Several weeks after major flooding, Dolgeville residents are still coping with the damage left behind from the Halloween storm.
"We lost everything downstairs, nothing was salvageable. By the time the floodwaters receeded, nothing in the upstairs was salvageable because it was covered in mold,” says Sarah Jaquay, a Dolgeville resident.
Many residents are still displaced from the storm, with several homes on North Main Street still condemned.
But Tuesday night, residents got a chance to speak with local leaders about their next steps moving forward.
The meeting gave flood victims an opportunity to voice their concerns, while also getting questions answered.
Dolgeville Mayor Mary Puznowski said, "There were a lot of questions that were asked that needed to be answered. It's been almost three weeks since the flood, so there's a lot of unanswered questions. It was great that the panel we had were able to answer many of those questions."
Residents hope these meetings can help lead to solutions in the future.
Dolgeville resident Erica Carpenter thinks one solution for her and her neighbors is a FEMA buyout, "We need to fight for these buyouts from FEMA. We're working class families that aren't of high income on that street. We can't afford to rebuild, many of us can't afford to rebuild our homes."
Village leaders say FEMA representatives were in the community as part of their ongoing preliminary damage assessments.
Tuesday’s meeting is one of several initiatives the community has seen in response to the flooding.
One weekend, over one hundred volunteers helped residents clean their North Main Street homes, and this past weekend, a Multi-Agency Resource Center was setup to give resources to neighbors in need.
Local leaders and residents are looking forward to similar meetings in the future.