Post by Deed on Jul 15, 2006 4:35:02 GMT 10
This was posted on another board I belong to and I just knew you would all love it as well. This area is about 150 miles north of me.
www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--flooding-amishaid0713jul13,0,3444808.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork
Amish help businesses in flooded area
By JUSTIN MASON
Daily Gazette of Schenectady
July 13, 2006, 10:42 AM EDT
CANAJOHARIE, N.Y. -- Hazel Hyney had no idea when she'd be able to reopen the Village Restaurant after water from the surging Mohawk River swept through downtown in late June.
With more than two feet of fetid water washing through her main dining area and kitchen, Hyney faced the seemingly impossible job of cleaning up the diner she had purchased after working 32 years as a waitress.
"Everything was going to have to be destroyed," she said Wednesday.
But while she foraged through the ruins of her business, a familiar Amish man she knew only as Eli, from nearby Palatine Bridge, strolled in. Nearly a decade earlier, Hyney said, her daughter had helped out the man in some small way. Now, after seeing the catastrophic effect of the flood, Eli was there to return the favor.
Within hours, he and two other Amish men rebuilt Hyney's shelving and service bar. The next day, a group of Amish women arrived at the business, which was without electricity. They came with a kerosene-fueled heater and washed all of the restaurant's dishes by hand.
Just two weeks after the flood, Hyney is now almost ready to reopen her restaurant.
"Without them, I don't know what I would have done," she said. "I don't know how long it would have been before I could even consider opening."
Hyney wasn't the only small business owner in this flooded region between Utica and Albany to find a host of good Samaritans among the insular sect of farmers. Throughout Fort Plain and Canajoharie, droves of Amish people arrived by horse and buggy to give people a helping hand.
As the flood waters began to recede in Fort Plain, True Value Hardware store owner Floyd Kilmartin watched a steady procession of Amish people flow into some of the worst-hit areas of downtown. Kilmartin said entire families were making rounds throughout the village, trying to help out wherever they could. As one group of Amish took a break, he said, another would come in to work.
"They were here all day long trying to help us," he said. "They never complained about anything."
At the adjacent Big M Supermarket, owner Carmen Licari was faced with the daunting task of removing his stock of perishable meat and dairy products, which had been sitting in heat and dirty water for nearly five days. Dozens of Amish men arrived and offered to help.
"There must have been 30 of them one day, and probably close to that the next day. They did everything imaginable," Licari said.
The scene inside was almost unimaginable, Licari recalled. Food from the store's shelves was almost waist deep and rotting; a 72-foot dairy case had tipped over, spilling its souring contents. Then, the Amish came in.
"We didn't ask them, they just showed up," Licari recalled Wednesday. "One man did the work of three."
Teams of Amish people righted the mammoth dairy case, Licari said, while others steadily cleaned the spoiled food from the store. They worked amid a stench that was "beyond recognition," despite being offered masks, he recounted.
"They explained to me they didn't lose anything. I lost everything, and they wanted to help," he said.
Agway Farm and Feed Store owner Michael Cook was astounded by how fast the word of the flood devastation spread through the Amish community.
"The amazing thing is the Amish don't have telephones and, by word of mouth, they knew that the businesses in Fort Plain were in trouble," he said. "Businesses that they rely on."
More than six dozen Amish people helped him clean his business over a two-day period, he said, and many expressed a genuine desire to help amid deplorable conditions.
"It looked like a force march of horses and buggies coming to Fort Plain to these businesses to clean up," Cook said.
Despite all the praise, the Amish remain modest about their help. Some members of an Amish family living in Palatine briefly spoke of the work they did as they went about their evening chores Wednesday. But when an elder was asked to speak about his experience, he politely dismissed the conversation. "I don't think we'd really be interested in talking," he said, before returning to his farm work.
By JUSTIN MASON
Daily Gazette of Schenectady
July 13, 2006, 10:42 AM EDT
CANAJOHARIE, N.Y. -- Hazel Hyney had no idea when she'd be able to reopen the Village Restaurant after water from the surging Mohawk River swept through downtown in late June.
With more than two feet of fetid water washing through her main dining area and kitchen, Hyney faced the seemingly impossible job of cleaning up the diner she had purchased after working 32 years as a waitress.
"Everything was going to have to be destroyed," she said Wednesday.
But while she foraged through the ruins of her business, a familiar Amish man she knew only as Eli, from nearby Palatine Bridge, strolled in. Nearly a decade earlier, Hyney said, her daughter had helped out the man in some small way. Now, after seeing the catastrophic effect of the flood, Eli was there to return the favor.
Within hours, he and two other Amish men rebuilt Hyney's shelving and service bar. The next day, a group of Amish women arrived at the business, which was without electricity. They came with a kerosene-fueled heater and washed all of the restaurant's dishes by hand.
Just two weeks after the flood, Hyney is now almost ready to reopen her restaurant.
"Without them, I don't know what I would have done," she said. "I don't know how long it would have been before I could even consider opening."
Hyney wasn't the only small business owner in this flooded region between Utica and Albany to find a host of good Samaritans among the insular sect of farmers. Throughout Fort Plain and Canajoharie, droves of Amish people arrived by horse and buggy to give people a helping hand.
As the flood waters began to recede in Fort Plain, True Value Hardware store owner Floyd Kilmartin watched a steady procession of Amish people flow into some of the worst-hit areas of downtown. Kilmartin said entire families were making rounds throughout the village, trying to help out wherever they could. As one group of Amish took a break, he said, another would come in to work.
"They were here all day long trying to help us," he said. "They never complained about anything."
At the adjacent Big M Supermarket, owner Carmen Licari was faced with the daunting task of removing his stock of perishable meat and dairy products, which had been sitting in heat and dirty water for nearly five days. Dozens of Amish men arrived and offered to help.
"There must have been 30 of them one day, and probably close to that the next day. They did everything imaginable," Licari said.
The scene inside was almost unimaginable, Licari recalled. Food from the store's shelves was almost waist deep and rotting; a 72-foot dairy case had tipped over, spilling its souring contents. Then, the Amish came in.
"We didn't ask them, they just showed up," Licari recalled Wednesday. "One man did the work of three."
Teams of Amish people righted the mammoth dairy case, Licari said, while others steadily cleaned the spoiled food from the store. They worked amid a stench that was "beyond recognition," despite being offered masks, he recounted.
"They explained to me they didn't lose anything. I lost everything, and they wanted to help," he said.
Agway Farm and Feed Store owner Michael Cook was astounded by how fast the word of the flood devastation spread through the Amish community.
"The amazing thing is the Amish don't have telephones and, by word of mouth, they knew that the businesses in Fort Plain were in trouble," he said. "Businesses that they rely on."
More than six dozen Amish people helped him clean his business over a two-day period, he said, and many expressed a genuine desire to help amid deplorable conditions.
"It looked like a force march of horses and buggies coming to Fort Plain to these businesses to clean up," Cook said.
Despite all the praise, the Amish remain modest about their help. Some members of an Amish family living in Palatine briefly spoke of the work they did as they went about their evening chores Wednesday. But when an elder was asked to speak about his experience, he politely dismissed the conversation. "I don't think we'd really be interested in talking," he said, before returning to his farm work.
www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--flooding-amishaid0713jul13,0,3444808.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork
