Pigeon Lodge. This is the building we worked on all weekend...or what's left of the building.
Part of a bunk bed that was pulled out of the river. That's one of the volunteers named Tom, been coming to Frost Valley since he was 10.
Group shot of Frost Valley volunteers. About 5 miles down the river we found half of the building all washed up into a big pile...we're sitting on it.
Family shot in the debris. You can see that my shorts were soaked up to mid-thigh at that point.
The 52ft wide crevice on Rt. 47. You can see a tiny part of the yellow line on that big rock in the middle. Locals who live on 47 are parking cars on either side of the crevice, hiking down to the bottom, crossing a one log and rope bridge, and then hiking back up to cars on the other side. People are sharing cars and the team work is amazing.
Group shot at the crevice
According to the CEO of Frost Valley, Frost Valley still needs major donations. They have $1,000,000 in damages and $320,000 in lost revenue. They've currently raised $350,000 in donations...and $100,000 of that is from people posting all over facebook again and again and again. Insurance won't cover any of it and FEMA isn't giving them any money either. Apparently FEMA will offer them a low interest loan, but no actual relief funds. Frost Valley is trying to fight this since they are a non-profit organization. If you have anything to spare, please donate: http://frostvalley.kintera.org/faf/home/default.asp?ievent=994279&lis=1&kntae994279=E91F5224E7CB4CA8958D5BDD254D2E88
Oh and Jerry, the CEO, he was was right there with us working in waist deep water. We all got our hands and faces dirty, our clothing soaked, and had pizza and beer together in the castle.
As always, more pictures on facebook. Although not a ton since we didn't have our camera with us while working. Someone on staff was walking around taking pictures, but those have yet to surface. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150300512684261.352524.638469260&l=dd710d1248&type=1
Saturday was a lot of work, a LOT of work. The entire day was spent in the rivers pulling out walls, ceilings, shower stalls, toilets, tiles, shingle, blankets, carpeting, mattresses, bunk beds, etc. An entire 40 person lodge was washed into the rivers and the debris traveled for miles. 14 people volunteered to clean up the rivers...it was sad and awesome all at the same time. Frost Valley was hoping to get between 30 and 40 volunteers, but the 14 of us worked for 10 hours straight and did everything that man's hands can do. We all worked together...all people who held Frost Valley extremely close to our hearts, as one man said "Frost Valley is in my blood".
From my family me, my brother, my cousin Lisa, and her boyfriend were there. We were waist deep in water and loving it. Lisa fell backwards once and totally submerged herself. Craig fell foward once onto a pile of rocks. I was walking in about knee deep water and then totally sunk into some silt all the way up to my waist. I also slid down a mountain of rocks and skinned up both my knees. These were the only casualties of the weekend.
Jay kept Colton and Daphne for the entire weekend! I wrote him out a 4 page outline of food to eat and when, daily routine, naptime and bedtime routine, medicine dosages, important phone numbers, and tips. He had them all day Friday, Saturday, and most of Sunday. Apparently the weekend went really well for him. He even took the kids out! They went to the bank on Friday, out to dinner just the 3 of them on Saturday, and he took them to a 6am work meeting at the Depot on Sunday. He's proved that he can do this dad thing.
The remains of Pigeon Lodge. This is the building we worked on all weekend...or what's left of the building.
Part of a bunk bed that was pulled out of the river. That's one of the volunteers named Tom, been coming to Frost Valley since he was 10.
Group shot of Frost Valley volunteers. About 5 miles down the river we found half of the building all washed up into a big pile...we're sitting on it.
Family shot in the debris. You can see that my shorts were soaked up to mid-thigh at that point.
The 52ft wide crevice on Rt. 47. You can see a tiny part of the yellow line on that big rock in the middle. Locals who live on 47 are parking cars on either side of the crevice, hiking down to the bottom, crossing a one log and rope bridge, and then hiking back up to cars on the other side. People are sharing cars and the team work is amazing.
Group shot at the crevice
According to the CEO of Frost Valley, Frost Valley still needs major donations. They have $1,000,000 in damages and $320,000 in lost revenue. They've currently raised $350,000 in donations...and $100,000 of that is from people posting all over facebook again and again and again. Insurance won't cover any of it and FEMA isn't giving them any money either. Apparently FEMA will offer them a low interest loan, but no actual relief funds. Frost Valley is trying to fight this since they are a non-profit organization. If you have anything to spare, please donate: http://frostvalley.kintera.org/faf/home/default.asp?ievent=994279&lis=1&kntae994279=E91F5224E7CB4CA8958D5BDD254D2E88
Oh and Jerry, the CEO, he was was right there with us working in waist deep water. We all got our hands and faces dirty, our clothing soaked, and had pizza and beer together in the castle.
As always, more pictures on facebook. Although not a ton since we didn't have our camera with us while working. Someone on staff was walking around taking pictures, but those have yet to surface. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150300512684261.352524.638469260&l=dd710d1248&type=1