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General News: Irene Leaves Cornwall Family Homeless
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| Betty Jo and Rich Mann with their son, Dustin. |
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| Rich says his Explorer that was parked outside the barn was completely destroyed and sent to the junkyard. |
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| Rich stands next to his Mustang, which was completely submerged on Sunday. |
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| Rich's cousin points to how high the water rose at the back door. |
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| The living room, where the sofas were soaked and electronic equipment destroyed. |
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| The refrigerator was knocked on its side by the flood waters, which were four-feet deep inside the house. |
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| Water is still being pumped out of the basement of the house. |
August 30, 2011
People throughout the region are cleaning out from the devastation caused by Tropical Storm Irene but the experience of one Cornwall family stands out.
It was about 6 am Sunday morning when a transformer blew and knocked out power to the home of the Mann family on the corner of Taylor and Otterkill Roads. Their sump pump stopped working and an hour later a chunk of Otterkill Road broke loose, sending the churning flood waters of the Moodna creek rushing straight toward their house.
The family’s mother, Betty Jo, grabbed a few clothes while her husband, Rich, tied their boat and four-wheeler to a tree. Rich took some papers in a lock box, his hunting guns and bows, then they piled their five children into a Ford pick-up and hit the road. When they returned home five hours later, they found their house submerged in four feet of water, the boat, the four-wheeler and a large propane tank nowhere in sight.
Vehicles Destroyed, Interior Ransacked
On Tuesday morning, after spending two nights with a relative in Wurtsboro, the family struggled to salvage a few items from their home. A Ford Explorer that had been left in the yard was inoperable and Rich had just removed it to the junkyard. Inside his Ford Mustang, water damage had destroyed the interior up to the car’s roof. None of the cars were insured.
Inside the small white house where the Manns have lived for nearly four years, mud caked the floor boards. Water bubbled underfoot on a formerly white carpet and dribbled out of the speakers of a wide-screen TV. In the kitchen, the refrigerator lay on its side where it had been pushed by the force of the waters that had swirled through. Furniture had been knocked over throughout the house and two large sofas were soaked through. Rich said that much of the water was contaminated and even if items dried out they were useless.
Outside under a tree, 10-year-old Dustin cried as he described how the property looked like a lake when they first returned home. He lost his toys and his clothes just days before he is supposed to enter Cornwall Central Middle School as a fifth-grader. Fighting back tears himself, his father said what the family really needs is a place to stay. They rent the house on Taylor Road and would like to be settled before Dustin and his brothers TJ, 17, and Hunter, 5, go back to school. A fourth son, Richie, who graduated from Cornwall Central High School this past June, and three-year-old Deanna, make up the rest of the Mann family that is now homeless.
Donations for the Family Accepted at Town Hall
Earlier in the day Betty Jo Mann had been in touch with officials in the town of Cornwall, including the town clerk's office and emergency management coordinator Kurt Hahn, who advised them to find temporary shelter at the Taft Elementary School in Washingtonville, where the Red Cross is providing services.
Meanwhile, donations of clothes and school supplies for the Mann family are being accepted at Cornwall Town Hall (no money, please). Items may be dropped off in the second-floor conference room, next the to clerk’s office.
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