(EDITOR'S NOTE: One year ago, areas of Lycoming County were devastated by flooding spawned by Tropical Storm Lee. Sun-Gazette reporters and photographers recently revisited the flooded areas to see how far Lee's victims have come since then.)
"It came up so fast," recalled Al Smith, volunteer disaster coordinator for the local Red Cross chapter.
"It came into areas not flooded before with that severity," he said.
Article Photos
MARK NANCE/Sun-Gazette
The Loyalsock Creek is shown here in its normal levels as it enters the Susquehanna River at Montoursville.
"The Loyalsock Creek area had a 500-year flood," he said. "It was a tremendous amount of damage."
The Red Cross is the organization most people look to immediately in the face of disaster, big or small, and it is there with short-term relief efforts.
"The mission of the Red Cross, not just locally but nationally, is to help people get shelter and food and clothing for their immediate needs," Smith said. "Red Cross primarily helps a few days to a week to get settled (and then) other agencies come in to assist."
The Red Cross set up multiple shelters, with a major one in Barbours, a community shelter at Our Lady of Lourdes in Montoursville and several other smaller shelters to help displaced people.
"We immediately used our own resources we had stored from previous occasions to prepare us for this particular event," Smith said.
Those supplies included cots for shelters, as well as emergency, food and medical supplies.
Once shelters were established, others stepped in to keep them open for as long as needed.
"Groups ran shelters weeks to a month," Smith recalled, while the Red Cross looked ahead to its next mission.
"We prepare for the next event that could happen."
