The rumor mill. Rumors were rampant the afternoon and evening of September 18. One person told me “the Rio dam may go,” and another said, “they’ve got to empty the Cannonsville reservoir.”

As Calkins Creek splashed against the bridge in Milanville, I learned “the Delaware will rise another seven feet. It won’t crest until Sunday. They say it will reach 24 feet at Callicoon.”

Late in the day a fire truck stopped at a friend’s place and firemen suggested that the family evacuate, although sticks they’d placed in the yard clearly showed the river was receding.

About 6:00 p.m., I discovered that officials had blocked Bridge Street in Narrowsburg as they gathered in the fire hall to decide whether the town’s “flats” should be evacuated.

For the record, the U.S. Geological Survey records that the Delaware River had crested at Callicoon by late afternoon of September 18, at 17 feet (flood stage is 12 feet). During the same interval it crested at Barryville at 24 feet (flood stage is 17 feet).

But that night a caller informed me that a local radio station was reporting “the river will crest at 24 feet in Callicoon.”