Flooded Confluence Families Seek Aid as Federal Help Falls Short
A week after the flood, Confluence-area families are still seeking help. With no federal disaster declaration, aid is coming from the SBA, the CFA and neighbors.
A week after the flood, many families in and around Confluence are still bailing out, and still looking for help to cover what the water took.
Residents along the Casselman River, Laurel Hill Creek and the Youghiogheny were among the hardest hit by Tuesday’s early morming rain. But county officials say the damage, as widespread as it is, does not reach the roughly $24 million threshold that would trigger federal disaster aid, and no state emergency has been declared. That leaves a lot of people covering the cost on their own.
The damage is real, and it is personal. Homes across the area were hit hard, basements filled and belongings ruined. Confluence residents Diane and Jay Basinger watched floodwater move their shed clear across the backyard. Multiply that by street after street, and you start to see the scale of it.
County emergency management coordinator Harvey Wetzler says officials have been assessing the damage since midweek. Even without a federal declaration, he points to avenues for help, including the U.S. Small Business Administration and the Community Foundation for the Alleghenies, which runs the Somerset County Disaster Recovery Fund.
For immediate needs, the help is coming from neighbors and nonprofits. Local churches, the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army are the ones on the ground right now. The community church in Ursina has been handing out clean drinking water and cleanup kits.
“Not giving up” is how one account put it, and that sounds about right for around here. The Youghiogheny rose about nine feet in seven hours and crested past twelve. It will take a lot longer than that to put things back. Confluence will, though, the way it always does, one basement and one neighbor at a time.