Student helps with PA flooding

Tropical Storm Lee took a devastating toll throughout parts of central and northeastern Pennsylvania during the first couple weeks of this month, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in damages and the displacement of about 100,000 people.

The storm formed Sept. 1st in the Gulf of Mexico, but it wasn't until a week later that heavy winds and rain resulting from the storm led to record-setting flooding in Pennsylvania and the mandatory evacuation of the city of Wilkes-Barre. Several other towns across the region were also victims of flooding and evacuation, including Harrisburg, Pittston, Tunkhannock, Edwardsville and Nanticoke.

Zack Matulevich, 21, a junior safety management major at Slippery Rock University and member of the National Guard, was deployed to Tunkhannock for relief efforts.

"My company was helping with relief in Wyoming County, specifically Tunkhannock," Matulevich said. "We got called Thursday night, the 8th. I went Friday morning."

Over 1,200 members of the National Guard were called into relief efforts in areas experiencing flooding.     Among their responsibilities included rescue efforts, distribution of food and water, and to maintain order.

"My company mainly did security for different communities," Matulevich said. "We had to keep away looters and rubberneckers."

The need of security is important in areas experiencing a disaster like flooding because the rushed and hectic nature of events, particularly that of an evacuation, leads to crimes such as theft and looting.

Part of the security measures Matulevich was also responsible for was aiding the volunteer firefighters in their rescue efforts.

"A big thing in the beginning was that we had to keep people out of their areas of operation," Matulevich said of the rescue teams.

Along with security measures, Matulevich was responsible for relief efforts, as well.

"We would give out supplies from the Red Cross," Matulevich said. "It was mostly water and bleach to clean houses."

Matulevich was deployed for nine days. Over that time, he worked in several areas, but spent a large portion of his time in a small community called Myo Beach in Meshoppen, Pa.

"Myo Beach is a town of 30 or 40 houses along a river," Matulevich said. "It was really messed up by the floods. The main thing I did there was checking to make sure people coming in lived there. After a couple days there though, you really started to recognize everyone."

Like all the areas in the state affected by the flooding, which in many areas topped the marks set by Hurricane Agnes in 1972, the damage Matulevich witnessed was dramatic.

"When I first arrived, there was only one road going into town," Matulevich said. "The others were all flooded."

The most dramatic result of the floods was the total destruction of many homes and buildings.

"Some people's houses were completely condemned," Matulevich said. "I'm sure others are working to restore their homes even to this day, but others probably won't even go back because of the damage."

The damage to the homes was more than just flooding, however.

"It wasn't just flooding, some houses were completely gone," Matulevich said. "Like some you'd see only stilts still standing. And people whose houses weren't destroyed were covered in mud."

Helping out in the disaster was an eye-opening experience for Matulevich, who had never done anything on that scale before.

"It was the first time I've ever done anything like that," Matulevich said. "It was pretty cool. I haven't been deployed yet, so it was the most fulfilling thing in my military career. Some of my buddies worked snowstorms for a day or two, but snow isn't anything like that."

While much progress was made during the time Matulevich was there, the job still wasn't complete when he returned back home.

"When I left, another company came in to continue working," Matulevich said. "There was a lot of progress made while I was there, but things were still pretty bad when I left."