By Rod Hansen
Staff Writer

Sonny Avenue residents Mark and Lisa Larochelle discuss flood relief efforts with U.S. Rep. Jeb Bradley during the congressman’s recent visit to Goffstown. (The Goffstwon News/Rod Hansen)

Disaster relief is available, but homeowners must take the first step and apply for it.

That was one of the main messages conveyed when U.S. Rep. Jeb Bradley (R-NH) toured areas damaged in the May floods with a delegation of representatives from FEMA and Goffstown officials on Monday, June 5.

“The most important thing initially is for people to get registered,” said Ken Clark, a federal coordinating officer with FEMA. That agency has received more than 600 applications for disaster aid, and approved $536,916 in relief money for Hillsborough County following the May floods, Clark said.

Residents affected by the flooding are eligible for federal relief money because President Bush declared the event a federal disaster in six New Hampshire counties, including local Hillsborough County.

Property owners seeking flood assistance must first register at 1-800-621-FEMA (3362) to receive aid, Clark said. Inspectors will then come to a caller’s house to survey the damages, he said.

Clark spoke at a question-and-answer session at the police station attended by several town officials, including Police Chief Michael French, Town Administrator Sue Desruisseaux, Fire Chief Frank Carpentino, Fire Lt. Bill Connor, Superintendent of Schools Darrell Lockwood, Director of Public Works Carl Quiram, along with Bradley, FEMA officials, and representatives from the state’s congressional delegation.

Following the meeting at the police station, a caravan of about a dozen cars left at 10:30 a.m., to tour the damaged areas.

Among those areas was the Lynchville/Danis Park neighborhood on the Piscataquog River, which experienced approximately 70 home evacuations in the flooding, and the washed-out Pollard Road Bridge.

In touring the Lynchville/Danis Park neighborhood, Bradley stopped to talk with some residents who were hit by the flooding.

Two of the homeowners Bradley spoke with in the area offered widely different accounts of their damage.

Marc and Lisa Larochelle, who live on Sonny Avenue in the neighborhood, expressed gratitude to police and public works employees, as well as the Red Cross, for providing aid during the worst of the flooding.

Marc Larochelle said they made some safety changes to their home the year they moved into the house, which coincided with the 1986 floods. These improvements may have lessened damages sustained in this flood, he said.

Also, the family was able to move electronics, paperwork and other vulnerable items to the second floor of their home before the flood waters crept in, Lisa said.

”I count myself fortunate,” said Marc Larochelle, whose home is one of the few in the neighborhood with a green sticker to signify the house is safe to live in again.

Resident Judy Puglisi, who lives only a few doors down from the Larochelle home on Sonny Avenue, tells a more woeful story.

“We’ve lost everything,” Puglisi said, noting that there was 4 feet of water in her three-bedroom house at the height of the flood.

She said members of her family only took two changes of clothing after evacuating their home, and the waters destroyed almost everything they owned.

She said the family also had to pay $700 to rent a trash container, now that the containers previously available to the neighborhood have been removed.

“Nobody’s finished cleaning, but all of a sudden the Dumpsters just disappear,” Puglisi said.

At an earlier selectmen’s meeting, members of that board voted to remove the trash containers by May 30.

Before the delegation moved on, Bradley returned to tell Puglisi he’d learned FEMA would likely see that Puglisi would get reimbursed for the cost of renting the trash container.

Officials also visited the Pollard Road Bridge. Black Brook destroyed that bridge during the May floods, rendering the road impassable. Residents now use East Dunbarton Road to access their homes, said Goffstown police Detective Kevin Laroche.

Members of the FEMA delegation spoke about statewide efforts to help victims of the flooding.

According to information provided by FEMA, the rains of May have been declared a federal disaster in Belknap, Carol, Hillsborough, Merrimack, Rockingham and Stafford counties.

Arthur Cleaves, regional director for FEMA, expressed appreciation that the president acted quickly in declaring the New Hampshire floods a federal disaster.

“The quick action the president took in making a disaster declaration for this area is a good indication of how heavily impacted the residents were and we at FEMA will do all we can to help these residents get started toward recovery,” he said in a statement.

The disaster recovery center for Hillsborough County is located at Southern NH Services, 161 Silver St. in Manchester.

For further information, visit, www.fema.gov. Also see Page A-7 of The Goffstown News for more flood-related information.