Area roads fail to weather the storm

Because there are state, county and town roads throughout Amenia, department of transportation workers from all three entities have made repairs.

One road crew was out working in the hamlet of Wassaic on County Route 105, otherwise known as Sinpatch Road, last Thursday.

"From the storm and the high waters this got eroded under the road, so we’re breaking up the blacktop, filling it in and then capping it off," explained Road Maintenance Supervisor John Szatko. "We’re driving around hitting all of these spots and filling them in. We were in Poughkeepsie but out here was hit much more so, so we’re giving these guys a hand."

According to Szatko, the spot on Sinpatch was "the biggest washed out area" that he had seen, but he acknowledged there were other crews working on other areas that were likely just as large, if not larger.

"I know on Hunns Lake the whole side of the mountain washed out, there was a whole mudslide," he said.

Others from around the area acknowledged that there were many places that needed post-flood assistance, in Amenia and beyond.

"In a sense it’s a coordinated effort because everybody has suffered the same sort of things. They’re all working in parallel, everybody’s working on the same things on the roads that they control," said Amenia Supervisor Janet Reagon. "There was no panic, everybody just pitched in and did what they had to do. The emergency plan kicked in pretty well, it was pretty seamless, really. It could have been a lot worse. We’re lucky that the water went down as fast as it did. I think we have to count our blessings."

Which is exactly what they’re doing in Pine Plains, where there was some flood damage, but nothing too extreme, according to town Supervisor Gregg Pulver.

"We weren’t in as bad shape as Wassaic and Dover. We didn’t have whole sections of roads washed out, but we did have water running across the road," Pulver said.

One trouble area in Pine Plains was at Patchin’s Mill Bridge, which was shut down for a couple of days as there were some big tree stumps coming over the dam. After the worst of the storm passed county crews came out and said that everything looked like it was in pretty good shape and the bridge reopened. Now there are just some road shoulders that need to be addressed.

Pulver said the work of the town’s highway crews and its fire department was top-notch.

"They did an outstanding job," he said. "This week everything is fine. It’s down to aesthetics now more than anything else. I’m pretty happy the way things shaped up; the community knows what was going on with an event like that and that we can’t do everything at once and people showed some patience and cut us some slack. And we were pretty fortunate that we weren’t devastated like some other communities."

North East Supervisor Dave Sherman expressed his gratitude that the storm did not hit the town of North East or the village of Millerton any harder.

"Relatively speaking we were fortunate that we do not have the gross amount of damage that occurred in other places," he said. "But we have our share."

There were a few town roads that needed to be worked on following the storm, namely Skunk’s Misery Road and Lower Mill Road. Overall, however, the town fared well.

"Partially it’s because we’re at the headwaters of the Webatuck Creek, so those that were below us had all of the water we had going downstream, plus whatever water fell from the rains," Sherman explained. "And a fair amount of water went down."

According to the supervisor, Skunk’s Misery Road witnessed the worst damage, where part of a dam eroded and there was also beaver dam blockage. Additionally there were unmanned tributaries that collected along the roundout. Along Lower Mill Road there were sizable, highly saturated areas with pathways that were compromised as pieces of pavement eroded by the shoulders. Wetlands along that area also experienced large surges of water.

"Wetlands do a good job of holding off large surges," Sherman said. "But they can only do so much before the water starts surging out and gets to be a very sizeable flow to well up."

Meanwhile, crews are continuing to work on roads throughout the region. According to Charlie Traver, director of highway construction and maintenance for the county, it may take some weeks before all of the damage is addressed.

"Still proceed with caution," he said. "All the roads are open, but we still have dropoffs in certain areas."

Some of the most severely damaged areas in the Harlem Valley, according to Traver, include Old Route 22 in Amenia, the area south of McGhee Hill Road in Shekomeko and Bangall Amenia Road, east of Millbrook.

Traver said the damage from the storm is probably the second or third worst he’s seen in the past 30 years. Still, that doesn’t deter his crews from working to make repairs.

"All of the large, ‘Oh, my Gods!’ have been taken care of," he said. "Now we’re working on the more minor in nature that just need to be reestablished."