BAINBRIDGE – Sump pumps droned and the odor of fuel oil hung heavy in the air Sunday as residents living along Front Street in Bainbridge shifted load after load of household debris to ever-increasing piles at the curb with the help of family, friends and neighbors.

Two days after the floodwaters finally began to recede, a coat of slippery river mud still covered the streets and sidewalks. Every blade of grass at a nearby little league field bears a similar residue. Apples dot the chain link fence surrounding the field, wedged there by the force of the waters which surged through the neighborhood.

Someone cleverly inscribed “Aqua Man” on the side of a silt-covered car, which was submerged after being abandoned by its driver on the shoulder. Next to it is a stop sign. The water line, a few inches from the top of the red octagon, shows the height to which the waters ultimately rose, well over the roof of the vehicle.

Across the street, at the NYSEG substation, a black line some 7 feet off the ground, also marks the height at which the Susquehanna crested late Friday night. Less than a foot above that line is another marked with the year 2006.

The residents of Front Street, of course, are not alone. The scene there is similar to what you can find throughout the Village of Bainbridge and in neighboring communities up and down the Susquehanna, as well as in the Chenango and Unadilla valleys where the rivers also rose to at or near record height due to heavy rains which ravaged the region last Wednesday and Thursday.

Some houses in Afton were still surrounded by water Sunday afternoon, where the combination of the Susquehanna and Kelsey Brooks, which was transformed into a raging river by the storm, caused significant flooding.

But still, some say, it could have been worse.