Neighbors Help Neighbors In Newfane

(Host) It's been said there's always a little bit of heaven in a disaster area, and that's been true, even in some of the areas hardest hit by Tropical Storm Irene.

VPR's Susan Keese lives in one such area: the village of South Newfane, where the Rock River now runs where the road used to be.

(Keese) My own personal piece of heaven came in the form of a hot shower at a neighbor's and a potluck supper at the Grange Hall in Williamsville.

(Sounds of a potluck dinner.)

(Keese) That's our neighboring village, where they've got power. They've vowed to keep the potlucks up until they're no longer needed, which could be a long time.

Neighbors streamed in with covered dishes, garden veggies and offers of help. Our own house, on Parish Hill, didn't see any real damage. But our power and telephone are tied into the Dover Road below us which was turned to rubble by the river. And Newfane has never had much cell service.

Three or four neighbors came forward to offer a place where I could file my stories for VPR.

(Woman) "And even if I'm not there, Susan, you just go inside. Dan was able to get in.

(Keese) Town officials were on hand with muddy boots, giving and gathering information - where to find a generator, where to get water.

A woman asks about power.

(Woman) "Okay, Dennis has information on that."

(Dennis) "Okay, I spoke to CVPS this morning."

(Keese)That's Dennis Wiswall, the Newfane Selectboard chairman. He says the power and phone companies are hoping to bring in temporary lines and poles to get to areas like ours.

But before they can do that, they need roads, and bridges they can cross with their repair trucks.

(Wiswall) "Right now it's all in the planning stages. All they could tell me was that it's not going to be this week for sure."

(Keese) Wiswall said officials from Fema were planning to visit Wednesday. I set out to join them, Scrambling over broken asphalt and downed trees  on the devastated road below our house.

When I reached the work site, Wiswall tells me  FEMA called to say they weren't coming today.

(Wiswall) "They basically said they were overwhelmed and just couldn't get here today. We decided this morning to just proceed and we'll work it out with FEMA afterwards."

(Keese) Town officials were there, working with a hired contractor. They'd just removed the upper story of a house from the roadway and cut a road-sized passage through a dam of fallen pines.

Beyond that there's a cliff, where the asphalt stops. Staring at the raging river below they debated where to put the new temporary sand road, now that the rock River has claimed the old one..

(Wiswall) "So hopefully we'll be able to get something - that people can get in and get to their home if they've still got a home, or at least get their stuff out of their home if their home has been destroyed."

Wiswall says some people are still stranded. He says a woman farther up the road has lost not only her home, but the land beneath it.

(Wiswall) "Her spirits were remarkable considering what she'd just gone through."

Other neighbors are staying upbeat as well. They're talking about items found, the help that just shows up, the miracles that offset the tragedies.

For VPR News, I'm Susan Keese.