JAY, N.Y. -
In Jay, New York, Tuesday there are still signs showing people how bad it was this time last year. Debris hangs in trees and man-made markers are scary reminders of last summer's storm.
Chad Garcia lives next to the Ausable River. He remembers last August 28th well.
"It was actually a pretty relaxed Sunday," said Garcia.
That all changed as Tropical Storm Irene hit New York. Then it just started raining harder and harder and the river kept coming up.
Garcia fled and when he returned the next day he couldn't believe his eyes.
"It was just a sinkhole, probably 25 feet wide and 4 feet deep," said Garcia.
Garcia has cleaned up, but he says help is still needed. To give him and others support a number of North Country organizations provided information in the Jay Community Center Tuesday.
Local leaders say many people still don't know about all the help that is available to them and this was a way for them to learn. But they stress it's also an event to get people thinking about the future.
"Now it's time to educate to be better prepared," said Town of Jay Supervisor Randy Douglas.
And to help with that, leaders say federal money continues to arrive.
"We were very fortunate to be able to secure from FEMA about $2.2 million dollars," said Congressman Bill Owens.
For some, including Garcia, he's glad to see Irene's one year anniversary come and go.
"We certainly don't want it to happen to our community again," said Garcia.
Or Garcia says anyone else's.
It wasn't just the North Country hit hard. Irene was the largest disaster in New York State since Hurricane Agnes nearly forty years ago.
