BINGHAMTON -- Sections of this flood-ravaged city were reopened Monday to residents chased out by last week's record flooding, though some neighborhoods will remain closed because of safety concerns, officials said.
The areas still deemed off-limits are along the Susquehanna and Chenango rivers, including sections of the south side, downtown and the First Ward, Binghamton Deputy Mayor Andrew Block said.
The conditions of some structures are "just too dangerous," he said.
County and state office complexes in Binghamton reopened Monday. And classes resumed at most city schools and at Binghamton University, where U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer and Binghamton Mayor Matt Ryan met evacuees staying at a Red Cross shelter set up in the college's gymnasium.
The two rivers, which converge at Binghamton, overflowed their banks Thursday after 10 inches of rain from the remnants of tropical storm Lee inundated the region. Large sections of the city and nearby communities including Owego, Vestal and Conklin were covered in several feet of water.
Some 20,000 residents of Binghamton and surrounding Broome County evacuated to escape the flooding, officials said.
-- Associated Press
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