RAIN AND WIND WREAK HAVOC
Christmas storm spawns flooding, power outages; Belleayre lodge damaged
Heavy rain and snowmelt late Thursday and early Christmas Day flooded creeks and adjacent roads in the region and caused significant damage to the main lodge at the Belleayre Mountain Ski Center. Strong winds, meanwhile, knocked out power to tens of thousands of Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. customers.
Flooding was reported along the Upper Esopus Creek in Phoenicia, the Rondout Creek in Kingston in Rosendale, and at locations Greene County, among many other places.
Water that spilled over the banks of the Rondout Creek in Downtown Kingston covered East Strand, forcing police to close that road and a few nearby. In the Greene County town of Jewett, a photo provided by Central Hudson showed a collapsed section of Jewett Heights Road along the flooded East Kill.
The National Weather Service reported rainfall totals across the region ranging from 2 to 8 inches, and the fast melting of snow leftover from last week’s winter storm added to the volume of water.
Belleayre, in the Highmount section of the town of Shandaken, said on its website that after more than 6 inches of rain fell on the mountain, “supersaturated snow from the Yahoo Trail let loose and slid into the Overlook Lodge.”
“The lodge sustained significant damage, with windows and doors broken,” the online post stated.
Belleayre was closed when the slide happened — its operators having decided on Thursday not to open Friday because of the expected heavy rain — and no injuries were reported. The ski center will remain closed Saturday — because “we are unable to provide a safe environment for our guests,” the post said — but hopes to be up and running again on Sunday.
A reporter’s phone call to Belleayre on Friday went unanswered.
National Weather Service meteorologist Brian Montgomery said high-end area rainfall totals from the storm included 7.74 inches in Tannersville, more than 5 inches in Prattsville and 4.12 inches in Claryville. He said communities closer to the Hudson River got significantly less rain.
The rainfall ended Friday afternoon as the storm system headed east into New England.
Central Hudson reported just over 8,100 power outages across its eight-county coverage area as of Friday evening, down sharply from a peak early in the day of about 42,000.
The utility reported on its website just before 7 p.m. that it had a total of 8,111 outages, including 1,223 in Ulster County (down from a high of about 14,000) and 4,365 in Dutchess County (down from a peak of about 15,400).
Central Hudson serves a total of about 306,000 customers in Ulster, Dutchess, Greene, Columbia, Orange, Sullivan, Putnam, Orange and Albany counties.
The utility said on Thursday that, regardless of the holiday, it would have adequate staffing to make necessary repairs. On Friday, though, it said some outages were expected to last into Saturday.
“Our crews are continuing to restore power to our customers as safely and efficiently as possible,” Ryan Hawthorne, Central Hudson assistant vice president of electric engineering and operations, said in an emailed statement. “We understand how important electric service is to families who are celebrating Christmas, as well as managing the challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We have a team of more than 320 line and tree professionals that includes mutual aid from Michigan, Indiana and Iowa, [and] more mutual aid is set to arrive from Vermont,” he said. “... In addition, we have retained our local contractors and have hundreds of employees working in support roles.”
The utility said it would distribute dry ice to people who need it from noon to 5 p.m. Friday at the Rosendale Recreation Center, 1055 state Route 32, and the Home Depot store at 450 Route 9 in Fishkill.
Central Hudson spokesman John Maserjian said the utility had no plans to distribute dry ice at other Ulster County locations on Friday.
In Phoenicia Friday afternoon, tree limbs, branches and stumps were strewn across the bridge that carries Bridge Street over the Esopus Creek.
The bridge was submerged overnight, but even after the water receded, it remained blocked off by police tape, road cones and wooden barriers. An Ulster County worker at the scene, though, said the span appeared to be structurally sound and probably would reopen later Friday or on Saturday.
The rain and high winds were part of a storm system that moved up from the south. A wind advisory for the entire region expired mid-Friday morning, but an areawide flood advisory remained in effect throughout the day, and flood warnings were in effect for various spots along the Esopus and Rondout creeks.
Montgomery, at the weather service, warned about wet roads freezing over Friday night. He said temperatures were expected to drop into the mid20s in the region’s valley locations and upper teens in the Catskills. An advisory posted online by the weather service warned of “a strong cold” front coming across eastern New York state, and the forecast high temperature for Saturday was just 34.
The advisory urged drivers to “monitor changing road conditions, slow down and leave plenty of room” between vehicles.