Remembering the 2006 Otsego County, New York Floods

The great floods of June 2006 will always be a memory for me. Though I nor my family had any damage to life, limb, or home, it'll always stick in my mind. I'd never seen anything like it before or since.

At the time, I was working in an office in Oneonta. It was on Main Street, past the post office and near the former Friendly's. I remember the rain coming coming down in sheets, but the thought of flooding never entered my mind. To my knowledge, floods in the region were not unheard of, but uncommon.

Soon, alerts and reports of flooding began to emerge, and the office was dismissed early. At the time, I was living in Worcester, New York, which is about 25 minutes east of Oneonta, give or take. This was right before smart phones and widespread GPS. I was essentially navigating my way home blindly, with only a phone that made and received calls.

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Along the way I was detoured. I don't recall if I was on I-88 or Route 7, but I do remember the flood waters being in the way of my commute. The detour routed me into the woods and hills where the water was surging, buckets were cascading all around me. At one point, I reached what looked like a raging river and stopped. In my head I heard "turn around, don't drown". Considering that this was a narrow back road that wasn't an option.

I called home, panicked and lost in the back country. Was this my life now, Poseidon of the back woods? At home were seasoned country folk who called me a flatlander. They were no help. While on the phone, a Town of Worcester pick up truck came barreling down the way, and through my raging river - which turned out to be a puddle. Flatlander indeed.

I hurried home, and when I got to Worcester, the entire valley was under water. All that could be seen were the very rooftops of cars that got caught in the flood. There was damage in said valley, but no injuries or fatalities. Other areas weren't so lucky.

In a post this morning, the Otsego County Office of Emergency Services said: Biggest flood in the history of Otsego, Delaware & Chenango counties. Day two became deadly on Wednesday, June 28. Robert Stockwell of South New Berlin was killed when his pickup truck catapulted into a deep, washed-out culvert on Holmesville Hill Rd in the town of Norwich. Approximately an hour later, David Swingle of Waverly and Patrick O’Connell of Lisbon, Maine, were killed when their tractor trailers plunged into a 25-foot-deep chasm on I-88 in the town of Sidney. Otsego County Emergency Services Coordinator, Lyle “Butch” Jones is quoted as saying, “We’re torn to pieces in every area”.