Hinchey assesses flood damage

By TOM KANE

SULLIVAN COUNTY, NY - Ninety-seven-degree temperatures did not deter Congressman Maurice Hinchey, who toured the area on August 2 apprizing flood damage.

“I want to be sure people know that there is help from the federal and state governments, and that they should seek that help immediately,” Hinchey said. “I’m here to get a deeper understanding of the damage.”

Hinchey said he and congressional members from Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Maryland will ask congress to pass an emergency supplemental appropriations bills for more money for areas affected by the flood. “I’m afraid that there are a significant number of needs that simply can not be met by the existing array of services,” he said.

Representatives of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), the Army Corps of Engineers and county and town officials accompanied Hinchey on his tour of the damaged areas in Youngsville, Jeffersonville, Callicoon and Roscoe.

At the dam site on Lake Jefferson in Jeffersonville, which is owned by Kevin and Barbara Gref and powers radio station WJFF, he heard FEMA and NRCS officials say that they could not pay for structural work on the dam.

Mike Clifford of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) said that local engineer Terry Kelly told him that repairs to the dam were estimated at $200,000. NRCS representative Ron Alvarado said his agency could not pay for the repairs since the dam was privately owned. NRCS is a part of USDA.

“We could do some mitigation work on the residence next to the dam,” Clifford said. The residence houses the Grefs and their three children.

Other agencies, like the Environmental Protection Fund, were not likely to fund dam repairs for the same reason, a representative from the Nature Conservancy said.

“There was five inches of water spilling over the top of this dam during the recent flood,” Barbara Gref said. “That’s about 12,000 cubic feet per second. How long can the dam sustain this kind of flooding? The dam needs to be stabilized very soon for the communities downstream, which would be seriously affected if it broke up.” She urged that the dam be repaired before next winter.

On Wednesday during the storm, some residents of the Village of Jeffersonville had to be evacuated for one night. Greg Semenetz, Callicoon supervisor, and his team inspected the dam on Lake Jefferson to see if there was any weakening of the structure. To be on the safe side, some 200 residents were evacuated. Early on the following day, a representative from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) inspected the dam and declared it to be safe.

In Callicoon, Hinchey got a first-hand look at the $250,000 worth of damage to the Delaware Youth Center, which has been flooded three times in 18 months.