Above: Photo of a bridge in Brown Rd/McKinley Hollow in Big Indian Valley this morning by Pierre Levesque. Below, a photo of flooding reaching the door of a cabin in McKinley Hollow by Levesque.
Below: A CNN iReport by user kkeaveny. Photo taken around 4:30am
5pm update: The Daily Freeman rounds up the damage in Ulster County, where Phoenicia was the hardest hit:
Art Snyder, Ulster County’s emergency management director, said there also still were numerous roads closed, including state Route 214, Main Street, High Street, Station Road and Plank Road, all near the Esopus Creek in the Shandaken hamlet of Phoenicia. The Bridge Street bridge in Phoenicia suffered structural damage and also was closed.
The Esopus poured over its banks overnight, causing flooding throughout the community. Capt. Todd Carr of the Shandaken Fire Department said 15 to 20 homes had to be evacuated in Phoenicia and along Riseley Lane in Mount Tremper. Evacuees were taken to the Belleayre Mountain Ski Center in Highmount, he said.
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The town of Shandaken declared a state of emergency today, the Daily Freeman reports:
“It came up quick, it came up fast and it happened in the middle of the night, when everyone was asleep,” said Shandaken Supervisor Robert Stanley of the flood waters that coursed through the community.
Roughly 30 people had to be evacuated from their homes, mostly from the hamlet of Phoenicia and along Riseley Lane in Mount Tremper. Stanley said the flood waters rose so high the town was forced to use snow plow trucks to evacuate some residents. “The water was coming up so quickly we couldn’t get trucks in.”
... Stanley said the waters rushed through the town, taking with it anything in its path. “We had trees, rocks, cars, we’ve had oil tanks go downstream,” he said.
A photo of flooding in Phoenicia by Twitter user RicDragon:
Carol Seitz, who blogs at The Woodland Valley View, posted an update and many photos of the devastation in Phoenicia a few hours ago. She reports that the floodwaters made the street buckle:
Phoenicia flooded and it was obvious that the water had come over the Bridge St bridge (thank goodness that too receded quickly). Town is still a bit of a mess though with water in several stores. The street is also buckled in several places (see photos below). But Main St is open again and everything is slowly getting back to normal.
Above is one of Steitz's photos of the Phoenicia streets.
In Pine Hill, even the streams are swollen. Aaron Bennett took this photo of Giggle Hollow Stream today:
Click here for our main story on flooding throughout the Catskills region. We will be posting information about individual towns as we receive it. Email photos, news updates, etc. to us at editor@watershedpost.com, or leave a comment on our website. Thanks!
