North Fork Fire Departments Provide Aid to Flooded Areas Upstate

Members of the  sent a pumper truck and a support vehicle on Saturday to assist fire departments in Broome County, N.Y. that were hard-hit after rains from Tropical Storm Lee and Tropical Storm Irene dumped enough rain to flood areas near the Susquehanna River.

Volunteers from the Orient Fire Department are stationed at a fire department in Vestal, N.Y, which is close to Binghamton. Orient Fire Chief Joe Wysocki said the department originally sent up five department members with the two trucks. In addition, sent three members to help Orient send a full crew.

“Their mission is to assist with fire operations,” Wysocki said.

Wysocki said the department is on a 72-hour deployment that will end on Tuesday.

“The flooding up here is unreal,” said Fireman Arthur Ruroede.

Ruroede was part of the relief team that went up on Sunday to replace the original crew that went on Saturday. He said the firehouse they are stationed at has been without power for more than a week and also has flooding in the basement.

He described the damage in the area as “unbelievable” and said the flooding from the Susquehanna River was 20-feet deep in some places, forcing the closure of many of the local roads. According to Ruroede, many residents have their belongings on their lawns after their houses were flooded.

“A lot of the places up here are totally devastated by the flooding,” Ruroede said.

Due to the severity of the flooding, the Suffolk County Department of Fire and Rescue Emergency Services and the New York State Office of Fire Prevention and Control sent out a mutual aid call to help firefighters in the affected areas, and Orient was one of the departments to answer the call.

Trucks from Jamesport, Huntington and Huntington Manor fire departments also responded to the call.