| Watershed Post

Flood advisory in effect for Sullivan and Delaware Counties

The National Weather Service in Binghamton has declared a flood advisory through around 3:45pm today for Sullivan and Delaware Counties. From an alert posted on NY-Alert:

At 945 AM EDT...Doppler Radar Indicated Heavy Rain Was Falling... And Will Result In Minor Flooding. * Locations In The Advisory Include But Are Not Limited To Hancock...Walton...Livingston Manor...Montrose... Harveys Lake...Hazleton...Wilkes-Barre...Meshoppen... Tunkhannock...Carbondale...Scranton...Hawley...Honesdale... Pleasant Mount And Waymart.

Rainfall So Far Has Been 1 To Just Over 2 Inches. Another 1 To 2 Inches Is Possible As Rain And Possibly Some Thunderstorms Continue Over The Area Into The Afternoon. This Rain Has Caused Rises On Streams And Creeks...As Well As Ponding Of Water On Roads And Low Lying Areas.

Readers, do you see flood conditions near you? Leave us a comment here, or email us at [email protected].

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"Pill party" may have caused two deaths in Athens motel

Several local news outlets are reporting that a man and a woman were found dead in a room in the Starlight Motel in Athens on Wednesday night, in a case that police believe is the result of accidental overdose at a "pill party." The Kingston Daily Freeman reports:

County Sheriff’s Investigator Sean McCulloch said authorities were called to the Starlight Motel on U.S. Route 9W just before 9 p.m. Wednesday to check on the occupants of one of the rooms there after the motel’s owner spotted an unfamiliar car in the parking lot and a door to one of the motel rooms slightly ajar.

McCulloch said that when authorities entered the room, they found two men in their 20s and two women in their 30s and drugs were present.

One man and one woman were dead, and the other two people were heavily drugged, “incoherent and unable to speak,” McCulloch said.

A News 10 reporter also spoke with McCulloch:

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Food Truck Festival rolls into Saugerties

Years back, one could scarcely find a food truck in the Hudson Valley outside of a county fair, with the exception of the occasional hot dog gypsy and those curiously unsettling ice cream-mobiles. But in keeping with our clever habit of adopting what's best in city culture, roadside food has been developing quite a presence in the region -- complete with locally-sourced ingredients and creative cuisine.

Ergo, time for a celebration. It's happening Friday in Saugerties, and features four of the finest local bands and a half-dozen purveyors of meals-on-wheels. Besides the music and grub, there will be walk in-crafts, movies for the kids, craft beer and fine wine, and fire jugglers. When was the last time you hung out with fire jugglers?

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Schreibman and Gibson debate tonight

Tonight, the candidates for New York's 19th Congressional District, Julian Schreibman (Democrat) and Chris Gibson (Republican incumbent), will hold their second debate at 8pm at WMHT-TV in Troy. The station will be broadcasting the debate live on television, as will WSKG-TV in Binghamton.

The first debate between Gibson and Schreibman, held last week at the M. Clifford Miller Middle School in Kingston, was videotaped and livestreamed by the Freeman. (Click the link for a video replay of the debate, as well as the Freeman's news account.)

A third debate will be held at 7pm on Wednesday, October 24 at SUNY Oneonta.

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Chris Gibson

ny-19

Julian Schreibman

19th Congressional District

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Craft cider rises from the ashes

Above: Tuthilltown's microdistilled gin and vodka made with New York State apples, on display at a recent cider tasting for the media at the Stockade Tavern in Kingston. Photo by Lissa Harris.

The spirit of Johnny Appleseed is alive and well in New York's orchards. (And if you think Johnny Appleseed was all about pie and juice, think again.)

The hard cider industry in the United States has been a shadow of its former self since Prohibition, when apple orchards were razed to put a stop to cidermaking. But with the recent rise of interest in microbreweries and small-batch distilling, hard cider is once again ascendent. And in New York State, where legal reform has helped the wine and spirits industry undergo a dramatic renaissance in recent years, advocates are hoping to put hard cider on the map once more.

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Three-car pileup on Rte. 28 in West Hurley leads to minor injuries

Above: A three-car accident resulted in a flipped-over pickup truck on Rte. 28 last night. Photo by Mike A., of the West Hurley Fire Department, via the department's Facebook page.

Sun glare and crowded traffic conditions caused a rear-end chain collision that resulted in a three-car pileup on Rte. 28 in West Hurley Tuesday evening, according to an Ulster County Sheriff's Office press release.

The accident reportedly began when 52-year-old Ellery Jarrette of Pine Hill slowed for traffic as he drove westbound on Rte. 28. Seventy-six-year-old Eugenie Wilkes of Shokan rear-ended Jarrette, and then was rear-ended herself by 51-year-old Douglas McKinley of West Hurley, whose pickup truck flipped over upon impact. The crash resulted in only minor injuries, the police reported.

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West Hurley Fire Department

Ellery Jarrette

Eugenie Wilkes

Douglas McKinley

This Weekend: Harvest events continue

Above: Preserves at the Greenville Farmers & Crafts Market, this weekend at the Greenville Cultural Center. Photo from the Great Northern Catskills website.

We're in the thick of autumn now: Cairo's apple festival is past, pumpkins and squash are everywhere and the leaves have gotten the memo. This weekend will see a host of autumnal events for your apple spice-scented enjoyment including a Slow Food Community cider pressing in Narrowsburg, the Hell-O-Roma Resort (don't be scared -- it's still Villa Roma underneath!), myriad corn mazes and hayrides -- all of this (and more!) in our calendar.

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Training antlers

Watershed Post reader Cassie Perez sent us a video of a few baby bucks -- with miniature antlers -- play-fighting at dusk next to the Ashokan Reservoir last night. Yet another entry for the Wild Things Badge.

Cassie writes:

Here is a video I shot on 10/16/2012. I was walking the Dike at the Ashokan Reservoir as the sun was setting, and I stopped to watch the deer go about their ways. There were about ten deer, three of them decided to get frisky!

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First snowfall on Slide Mountain

Add this to the growing pile of evidence that, in fact, we live in the Shire. A Watershed Post reader known only to Flickr as dyerry1 captured this ephemeral moment on Slide Mountain on Friday, October 12, when the high peaks of the Catskills got the first brief snowfall of the year.

Photo shared in the Watershed Post's Flickr group pool. Click here to see it in all its high-resolution glory.

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Chronic wasting disease found in Pennsylvania deer

New York and Pennsylvania state environmental agencies are imposing emergency rules on hunters, after a captive deer in New Oxford, Pennsylvania was found to be infected with chronic wasting disease.

Today, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) declared that any deer or elk shot in Pennsylvania must be butchered, and all body parts that could carry the disease must be removed, before it is brought into New York State.

In Pennsylvania, hunters in a newly-designated, 700-square-foot management area around where the infected deer was found must take any deer they kill to a check station to be examined. According to the Hanover Evening Sun, the state Game Commission is currently working on new regulations and a map of the management area.

Below: A press release issued today by the New York State DEC.

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Department of Environmental Conservation

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