A head-on collision between two BMWs on Route 9W in Highland claimed two lives early Saturday morning. The crash, which was widely reported by local media outlets, shut down 9W for hours. 

Today, the Town of Lloyd Police Department identified the two victims: 50-year-old Wayne Donaldson of Highland, who was driving a 1995 BMW, and 51-year-old Tracey Krug, who was driving a 2005 BMW SUV. Neither driver had any passengers in the vehicle at the time of the collision, which occurred around 6:50 a.m. Police say Krug, who was driving southbound, had crossed into the northbound lane at a high speed when her SUV collided with Donaldson's car.

Donaldson was pronounced dead at the scene. Krug was taken to St. Francis Hospital by Mobile Life Ambulance, where she also was pronounced dead.

A mix of heavy rains in the forecast, late-spring snow still clinging to mountain slopes, and still-frozen ground could be a recipe for flash flooding in the Catskills region Saturday night through Monday, forecasters warn. 

Heavy rain is expected to move into the region late Saturday, and continue through Sunday. Hudson Valley Weather is predicting two to three inches of rain across the Catskills and Hudson Valley. 

Police are looking for the driver of a car that struck and critically injured a four-year-old child in a Kingston street on Thursday evening, then fled the scene of the accident. 

Around 10:10 p.m. on Thursday night, the four-year-old was crossing Koenig Boulevard near Spring Brook Village when he was struck. Police say that witnesses on the scene saw a dark-colored vehicle pulling away from the scene, headed southbound on Koenig Boulevard, but are unsure whether the vehicle was involved in the accident. 

The child is currently in critical condition at Westchester Medical Center, Kingston city police said in a news release.

A year after it was begun, a New York State program to help homeowners pay for damage inflicted by Irene, Lee and Sandy is coming to a close. The NY Rising Housing Recovery Program, which funds repair, mortgage assistance, flood mitigation and buyouts of damaged homes, has declared a deadline of April 11, 2014 for homeowners to apply for assistance.

The program has already paid out over $280 million to 6,388 homeowners around the state whose homes were damaged, according to a press release announcing the deadline.

Catskills residents interested in applying to the program are encouraged to attend one of NY Rising's upcoming outreach events, scheduled in several locations around the region for this Saturday, March 29. The events will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the following locations: 

A man who allegedly barricaded himself in his estranged wife's house in Hurley, threatening to shoot anyone who came in after him, was arrested Wednesday after a three-hour standoff with police.

The man, 45-year-old Edward Dixon of Sawkill Road in the town of Kingston, was wanted by police for an incident that occurred at his wife's house the previous day, according to a news release from the Ulster County Sheriff's Office.

Around 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday night, Ulster County police responded to a report of a domestic disturbance at the house on Kovacs Drive in Hurley. Dixon was not there when police arrived, but an investigation found that he had entered the house without his wife's permission, fought with her in front of two children, and taken her phone to prevent her from calling 911. Deputies got a warrant for Dixon's arrest.