It's August, the very peak of the high summer season in the Catskills, and the roads are jammed with drivers. That means more crashes, especially on weekends, when the region's many visitors are in transit.

In one week, there have been two crashes on the same stretch of Route 28 in the Ulster County town of Shandaken, from the road's intersection with Route 212 south to the hamlet of Boiceville.

On Sunday, Aug. 2 at 4:17 p.m., first responders were called to a crash at the intersection of Upper Boiceville Road and Route 28, according to Rich Muellerleile, the chief of the Shandaken Ambulance Service, which was dispatched to the scene. 

A week later, another crash happened on the same stretch of road at almost the same time.

At 5:25 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 9, a three-car crash involving a rollover occurred near the intersection of Route 212 and Route 28. The Shandaken EMS, the Olive Fire Department and the Phoenicia Fire Department responded to the scene, and shut down Route 28 from Winne Road to Route 212 for about an hour and a half, according to Muellerleile.

Above: A stream of cloudy water, center, flowed from a rock embankment downstream of the Cannonsville Dam for several weeks. Photo via the NYC DEP. 

A disturbing gush of cloudy water below the Cannonsville Dam was stopped on Saturday, August 1, and the New York City Department of Environmental Protection dialed down the emergency cold-water releases gushing from the Cannonsville Reservoir into the West Branch of the Delaware River on Sunday, August 2.

Fears that the dam was compromised arose on July 8, when a mysterious turbid discharge appeared below the dam, prompting the DEP to draw down the reservoir and warm communities downstream.

On July 23, tests confirmed that the sediment leaking into the river downstream of the dam wasn't coming from the earthen dam itself.