“We’re stuck”
Residents of Lighthouse Drive, Clint Finger Road, Ferry Road, and other low lying roads throughout the town and village watched helplessly Sunday as rising waters flooded first their yards and then their homes.
Danielle Boisvert and her friend, Travis Buchanan along with his two kids Tobias and Nevaeh fled their Clint Finger Road home as waters began to rise.
Danielle had been through flooding before and knew the safest place for her and her family was away from their home, located at the confluence of the Plattekill and Esopus creeks.
Later on Sunday they tried to return to their home, but found the road shut by waist-deep waters. They were able to park their car and wade to the home to check on their cats and dogs. “When we got inside we found 8-feet of water in the basement and several feet on the first floor,” Travis said.
“We’ll be staying at a local motel until we can get back in,” Danielle said.
Smith Hardware saves the water plant
Floodwaters also forced the town to shut down its water treatment plant on Blue Mountain Sunday and into Monday.
Joseph Bisignano, water superintendent said that water pouring down off Blue Mountain and into the town’s reservoir raising the level of turbidity, forcing him to turn off the filter pumps. While the pumps were down, water stored in the facility’s 3-million gallon holding tank was used, he said. The turbidity decreased Monday afternoon and the pumps were turned back on. Bisignano also thanked Smith Hardware for helping save the plant from flooding out. He said as water around the plant rose, the popular Main Street hardware store delivered bags and sand to create sandbags, which protected the building from being lost to the floodwaters coming down off the mountain.
And then the winds came
Just as the sun peeked from the clouds as the storm cleared the area Sunday afternoon, high winds from the back end of Irene hit knocking down trees and wires throughout the town and village. One of the hardest hit areas was Glasco Turnpike where numerous trees came down on wires knocking out power and blocking the busy road that runs between Saugerties and Woodstock. All day Monday and into Tuesday local and county road departments were out cutting up and removing trees to make the road passable. Central Hudson said residents would get power back later in the week or early next week.
