Update 10am: New info from Middletown Flood Recovery website:
Arkville Cut Off Road (County Route 38) is closed due to high water. Dry Brook Road is “still fine,” according to a source at the fire hall. No evacuations have taken place.
In Fleischmanns, Depot Street and Wagner Avenue remain closed; several buildings in those areas have been evacuated. The Fire Department responded this morning to a car accident in Clovesville.
Update, 8:00am: We have not been able to confirm with officials, but we have reliable accounts of evacuations underway in parts of Margaretville as well.
Update, 7:30am: Evacuations are underway or have been done in Fleischmanns and Arkville. From the Town of Middletown recovery website:
Officials at Fleischmanns and Arkville report that people are being evacuated from low-lying areas. Depot St. and Wagner Ave in Fleischmanns are closed, and water was creeping up behind the firehouse on east Main St., reports Fire Chief Todd Wickham. In Arkville, remaining residents of Pavilion Road, folks at Carlson’s Trailer Park and on Frank St. have also been evacuated, according to Connie Spielman at the fire house. No evacuations were underway in Margaretville at 7 a.m., however some equipment was being moved to the Rte 28 side of the river as a precaution.
PLEASE TAKE CAREFUL NOTE OF STREAM CONDITIONS AND MOVE TO HIGHER GROUND BEFORE ACCESS TO SAFETY BECOMES IMPOSSIBLE.
At the Fleischmanns fire hall, assistant fire chief Bob Van Valkenburg said that the department started evacuating people from Wagner Avenue around 6:15am, in response to a call from a homeowner. Van Valkenburg said that the fire department has been to every house in the evacuated area, and everyone who answered their door has already been evacuated.
"Most of it was evacuated as a precaution. The lower end is flooding, and the water is coming up," he said.
Van Valkenburg said he believed the evacuees were taken to the shelter at Belleayre.
7:00am: In Arkville, assistant fire chief Tom Roberts says that there is no evacuation order, but that the waters are rising and residents are advised to be alert and consider moving to higher ground: "We haven't done any mandatory evacuations yet," he said at 7am. "We are just alerting residents, because the water is rising."
In Margaretville, there is no answer at the Fire Hall, and Middletown Publlic Information Officer Diane Galusha says that she has not been alerted of any orders to evacuate. She reports, however, that sirens went off around 6am in Margaretville.
