NEW:Millwood and Chappaqua trucks convoy north with 60,000 pounds of goods for Upstate flood victims
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Monday, September 12, 2011
by Christine Yeres
An outpouring of concern for Upstate New Yorkers ruined by Hurricane Irene manifested itself in a steady stream last Friday and Saturday of household goods, food, clothing, and school supplies to collection points at the Millwood Fire Station #1 and the farmers market at the train station in downtown Chappaqua.
“We collected 30,000 pounds of goods,” said Millwood Fire Chief Michael T. Horan. “I think it was memories of 9-11 and what everybody did that day that tugged at people’s hearts.”
Eight vehicles from fire companies in Millwood, Chappaqua, Sleepy Hollow, Pocantico Hills, and Archville (Scarborough) left with their loads totaling 60,000 pounds on Sunday morning around 10:00 a.m. They traveled in a convoy north to Prattsville in the Catskills (See CNN video from Huffington Post, “Prattsville, New York Underwater from Irene Flooding.”), west of Windham. It was a scene of utter devastation, vast tracts with only foundations of houses remaining, and those were filled with rock and mud.
“I saw a video that showed what looked like a big lake with rooftops sticking out of it,” said a Chappaqua firefighter manning the collection point at the farmers market at the Chappaqua Train Station. People brought all kinds of things—“What do people need?” asked one woman who had come to the market but was ready to go home for supplies. A firefighter answered, “Put your thinking cap on. If you lost everything, what would you need?” She came back with a huge bag of toothpaste, mouthwash, shampoo and soap. Another delivered a giant bag of brand new children’s clothing from TJ Maxx. Someone thought to bring tools—a shovel, pick axe and sledge hammer. Another brought a whole box of new composition notebooks.
“During Irene, ten times a day News 12 showed the parkways closed,” said Horan, “but they don’t show you people two hours north that are completely wiped out. The people up there had cleaned out a building where they were serving breakfast for everyone working to dig out the town. They’ve had to bring in a trailer for people to shower.”
The relief effort started, said Horan, with a call from Chief Joe Mahood of Pocantico asking Millwood’s Chief Jorge Rodrigues “if we could pick up a truck of supplies and help them. Then George call me and I said let’s just open up a center here. So I called Lt. Dan Cannon and he put out a Nixle alert from the New Castle PD, Chappaqua Fire offered another collection point at the Chappaqua Farmers Market and people just gave and gave.”
What people saw up in Prattsville on Sunday was complete destruction, said Horan. “One hundred cars were washed into a river, you couldn’t tell whose car was whose. The river came right through the town. They condemned 34 houses right in town. A 200 year old church was destroyed. They’ve go gigantic dump trucks driving around just piling up garbage in fields. It brought us all back to 9-11, especially the older guys.”
“A lot of firefighters have been out of their houses for three weeks straight now, because of Irene, but firefighters returned today from Prattsvile feeling they would get in their cars and go back up right now,” said Horan, “the need for manpower is so great.”
Millwood
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I so appreciate our police and fire departments for giving us an opportunity to help our upstate neighbors.
I had just cleaned out our closets to get ready for fall, and I was so happy the clothing would go directly to children who may have lost everything.
Thank you!
What a great idea. We, too, had cleaned out closets and were very glad to give clothing, shoes and toiletries to folks who would put it to good use.
Thanks for doing this-there’s no way any of us alone would have been able to help to that extent.
