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Mom made it through OK though I haven't actually gotten confirmation that the driveway didn't get blocked by downed trees. When I spoke to her there were just a few limbs down but no trees down close to the house. Hopefully her luck held along the 3/10ths of a mile long driveway.

So right now the problem is the lack of power, which might take 5 days to restore. 83% of Wilton is out (Surrounding towns Ridgefield, Weston, Redding are all 90% to 100% so it could be worse).

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Interesting that Margatetville, N.Y. and probably other places in the Catskills got hit harder than most areas, but the media and the politicians were all focused on New Jersey, Long Island, and New York City. Typical.

A good friend's elderly parents live about 50 miles east of there. Any word on how the Hudson Valley fared?

The Hudson Valley made out pretty well - some local flooding, some power outages. Some areas in the Catskills got hit harder. The first film and photos I saw of the flooding in Margaretville scared the hell out of me.

A 90 min trip to Newburgh took me four hours Monday morning because the NY State Thru-way was closed. We called off the trip on Sunday. :blink:

However, it was a beautiful day for driving and listening to tunes. I took 9W (River Road on the West side of the Hudson) back to Ft. Lee, NJ., a route I've never done before.

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Interesting that Margatetville, N.Y. and probably other places in the Catskills got hit harder than most areas, but the media and the politicians were all focused on New Jersey, Long Island, and New York City. Typical.

A good friend's elderly parents live about 50 miles east of there. Any word on how the Hudson Valley fared?

The Hudson Valley made out pretty well - some local flooding, some power outages. Some areas in the Catskills got hit harder. The first film and photos I saw of the flooding in Margaretville scared the hell out of me.

Margaretville's the nearest town to me (even though I live @ the West end of Ulster Co.). Have had no power, phone or water (well, requires elec.) since Sunday afternoon. Many bridges were washed out, today was the first day I could drive (over goat tracks that utility trucks can't drive, but the repair was much faster than what I feared) to what's left of local towns. Might get power back Sunday (can't even think about that until utility crews can traverse the roads)...The main road I use to get to town and the only way to work (power will be out @ work for similar time) has several bridges still washed out, and is impassable. So no work this week... There are lots of people (relatively speaking, for small-town areas) stranded (and I mean stranded) on remote washed-out roads.

There's not good media coverage of rural areas (maybe NY Times'll run something), but I imagine large parts of Greene (e.g. Windham), Ulster (Phoenicia) and Delaware (M'ville, Fleischmanns) Counties got wiped out. Heard of one death in Fleischmanns. Supposedly, Gov. Cuomo was going to appear today somewhere "in the Catskills". Previous all-time worst flood here was in Jan. '96; this is definitely much worse.

Edited by T.D.
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Upstate NY and Vermont have just been devastated. Vermont especially so because of how much is needed to restore/rebuild roads and when winter starts up there.

Makes Mom's lack of power and inability to secure ice or batteries a little less significant. The power company seems stumped on getting the percentage knocked off under 50%; each time I check it seems to be bouncing up instead of getting any lower.

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We just had the power restored here this evening after nearly 5 days. We lost power at 6:45 am Sunday morning at the height of Irene. It was wicked. Very strong winds and heavy rains late Saturday night into early Sunday afternoon. I couldn't sleep at all Saturday night listening to what was happening outside. I actually had to turn on the air conditioner to drown out the sound! We were very fortunate that we only had water in the cellar which I spent a great part of Sunday bailing out. By the time the fire department arrived the water level was too low for them to pump the water out. The water receded overnight thankfully which no longer required any further action on my part. Alot of trees down in the area but none on my property. Things outside of town are a whole different story. In Rhinebeck across the river from me, the water system has been compromised. Water bottles have been imported to the towns residents. In the mountainous areas of the Catskills, there is some very serious devastation. Bridges and roads are washed out. According to a gentleman who works for the county highway department, 8 bridges are gone. Residents have lost homes, busineses washed out by the storm. Towns literally destroyed. Many trees are down cutting off people for some time. They say power in these areas might not be restored for 2 - 3 weeks. Again, I feel very fortunate when my only inconvienance was a power outage. Yeah, walking around in the dark and going out for meals for breakfast and dinner got old real quick. It's something I will never forget. I hope at this point to either volunteer and help some of these poor people in whatever capacity I can or at the very least donate to a relief effort. I feel at this point it's the least I can do.

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We just had the power restored here this evening after nearly 5 days. We lost power at 6:45 am Sunday morning at the height of Irene. It was wicked. Very strong winds and heavy rains late Saturday night into early Sunday afternoon. I couldn't sleep at all Saturday night listening to what was happening outside. I actually had to turn on the air conditioner to drown out the sound! We were very fortunate that we only had water in the cellar which I spent a great part of Sunday bailing out. By the time the fire department arrived the water level was too low for them to pump the water out. The water receded overnight thankfully which no longer required any further action on my part. Alot of trees down in the area but none on my property. Things outside of town are a whole different story. In Rhinebeck across the river from me, the water system has been compromised. Water bottles have been imported to the towns residents. In the mountainous areas of the Catskills, there is some very serious devastation. Bridges and roads are washed out. According to a gentleman who works for the county highway department, 8 bridges are gone. Residents have lost homes, busineses washed out by the storm. Towns literally destroyed. Many trees are down cutting off people for some time. They say power in these areas might not be restored for 2 - 3 weeks. Again, I feel very fortunate when my only inconvienance was a power outage. Yeah, walking around in the dark and going out for meals for breakfast and dinner got old real quick. It's something I will never forget. I hope at this point to either volunteer and help some of these poor people in whatever capacity I can or at the very least donate to a relief effort. I feel at this point it's the least I can do.

Very pleased you've got power back after your ordeal. I guessed you were without power, as I followed the situation in the Daily Freeman online. My paper, the Guardian carried lots of photos of the Catskills devastation in its online version.

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I got power back (in a mountainous area of the Catskills) Thursday around 5:30 PM, almost exactly 4 days outage. No phone yet (they bring in power crews from all over, but the local phone co. is overwhelmed). No damage to my house or immediate neighbors', but there's a lot of devastation, to say the least. All kinds of bridges down, roads closed. I'm very fortunate, considering all those who lost everything. I can travel "the long way", though the road's extremely rough in places and I'm not sure how it'd handle more heavy rain.

Edited by T.D.
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