From Conklin to Binghamton, Vestal to Apalachin, Owego to Athens, Pa., tens of thousands of residents in the Binghamton-Elmira-Ithaca area had to come to grips with the damage caused by a second catastrophic flood in five years. 

Businesses on Conklin Avenue teetered for a second time since 2006. Homeowners from Binghamton’s First Ward to Vestal’s Twin Orchards wondered if they had the money and energy to rebuild. And they all waited on FEMA. Only one life was lost — an elderly woman in Wysox, Pa., — but basic assumptions about safety and life in our region were severely compromised. And decisions loomed at every address: Stay or go? Months after the historic Flood of 2011, our region had soldiered on, most determined to rebuild and not be deterred by nature’s wrath.