It’s been 10 years since Mary Puznowski and her siblings last held their mother. They now cling to pictures and memories of Abbott Street.

"My mother was a real gem. She was a fun-loving, great lady," said Puznowski.

Puznowski revisited the site where their mother drowned and her mobile home washed away.

"Everything was gone. Everything. It was like nothing ever existed,” Puznowski said. “And everything went down the river that day. My mom and her and her pet, her little dog; it was a devastating loss. It was the worst day of our lives.”

On June 28, 2013, Fort Plain was battered with catastrophic rainfall and flooding.

"My mom had lived through a number of floods on the street, but nobody really had any idea of the immensity of what was coming. It was a veritable tsunami that came down the creek from up above," said Puznowski.

It’s hard to imagine, looking at how calm the creek is now, but a decade ago, more than 11 inches of water poured into the Otsquago banks. The water gushed into the creek and toward Fort Plain, with water surging 20 to 30 feet over normal levels in some places. The devastation stretched for miles, destroying more than 100 homes and businesses.

The dead-end road of Abbott Street was among the areas hit the hardest.

"The day of the flood, when we finally were able to get down here to see the devastation, everything was gone. Everything. It was like nothing ever existed," said Puznowski.

Around 5 a.m. that Friday, the family called their mother Ethel, warning her to leave. Ethel quickly got dressed and alerted her neighbor, who had two young children.

"She said ‘get your family to higher ground and I'll get dressed; come back and get me and I'll be ready.’ He got his family to the higher elevation behind the house, came back to get her. By that time, it was too late. The flood waters were raging by that point. And he felt so terrible that he couldn't get to her. He knew she was in there and ready to go. She may have saved that man. He could have gotten killed the same day. And so I'm always going to remember my mother as a hero," said Puznowski.

But the days following the flood were the hardest. Ethel was missing. It wasn’t until two days later that her body was found 4 miles away.

“It was so hard. So many people were praying for us. And that brought us so much comfort. We just knew that there would be closure," said Puznowski.

But through the heartache are bright spots of joyous times that will never be forgotten.

"I remember coming down here and picking berries with my mom and helping her make jams and jellies, which she loved to do. So we miss that. I'll never get over it," said Puznowski.