Above: A Sullivan County Sheriff's Office squad car patrols Livingston Manor this afternoon. Photos by Jason Dole.
In September, cumulative rainfall flooded downtown Livingston Manor, something that’s become a common occurrence in the past decade. Now, little more than a month since that last flood, folks in Livingston Manor are keeping an eye on the Little Beaverkill and the Cattail Brook as the storm called Sandy approaches.
Town officials and emergency responders are getting ready for a long night, and whatever will follow. The Livinsgton Manor Fire Department is a hub of activity. Ed Weitman, Town of Rockland Supervisor is there, confident that his town is prepared.
“We’re about as ready as we can be,” says Weitman. “We made arrangements. The Fire Department is all set, and we’re opening evacuation centers.”
The town has announced four evacuation centers in total. Two centers are set to go in Roscoe, one at the United Methodist Church and the other at Roscoe Central School. Two more are designated in Livingston Manor – one at the Presbyterian Church, and the other in the Town of Rockland Town Hall. As evening set in, there was one cot set up in the Town Hall, and Weitman says more are ready to go.
Cots and tables and chairs are also set up in the firehouse, where a small group is doing what the rest of the northeast is doing – watching Sandy come in on the news. Weitman glances at the screen, and comments that one thing Livingston Manor won’t have is TV reporters up to their waists in the floodwaters saying, ‘Boy the water is wet.’ In fact, he’s hopeful that this storm system won’t produce significant flooding.
“Looks like we might not get the brunt of it,” Weitman says. “May be more a case of high winds at this point.”
If so, the town is ready for that, too. The fire department responds to downed wires, and the town highway department can cut trees and downed limbs that don’t have wires on them, clearing roads and averting problems. But to be safe, the LMFD went around to homes in flood-prone areas with notes encouraging folks to use the time to prepare, and get out long before there’s a need for rescuing.
“They came by and left a paper on the door, and said to tie a red ribbon on the doorknob,” says Rita Fontana, one recipient of the fire department’s note. She heeded the advice, packed up, and “took everything off the porch except the grill, which we tied down.”
Fontana is in her 80s. Her daughter, Susan, has been staying with her since Rita’s husband, Charles, passed away months earlier. The weather has only added to a year of upheaval for Rita Fontana. She lives on Upper Main Street, near the epicenter of the worst flood damage.
“Last time it was from my lawn all the way behind the house across from me,” says Fontana of the September ffood. “The road looked like a rushing river.” After the flood, Fontana says nearby bridges were unusable and her lawn was partially covered with a huge chunk of the road.
But that was the last time. This time, whatever happens, the Fontanas are more prepared. And although it’s always a pain to have to leave your house, Rita Fontana explains that it sure beats the alternative.
“Susan and I are at a neighbor’s house, high enough that we won’t get flooded…we hope,” she says with a laugh. “We had several friends who were high and dry saying ‘you can stay with us.’ It’s very nice to know there’s a place to go. What are you going to do? You do the best you can. We packed our stuff, put a ribbon on the door, and came to a neighbors”
That ribbon is a sign to officials and emergency responders that the house has been evacuated.
“It’s a bad sign, too,” adds Rita Fontana. “Now anybody could go there.”
But she’s seen another part of the preparations in Livingston Manor – Sullivan County Sheriff cars going by on patrol, just as they are all over the county.
“I hope they patrol upper Main Street,” says Fontana, with another laugh.
Below: Livingston Manor Fire Department HQ before the storm on October 29. Photo by Jason Dole.
