Flash flooding devastates Westbrookville

By DAVID HULSE

WESTBROOKVILLE, NY — More than a week after floodwaters from the Pine Kill and Basha Kill converged on this Town of Mamakating hamlet, county officials were still awaiting the disaster declaration from Governor Pataki that would trigger state and federal emergency relief funding.

Sullivan County Emergency Management Coordinator Richard Martinkovic said the county filed its documentation with the State Emergency Management Office (SEMO) on Friday. “Now, it’s just a matter of waiting for the governor,” he said on Monday.

The damage threshold for federal aid from the Federal Emergency Management Administration is $22 million and Sullivan officials had tallied more than $11 million damage by Thursday afternoon, before figures from hard-hit downstream portions of the Orange County Town of Deerpark were available. With $3 million in private losses and $8 million in town and county infrastructure losses, Martinkovic said last week that he was confident the regional threshold would be exceeded.

U.S. Representative Maurice Hinchey and Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther toured the flood-stricken area on Friday, and Hinchey left Martinkovic with an assurance that he would contact the Army Corps of Engineers to prompt a study to design stream drainage measures that would prevent a reoccurrence of what was characterized as a 50-year flood.

Some semblance of normalcy returned this past Monday, when state crews completed repairs and reopened U.S. Route 209 to through traffic. Martinkovic said all the impacted town and county roads, accepting a town road portion of the Pine Kill Road, have at least one lane open again.

Floodwaters undermined numerous portions of pavement on August 31, some of them in stretches of hundreds of feet. Eight county bridges along County Road 163 were damaged, but none failed.

However, many private bridges serving secluded homes did fail and Sullivan County Division of Public Works (DPW) Commissioner Peter Lilholt felt that clogged debris from fallen trees and those bridges may have exacerbated the flooding.

Mamakating Supervisor Charles Penna and County Manager Dan Briggs jointly declared a state of emergency on Tuesday morning.

Dan Schoonmaker said it had rained heavily all that Monday afternoon, but gave the impression of clearing in the early evening. Inside his Pine Kill Road home, near Route 209, Schoonmaker heard the heavy rain return, and looking outside he found floodwaters washing over the hood of his car and covering the entire neighborhood. Schoonmaker said his basement flooded instantly and the floodwater broke out windows on the downstream side of the house to exit.

On Tuesday, portable pumps were working to drain the basement where he estimated his losses at $20,000. “Everything down there is gone.” Schoonmaker has no flood insurance.

Had anything been left serviceable, there was no power to operate it. Power company crews had removed his meter and others where homes had suffered interior flooding.

Across Route 209 in the Butler Court trailer park, water from the Basha Kill and Pine Kill converged and rose to 74 inches in one place.

Resident Chelsea Norton said she watched a large propane gas tank floating free in the court. She was lucky. The flood left two inches of mud on her deck, but never got inside.

Resident Dawn Eckmeyer said neighbors used ropes to get some residents out of their homes as the water rose. No one was injured, but six families and 14 people were put out of their homes at the court. All told, Martinkovic said between 75 and 100 people were put out of their homes at some point during the flooding.

The flood flattened out as it reached the valley floor and Route 209, but upstream on Pine Kill Road, it was a torrent, resident Erin Phalan said. And it came quickly. Phalan said the water was ankle-deep when she took her two daughters to higher ground at a neighbor’s house. Only five minutes later, when they all decided to evacuate, it had risen nearly to waist level, she said.

Other help came quickly as well. DPW committed all of its dump truck fleet as well and a good portion of its construction equipment. State and town equipment, some from neighboring towns, like Highland, were on hand.

The Red Cross set up an emergency shelter at the Methodist Church and a state police helicopter checked on the welfare of those in stranded homes and ferried supplies to them. Shoprite and Leisure Time donated bottled water. Firefighters from Westbrookville and 14 other area departments were on hand, many using ATV’s to ferry people and supplies on equipment-clogged roads. Martinkovic said neighbors helped neighbors throughout. “The community was really great.”