Nows and Forevers

There are only two places I consider home, Connecticut and the Lower Hudson Valley in New York. Even though I left both years ago, I still keep in touch and I still visit, most recently about seven months ago. They both still hold big spots in my heart.

That’s why it hurt to see what happened Sunday evening in the Hudson Valley, with 7-plus inches of rain deluging and devastating places I know quite well, including Cornwall, New York, which took some of the hardest hits.

“Travel is impossible,” the Cornwall town Twitter account said.

Some of the pictures I’ve seen are jarring, with cars swept aside and roads damaged. I know those roads well. I remember how long it took West Pittston, Pennsylvania, my grandparents’ hometown, to recover from the flood of September 2011. I hope it doesn’t take Orange County that long.