This month, with the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina in the public’s consciousness, some student groups at Binghamton University have another — more local — natural disaster on their minds: the record-breaking flooding that hit the Southern Tier in late June.
At the time, the Binghamton University campus was instrumental in early recovery efforts — the Events Center was used as a shelter for 1,500 displaced area residents. Now, student groups are ready to continue the undertaking. According to Christina Gallus, co-president of the BU chapter of Habitat for Humanity, plans are underway to start helping those who are still homeless two months after the flooding.
It will not be the first time that Habitat for Humanity has helped in flood recovery. The group was an active component of last year’s fundraisers for Katrina victims by raising $5,000 on campus. In the wake of the more recent disaster, Gallus and Habitat are in the process of doing similar work for Broome County’s flood victims.
According to the National Agriculture Statistics Service, parts of the Susquehanna River basin were 14.03 feet above flood-stage crests — almost four feet more than the next-highest recorded levels, in 1914.
Though it is still early in the school year, and Habitat is still getting organized, the BU Habitat for Humanity’s 600 Binghamton University student volunteers plan to work closely with their Broome County sister organization. According to Gallus, they plan to “go out on Saturdays to clean up homes and gut out houses that were badly damaged by flooding.”
Although the BU campus itself wasn’t damaged by floodwaters, one of the biggest charity events aimed at helping flood victims will take place here: the 24th annual CHOW Walk, which focuses on filling pantries in the area with food to feed Broome County’s hungry, takes place Oct. 15. CHOW — which stands for Community Hunger Outreach Warehouse and which is facilitated through the Broome County Council of Churches — is focusing this year’s walk on flood relief as well as hunger.
“It could be another year and a half to two years before people are completely recovered,” said CHOW director Deacon Edward Blaine. He emphasied that it could take even more time for the recovery of the town of Conklin, which saw Broome County’s most rampant destruction in the flood.
But he said that local community members and agencies are coming together to help get people back on their feet. And as Mary Beth Willis, a BU Off Campus College staff member who is organizing the walk, pointed out, hunger and disaster often go hand-in-hand, so a walk for flood victims and relief this year is also a walk for hunger.