And the heavens opened up Water (and fire) hit area hard By Dan Hust and Fred Stabbert III - staff writer and publisher Image 1 of 8 | View All By: Courtesy of Jackie Lynn Brockner Main Street, Jeffersonville was a sea of brown yesterday afternoon after nearly 4 inches of rain drenched the area. Road closures happenened throughout the Town of Callicoon as the rain fell. SULLIVAN COUNTY — Yesterday, at times, seemed apocalyptic. Destructive thunderstorms - dense with lightning, hail and intense rain - swept over northern and western sections of Sullivan County, unrelenting in their fury. A gauge in Kenoza Lake, for example, recorded a deluge of four-and-a-half inches of rain in just two hours. That kind of inundation led to flash flooding from Callicoon to Grahamsville. Downtown Jeffersonville seemed the worst-hit, with water rescues reportedly mounted all along Main Street, which flooded to a depth of three feet. “The worst ever,” Arthur Hassis, who has lived on Route 164 in the Beechwoods since 1959. “We had three feet of water running down the road - with whitecaps.” Neighbors up and down the hillside which leads to Route 52 in Kohlertown had the same stories, and now many of them have no driveways, as the heavy rain washed away nearly half the road. “Right now we are assessing,” Sullivan County DPW worker Tom Donnelly said. “DPW Commissioner Ed McAndrew is meeting with the state DOT at the firehouse to assess how much damage was done. “We were sent out right after the alerts and there was already quite a bit of water,” Donnelly said. The rest of Route 52, from Kenoza Lake to Youngsville, was closed due to the angry Callicoon Creek and its tributaries. A half-dozen other county routes connecting to 52 also were temporarily closed, and an uncounted number of town roads suffered washouts. At the Villa Roma Resort and Conference Center in Callicoon, hundreds of guests were beginning the long July 4 weekend with a dip in the pool and walk of the grounds. “It got dark, really dark,” Pat Bannon of Staten Island said. “And then the heavens opened up.” Friend Bathy Malerva of Long Island said, “It came down like crazy. We were in the hotel and had to be evacuated because they thought the bridge might collapse.” No injuries were reported and guests were watching workers from the county and Town of Delaware try to clear roadways and culverts. “It was a great day to be a valet,” Zach Keller said dryly. “The water was up to my knees, it was just raging. We had to swim to cars.” Keller and the other valets were busy moving cars to higher ground late yesterday afternoon. “Its unfortunate,” Matt Welsh said from his driveway next to Sals Pizzeria in Kohlertown. “It didnt take long [to get real bad]. “My truck is fine but my grill almost floated away,” he said. “And I decided not to open Welshs Cabin, so many roads are closed.” A tree fell into a house in Livingston Manor, as winds were briefly fierce, but a feared tornado did not materialize - the warning resulting from cloud rotation observed by the National Weather Service. At its height, the line of storms knocked out power to more than 6,000 county residents, concentrated in the Town of Fallsburg. That was mostly due to lightning, which also apparently set a house on fire along Sullivan County Route 114 near Cochecton. Fire departments from as far away as Smallwood-Mongaup Valley assisted Lake Huntington in fighting the blaze, as many of their closer brethren were out handling flooded roads, basements and evacuations. The stubborn fire persisted, requiring responders to don protective gear and attack it from inside the circa-1900 home, which according to tax records is owned and occupied by Robin Solvang. No cause or listing of injuries could be learned at press time yesterday. - See more at: scdemocratonline/webpages/newsdetail.aspx?id=a7e5605a-f022-41ed-a103-9d497103544c#sthash.dscyhz24.dpuf
Posted on: Thu, 03 Jul 2014 13:21:33 +0000
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