One Week Later: Recovery efforts continue in the Town of Canisteo after damaging floods

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — It’s been one week since streets in the Town of Canisteo suffered major damage after intense flooding. A majority of those streets remain closed. News 8 revisited the area Friday.

“There’s so many more people involved this time, and the damage was much more extensive this time,” Mary Grose said.

One week ago, a portion of the Town of Canisteo heard roaring floods and residents saw homes and tractors swept away. Now what’s heard on those streets is the continuation of cleanup efforts.

Many professional businesses assessing the damage. Many residents taking it upon themselves to clean their own properties.

Mary Grose says the town is no stranger to floods and says her nearby Arkport property has seen three.

“My husband and I decided in 2021 we weren’t going to go through that again. So, we were in the process of going to put a double wide on that property, and by the grace of God, we didn’t. And two weeks after, we had looked at two that we were trying to decide on, the flood hit,” Grose told News 8.

Stationed at the town’s high school this week was a flood relief resource event. Those impacted by the damage had the opportunity to sit down with representatives from local agencies to see how much funding assistance they are eligible for.

Grose said she came to see if she can get help getting dumpsters. Sot: 5:45

“I still have property, and it needs to be taken care of. That is not something I want to leave for my kids to have to take care of, and I’m hoping that I will get some help,” Grose said.

Governor Hochul went to Canisteo this past Sunday to announce state grants of up to $50,000 available to homeowners to help them get back on their feet.

Mary and many other residents said they don’t feel that’s not enough and want to see structural changes so when floods happen, they don’t leave this big of a mess behind.

“Hopefully this time will be different. This time the state will step up, the government will step up, and they need to get some people to find out why this is happening, because it’s not the first time three times or two times in less than three years. It’s not acceptable. They need to find out what’s going on with those rivers and why they’re backing up into that area,” Grose said. “They need help, and they need to start doing it now, not later, not another flood later.”

The Steuben County Office of Emergency Management is set to host another relief event for flood victims Monday in the Town of Bath at 1 p.m. at the Steuben County Civil Defense Center on State Route 54.

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