SODUS POINT, N.Y. — It’s been a dry three years in Sodus Point. Dry, at least compared to what life was like in the Lake Ontario shore village in 2017 and 2019 — when high lake levels led to widespread flooding. Three years later, the work to fix the damage from those floods is still happening.

The thing that draws folks to life in Sodus Point is also what’s now driving Cory Smith’s business. Unfortunately, for many homeowners, business is good.

“There’s no sense in going really, really fast for the homeowners if we’re not going to do it right,” said Smith, owner of K & G Waterfront Construction.

Water is the big draw in Sodus Point. The village has many properties on both the lake and Sodus Bay. But water — too much of it — caused major flooding in 2017 and 2019. Many blamed policymakers who control water levels on Lake Ontario. Either way, it left a mess that three years after the last floods, Cory’s construction company is still fixing.

“It’s extremely heartbreaking to watch years and years of memories just come to an absolute halt,” said Smith, a Sodus Point resident who also suffered flood damage to his own home.

Smith’s most recent project is a house on Wickam Drive, which is getting a new foundation, but not before the crew jacked the house up by 28 inches — a process Cory has done on more than a dozen homes here.

“Unfortunately too many,” he said. 

And it’s expensive.

“Everybody needs the money because it’s not cheap,” said Smith. “This stuff is not cheap. There’s a lot of risks, and there’s also a lot of reward in it.”

Michael Shults purchased a home on Sodus Bay 20 years ago. Part of the structure hangs over the water. During the last flood, the water rose to within inches of the bottom. So he had Smith’s company raise it.

“It was a big investment,” said Shults. “But either that or risk losing the house.”

The house is built on galvanized piers. A time-lapse video shows the process of lifting the home using a system of jacks by five feet — a quart-inch at a time.

“And he had to do it very carefully because you can crack a house and destroy it very easily doing this,” said Shults. “It has to be done patiently and carefully.”

Homeowners were hopeful this year when state lawmakers considered a bill called the STORM Act, which would have offered revolving loans to help pay for flood-related repairs. The bills were stuck in committee, which means homeowners are still stuck with the cost of repairs — for something out of their control.

“We gotta fix the damages that have already happened," said Smith. “And people can’t afford that.”