Six Months

The actual Tropical Storm Lee flood lasted only a couple days.  It was six months ago, and we'll feel the effects for years.

There is one place where the recovery is moving along nicely.  Below is a photo of Holy Rosary school and church I took in September of last year.  Stephenson Street, and the rest of the neighborhood was a mess because the Lackawanna River spilled over its banks.

The sidewalk was covered with items ruined by the flooding.  Volunteers and clean up crews were saving what they could.

As for the school itself, it needed a lot of work to get it back to normal, and it would take time.  The Diocese of Scranton moved the 280 students into the old Saint Mary's School in Avoca, just a few miles away.

Yesterday, the clean up was officially complete.

I took the photo you see above about 8 AM yesterday.  Some parents brought their children to school, in Duryea, for the first time in six months.  School buses brought the rest.

I had a chance to look around inside the building.  The basement cafeteria and a classroom were re-done, and they look great.  Upstairs areas looked the way they did before the flood, and everyone seemed happy.

The flood cleanup is taking longer in other parts of our area, and I realize that not everyone has the resources of the Catholic Diocese of Scranton.  There is a long and difficult road ahead.