ERIE COUNTY, N.Y. — Duane Kelly's neighborhood in the Town of Evans backs right up to Big Sister Creek.
His backyard has flooded several times over the 16 years he's lived in his home, but Thursday's ice jam was a bit more than he and his neighbors bargained for.
"This is a little more extreme. It's probably been five to seven years since the last time it's been this high," Kelly said.
It's a domino effect: warm weather and rain cause frozen creeks to break up and push huge chunks of ice and debris downstream. At bends and chokepoints that ice can build up, prevent water from flowing, and eventually lead to flooding.
"This is pretty much go with the flow. There's not much stopping it with being so close to the lake the ice damning; there is not much effort to break it up secondarily," said Kelly.
Kelly and his next-door neighbors, the Grassos, counted themselves lucky because only their backyards were flooded. Some of their other neighbors on Bennett Road weren't as fortunate.
"I don't know how they're going to get out of their yard because I don't see this water going down anytime soon," Rachel Grasso said. "They need to do something with the ice jam."
"I don't know what they're going to do to get out of their driveways and stuff," her daughter, Raeann, added.
Rachel's husband, Russ Grasso, went to lend a hand to a neighbor down the street, whose sump pump was fortunately working.
The Latimore-Schiavone Funeral Home was not as lucky. A berm at the back of their property started failing and water flooded from Big Sister Creek into a grassy drainage area.
Guy Canonico Jr., the Town of Evans Disaster Coordinator, said sandbags from the State Office of Emergency Management stockpile and water pumps were brought in to try and fight the tide.
"It's not the best type of situation to deal with the thaw and freeze, but it shouldn't be something they can't handle. We've been down this road a few times," Canonico Jr. said.
Roads that remained impassable in the Town of Evans as of midnight included
Route 5 from Sturgeon Point Road to Beach Road. A portion of Bennett Road to Route 5 also was flooded out.
Evans Town Supervisor Mary Hosler, who was out inspecting the damage on North Main Street on Thursday night, said the next concern will be treating these flooded areas so they don't completely freeze.
The keyword: Salt.
"And then we just wait for it [the water] to go down. I know we have sandbags for some of the residents that are really close to flooding," Hosler said.
She added that the New York State Department of Transportation will be out pre-salting along Route 5 and other parts of the town to make sure Friday's commute isn't slick, although that may be inevitable in some spots.
If sandbags or other help is needed Hosler said neighbors should call the Town of Evans non-emergency line at (716) 549-3600.
