SamPratt.com

Catskills bearing Irene’s brunt

At (p.m.) last night in Hudson, a patron at the bar was predicting authoritatively that today's storm would hit the Catskills much harder than Columbia County, due to the mountains’ elevation and terrain.

Seems he was right... While Hurricane Irene mostly has not lived up to its advance billing on the eastern side of the Hudson River, the same cannot be said for the western side. Facebook and Twitter are replete with pictures of semi-submerged cars, homes and businesses in places such as Arkville, Catskill, Cornwall, Tannersville and Windham.

Notably, flooding—not wind—is the problem. From the looks of things, many creeks in Greene, Ulster and Delaware counties have risen to, or above, the tops of their banks.

A liveblog over at the indispensable Watershed Post is filling up with alarming reports of roof rescues and (disputed) tales of dam ruptures, and is well worth a check-in: click here.

Ice Storm II

Power (and branches) are down after yesterday's steady rain flash-froze overnight... Lots of bent trees are trying their best not to break. National Grid estimates it won't be 'til midnight that electricity will be restored in the Taghkanic-Churchtown area. National Grid's page for outage mapping and reporting is here.

The County has also issued this travel advisory:

Board of Supervisor’s [sic] Chairman Roy Brown has issued a travel advisory for all of Columbia County.  There are trees and wires down on roadways as well as roads that are flooded.  The public is asked to avoid any unnecessary travel.

The following majors roads are closed due to flooding:

1. Rt 66 Bunkers Bridge by Dutch Village Mobile Home Park

2. Spook Rock Road

3. Rt 9 by the Kinderhook Animal Hospital

4. Rt 9G Mount Merino

There maybe [sic] secondary roads that are impassable.  Please do not attempt to drive through any flooded roadways.  There may be unseen dangers such as washed out roadways or debris.

Currently most roadways are very slippery due to icing and many wires and trees have fallen on roadways which are causing hazards.  All power companies are out working on the outages throughout the county.

 

A neighbor in Claverack writes: “Heading west to Hudson, 23B was closed as was 66 where it meets Fish and Game. I had to take 23/9 to 9 north into Hudson. Also, Amtrak is running but is experiencing serious delays. And every low spot in the roads appears to be ankle deep or worse.”

Quake!

Some kind of minor quake just rolled through the area. Some buildings were actually evacuated in Albany; in the 600 block of Warren Street in Hudson, it felt like an unusually large and fast-moving train had rumbled through the park...

The Times-Union reports that this was felt all over Upstate and Western New York, with an epicenter near Cornwall on the Canadian border: http://blog.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/28549/hey-did-you-just-feel-that/

The last such event in Hudson was c. 2002 or so, and was much more alarming. Windows, pictures and mirrors rattled on the walls; for a second I thought the contractor working on my two-story porch had knocked out its pillars.

Life Decimates Art

Apparently a Jeep plowed through the front of Deffebach Gallery on the corner of 2nd and Warren streets this evening, coming to rest inside the building. It must have just happened in the last hour or so, because I drove past there after dinner at Da|Ba around 9:30 pm. The gallery currently has artwork by local dealer Mark Wasserbach on display, but it’s not known if any of the sculpture is damaged.

A car similarly smashed into the wrought iron fence of the Curtiss House at the corner of 1st and Warren (my former home) just a few months ago, causing extensive damage.

What gives on Lower Warren? One more of these and they may have to put in speedbumps.

‘Prego’ means you’re welcome

Sidewalk, Warren Street, Hudson (NY).

Crash in Hudson

At right: Reader-contributed cell phone photo

A friend witnessed the immediate aftermath of a harrowing crash today in Hudson, involving a car barreling into the side of Proprietors Hall on the west side of the 7th Street Park. Apparently the driver, a woman in her 50s, suffered some sort of seizure and plowed straight into the side of the building. However, the response from emergency workers was nearly immediate and apparently they were able to extract her safely from the totaled vehicle.

Meadowgreens gone

CBS News out of Albany is reporting that the restaurant-bar-clubhouse of Meadowgreens, the golf course next to the Columbia County Airport, was ruined by a fire late last night: click here for the story... The kitchen area of Meadowgreens was still smoldering at 11:40 am. According to CBS, the fire was reported by a passing motorist at about 4 in the morning.

Condolences for the fire go out to the Murells, Neros, Moxie and the rest of the Meadowgreens team; with hope they'll be able to rebuild. Meadowgreens had been co-owned by Kevin Walsh, the former Hudson City Treasurer (and one of the nicer guys ever to work in City Hall), who died too young, several years ago.

UPDATE: ColumbiaPage has dramatic early morning photos of the fire in progress by Lance Wheeler and Stephen Cox here. (ColumbiaPage also has an application which lets you listen to emergency police and fire radio for the area.) Also, Matthew Perry passes along the tip that Capital News 9 has a short video clip of the fire at their site. Also, late this afternoon Channel 6 (WRGB), Channel 10 (WTEN), Channel 13 (WNYT) have picked up the story noting that the building is a “total loss,” and had recently been renovated.