Apalachin Church Damaged by Flooding for a Third Time

It's happened again. A small church in Tioga County has sustained extensive flood damage.

Tuesday night's heavy rain caused Deerlick Creek in Apalachin to overflow its banks, sending a wall of water through Faith Christian Fellowship Church.

Pastor Pete Darling and his wife, Jill, were stunned by what they saw when they arrived Wednesday morning at the church at Pennsylvania Avenue and Beach Road.

A door at the building's entrance had been ripped from its hinges. The floor was covered with a thick layer of mud.

The church previously was damaged when something caused water in the creek to back up. Then there was heavy damage as a result of the September 2011 flood.

Pete Darling said the church received a letter from the Federal Emergency Management Agency a couple of months ago advising it would not be eligible for assistance from the flood that occurred more than seven years earlier.

The church, which was founded in 1981, once had a fairly large congregation. But Darling said membership has dwindled in recent years with only 15 to 20 people typically attending the Sunday service.

Darling said he doesn't know yet what will happen in the aftermath of the latest flood.

Surveying the damage, he said "we can use any help we can get."

Contact WNBF News reporter Bob Joseph: bob@wnbf.com

For breaking news and updates on developing stories, follow @BinghamtonNow on Twitter.