Seven people were rescued Monday in Greene County after two vehicles became trapped in rising flood waters in separate incidents, Kiskatom Fire Chief Pete Kusminsky said Tuesday.
Heavy rainfall soaked the county from Sunday to Monday with the remnants of Tropical Storm Henri.
The first incident occurred at about 3:13 p.m. on Paul Saxe Road, just north of Mountain Turnpike, when a female driver and three children, ages 12, 10 and 2, became stranded in about 3 feet of water, Kusminsky said.
Firefighters were able to drive a truck through the flooded road, get the victims out of the car and into the back of the truck, where they were driven to safety, Kusminsky said.
None of the four were injured.
Three people were rescued by firefighters in the second incident, which occurred at about 11:20 p.m. A man, woman and 2-year-old child were trapped by flood waters that covered Mountain Turnpike, just east of Paul Saxe Road. In this instance, Kiskatom firefighters were able to walk out to the vehicle and bring the victims to safety. There were no reported injuries, Kusminsky said.
The Greene County Sheriff’s Office assisted at both rescues.
A state trooper was not injured Monday afternoon after his marked patrol car crashed as he was responding to a call in the area of the flooding in Kiskatom.
The trooper was driving south on Route 32, just south of Game Farm Road, when the car hit a flooded area and went off Route 32, striking a tree, Trooper Steven Nevel, public information officer for state police Troop K, said Tuesday.
The trooper was examined by paramedics on the scene, but refused medical treatment, Nevel said.
Greene County experienced several inches of rain from Sunday through Monday, with some of the heaviest rainfall in western portions of the county.
“The highest rainfall in Greene County was in Tannersville, where there was 7.46 inches of rain between Sunday and Monday,” meteorologist Brian Frugis with the National Weather Service in Albany said Tuesday. “Other areas were in the 3- to 4-inch range. In Cairo there was 4.75 inches, Freehold was 4.41 inches and Catskill had 3.37 inches.”
Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency in the Capital Region and Hudson Valley, along with other areas of the state, ahead of the storm. The storm was downgraded to a tropical storm before it reached New York and was further downgraded by the time it reached Greene County.
“When the storm came on shore it was a tropical storm and it weakened as it got closer to New York,” Frugis said. “When it reached here, it was a low-pressure area that once was Tropical Storm Henri.”
The area was hit with heavy rain, but it could have been worse, Frugis said.
“This was definitely a significant amount of rain. There were reports of flooded roadways and rising rivers, particularly in the Catskills,” Frugis said. “Luckily, we didn’t have much significant flooding — sometimes with rainfall of this magnitude there is more significant flooding, but we were fortunate the storm was spread out over two days so it prevented major flooding.”
Certain areas of Greene County were particularly hard hit in terms of flooded roadways, Greene County Legislature Chairman Patrick Linger, R-New Baltimore, said Tuesday.
“After everything was said and done, I would say from Haines Falls to Palenville and out to South Cairo were probably the hardest hit areas by the end of the storm,” Linger said. “Most of that happened [Monday] afternoon when the heavy bands of rain stalled and stayed over Greene County. It dumped a ton of rain.”
Rainfall spilled out over Route 23A in Kaaterskill. The bridge at Pennsylvania Avenue in Palenville was underwater and is expected to be closed for some time for repairs, Linger said. Bogart Road in Catskill was also closed.
Route 17 in Jewett, damaged by a winter storm in 2020, sustained additional damage.
“We lost a little bit more of County Route 17 in Jewett, which was closed from the Christmas storm because we haven’t gotten the permits yet to work in the creek bed to make repairs,” Linger said.
The cost to make repairs countywide is unknown and there is little chance of federal or state funding to pay for it, Linger said.
“Unfortunately, for these types of quick emergencies there is not a lot of funding available either at the state or federal level,” Linger said.
Cost estimates for repairs should be available in a few weeks, he added.