WET DAY By Wednesday morning, flood waters had begun to recede, though the Sunoco station on Pearl Street was still awash. Jameson Barrera photo
Region hit again by flooding
Water a perennial problem for Rockland
By Addie Robbins and Anahi Rodriguez | Manor Ink
Town of Rockland, NY – A month after torrential rains and flash floods triggered a local state of emergency, the communities of Livingston Manor, Roscoe and Parksville were well on the road to recovery.
But on July 29, the torrential flooding resulted in the death of one resident and also tested the resilience of the three hamlets dealing with the heavy storms that washed out roads, flooded basements and disrupted community life.
Jesus Arroyo Ortega, a resident of Livingston Manor, tragically drowned in an accident on North Branch Road near the hamlet of Hortonville when his car collided with a utility pole and he was swept away in the Callicoon Creek.
Record setting storm
Severe flooding has occurred in the Town of Rockland for decades, events Supervisor Rob Eggleton said, have devastated the community repeatedly. The inundation this time was caused by record-breaking rainfall occurring over a 24 to 30 hour period on July 28 and 29. 5.45 inches of rain fell on the latter date, as measured by the weather service in Albany, shattering the old record of 1.90 inches set in 1974. This was also the wettest July day on record for the state, and stands as the second wettest day on record overall, only behind the 5.60 inches that fell on Sept. 16, 1999, during Hurricane Floyd.
In the weeks following the flooding, Manor Ink spoke with volunteers and business owners about their experiences then and in the weeks that followed.
Catskill Art Space was among the local organizations hit hard, with floodwaters filling the basement to the ceiling. No art or archives were lost, but the building was severely damaged.
The sprinkler system was made inoperable and a massive amount of debris had to be hauled out of the building, said Sally Wright, CAS’s executive director. The elevator had already been damaged by the July tornado, and the flood only worsened the problem.
“We had water pouring through our elevator shaft, so much so that it completely deactivated the elevator system.”
CAS’s second-floor installations by James Turrell, Sol LeWitt and Francis Cape were temporarily closed throughout August while repairs were underway. The gallery’s ground-floor shows remained open and on view.
The Livingston Manor Fire Department took two days to pump out the basement, she said, but once they did, CAS was able to carry out a major mold cleanup.
The community pitches in
Other local shops in the Manor had similar stories of flood loss followed by an immediate wave of help from community volunteers.
Sunshine Colony and Upstream Wine & Spirits owner Meg McNeil said one shop’s basement was under nearly two feet of water.
“It ruined a lot of shipping supplies, paper goods and labels ... along with my personal wine collection,” she said.
McNeil and her husband Kevin never expected the basement to flood, and they were unprepared. Moving fast was important to curtail further damage. Luckily, the LMFD showed up and almost immediately began to pump the water out. Friends and neighbors also brought over dehumidifiers to curtail mold development.
According to Chief Brett Marsden of the LMFD, about 15 volunteer firefighters worked to pump out other businesses on Main Street over the next two days.
“While that was going on we also had a total of ten storm-related calls regarding road closures, trees down, and we answered them all,” Marsden said. “We also responded to 29 requests for cellar pump outs. It was an all day affair,“
“Breezy Hill got hammered,” Dr. Jon Sutherland, a dentist practicing in Liberty, said of the mountain ridge near his home in Parksville. “The thing that saved us was that our pond was six to eight inches lower than normal.” The pond, which overlooks the lower lying area where Sutherland’s son, Justin, runs the Just in Time Farm, was saved from torrents that could have swept down the hill and overrun the farm’s crops.
As roads washed out, the floods took another path and settled in New Memories, the arts haven, located at the foot of Rte. 17, filling the building’s workspaces there with a thick slick of mud. Volunteers responded quickly with machinery and manpower to shovel it out in time for an event that weekend.
Town Supervisor Rob Eggleton estimated that damage to the town would likely exceed $125,000, with a significant portion of that amount needed to repair roads degraded by the flooding.
An expression of thanks
Meanwhile, Meg McNeil conducted a fundraiser at Sunshine Colony in appreciation for the help she and others received, and more than $2,000 was raised for the LMFD. It was a way to thank the firefighters for the work they did, not only during the flood, but also during the recent tornado.
Though most of the town’s damage occurred in the downtown area of Livingston Manor, Roscoe was also impacted. More than a dozen town volunteers gathered at Riverside Park following the storm to restore the facility’s dog park after it was swept away by rising waters from the nearby Willowemoc Creek.
“It’s a reminder of how supportive this community can be, and how we can all work together and support each other,” McNeil said. “And it’s kind of beautiful that, in the end, people are able to come together and help each other.”
