The scene along Church Street in McGraw.
/ Courtesy: Brandon Lawrence
MCGRAW -- Residents in McGraw spent the day cleaning up after record rainfall that turned small creeks into raging waters and left many basements underwater.
On Elm Street, what was once Lisa and Nick Mostert's dream backyard was now a mass of mud and fallen trees. Nick Mostert could not believe how much damage there was from the normally quiet stream in his backyard. "It's kind of overwhelming you don't know where to start. There is just garbage debris dirt you don't know where to start," he says.
The floods left many basements underwater and residents like Tim Casterlilne spent the night trying to pump them out. "It was going right in the basement faster than we could pump it out. It was five feet deep in the basement," he says.
In the center of town flood waters destroyed most of the foundation of an abandoned building off Main Street. Linda Conkrite used to work at the building and she doubts it can be saved. " It was leaning before this damage, there is no doubt they will have to take it down," she says.
While the flood waters may now be gone, the clean up will take some time. Lisa Mostert can only look at her once beautiful backyard and wonder what happened, "There were lilac bushes on the other side of those pines. Now it is just mud," she says.
Earlier CNYCentral coverage of this story:
In McGraw, people are assessing the damage after Thursday's fierce rain storm.Many homes suffered water damage to their basements. Three tributaries were built up after the heavy rains. These all lead to the Tioughnioga River. Cortland Emergency Management officials are keeping an eye on the river and expect it to crest sometime tonight. They say normal flood stage is eight feet, and it's already up to eleven feet right now.
By 6:00 p.m. the river is expected to rise another foot and a half. Officials are warning those in Marathon to prepare for further flooding.
A vacant building on main street in McGraw may have to be torn down as part of the foundation was washed away.
The bridge behind the McGraw paper building was also destroyed.
Cortland Emergency Management tells CNY Central that things got busy starting at 4:00 p.m. Thursday and lasted until 10:00 p.m. as the heavy rain came up from the south.
Some places with a basement required water to be pumped out.
There was also a gas main break in Polkeville. The gas company was able to fix the line. No evacuations were required.
The Route 11 bridge is still out in Polkeville and Marathon.
