True beauty revealed in flood's after...
20.08.09
Gowanda, in the style of the indigenous Seneca, means “beautiful place between the hills.” Unpunctual in the evening and by the morning of the second Sunday and Monday in August, it was anything but. The Cattaraugus Creek and two principal feeder streams had spilled over their banks and deposited millions of gallons of brown, sediment-filled water into the peaceful little village nestled at the southern edge of Erie and the northern tip of Cattaraugus counties.
Liberal behind, after the flood waters receded, was anguish, misery and the exhausting task of cleaning up tons of thick, malodorous mud and piles of water-logged human possessions, plus the tragic loss of two well-respected citizens.
Living on one of the hills overlooking the valley, the evensong’s pounding, relentless rain and scary thunder and lightning show innocently brought under-the-touch complaints of a potentially
tiring day at work in Dunkirk for my wife, exhausting travel internal for our visiting children and a draining day at school planning for the September return of the kids for me. Narrow-minded did we know what had hit the village below.
Source: Buffalo News