Hurricane Sandy Coverage

The governors of New York and New Jersey are publicly venting outrage over a decision by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives to adjourn on Tuesday night without voting on a critical Hurricane Sandy relief bill.

This afternoon, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a Republican, issued a joint statement:  Read more

Dear Editor,

As our neighbors in the Greater New York region to continue to struggle with the devastation of Hurricane Sandy, we know that many also suffered upstate, particularly along the Hudson River. The flooding damaged homes, businesses and public structures, leaving many without power for days.

In many cases, Sandy impacted homes and businesses still recovering from the impacts of Hurricanes Lee and Irene in 2011, and brought into sharp focus, the anxieties and challenges our region continues to struggle with as a result of those storms.

For our friends and neighbors downstate who continue to suffer, we have a statewide obligation to provide intensive support and help them recover as quickly as possible, even as we continue to rebuild here at home. We offer our continued thanks to the many emergency responders and other volunteers, who continue to sacrifice their own comfort and safety to protect the lives and property of others.

All of us are also grateful to the many federal, state and local officials who prudently took steps before, during, and after the storm to protect our communities as much as possible.  Read more

On Friday morning, the Federal Emergency Management Agency opened three centers in Sullivan County to help local residents who were affected by Sandy with the process of applying for federal aid.

The centers are located in the towns of Liberty, Bethel and Thompson.

The Liberty and Bethel individual assistance centers will be open Friday, November 16 and Saturday, November 17 from 9am to 5pm at the following locations:

Barbuti Furniture Store
199 South Main Street
Liberty, New York 12754

Town Hall Building
Tax Collector’s Office
3454 State Route 55
White Lake NY 12786

Another center in the village of Monticello, in the town of Thompson, will be open Monday, November 19, from 9am to 5pm.

Town of Thompson Hall Building
4052 State Route 42
Monticello, New York 12701  Read more

Above: Esopus Fire Department firefighters taking a break from volunteering for Sandy relief at the beach on Long Island last week. Photo by Randi Port, via the Esopus Fire Department Facebook page.

We asked our readers for photos of Catskills emergency responders working downstate on Hurricane Sandy recovery, and we received some great ones from Zack Spalding, the president of the Esopus Fire Department.

Spalding writes that Esopus firefighters were stationed in Long Island last week with several Ulster County fire departments: Highland, New Paltz, Modena, and Ulster Hose. While on duty doing Sandy relief, Spalding says, Esopus firefighters doused a house fire caused by propane tanks bursting into flame:

The most notable call they have responded while being deployed were 3 100lb propane tanks that exploded and caused a fire to spread to the nearby house.  Read more

Above: A pile of surplus donated clothing abandoned in a parking lot in Staten Island one week after Hurricane Sandy. Source: NY1's November 5 report, "Staten Island Donation Centers Taking In More Than They Can Give Out."

In the wake of a disaster like Hurricane Sandy, people want to give. But the giving impulse can cause just as much trouble as the disaster itself.

Here in the Catskills, we learned that firsthand in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene last year.

"We ended up with tractor-trailer loads of clothes," said Charles B. Gockel, the executive director of Huntersfield Christian Training Center, which became ground zero for relief and recovery operations for the hard-hit town of Prattsville after Irene.

"People give things that might have been in their closet for four years, or that is from 1948," he said.  Read more

Shokan residents James and Eva Stapleford were found dead in their Black Road home on Monday night by a Town of Olive police officer, after their daughter in Pennsylvania called Ulster County police to check on her parents.

According to an announcement made by the Ulster County Sheriff's Office on Tuesday morning, the Staplefords' house was found to be without power, though other houses in the neighborhood had power restored. A portable gasoline-powered generator was running in the basement-level garage, where 75-year-old James Stapleford was found dead. Officials believe James's death may have been the result of carbon monoxide poisoning.

73-year-old Eva Stapleford was found at the bottom of the basement stairs, where she appeared to have fallen in an effort to find her husband.

The Staplefords' deaths are under investigation by the Ulster County Medical Examiner's Office and Ulster County Sheriff's Office.

Central Hudson Gas & Electric also responded to the scene to restore electrical service, and make sure the house was safe.  Read more

Above: Six trees landed on this house in Woodridge. A seventh was somehow able to resist the building's attractive powers. Photos by Jason Dole. 

Jason Dole has been covering the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in Sullivan County for the Watershed Post. Here's his more personal take on what it's been like to be a Sullivan County resident this week. -- Julia Reischel

On Wednesday afternoon, I asked a friend how he was doing in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. We joked that Sullivan County was on the verge of becoming a cold, wet version of Mad Max (see left for an idea of the genre). We riffed on hoarding gas and building a Thunderdome.  Read more

Above: Manager Brian McDonald (left) of Advance Auto Parts in Liberty and his staff tracked down gas cans – a hot commodity across the tri-state area. Photo by Jason Dole.

Last week, if people in Sullivan County were concerned about anything at the gas pump, it was the cost of fuel. Now, as worries rise about the availability of fuel, even gasoline containers are becoming scarce.

“You can't get a gas can from West Hazleton, PA to Binghamton, down through the Tri-State area,” said Brian McDonald, Manager at Advance Auto Parts in Liberty. McDonald would know. He's been driving around looking for gas cans while his staff has been making calls and searching online for wholesalers and even other retailers who are in stock.

McDonald eventually found a cache of two-gallon cans up in Norwich, NY, and ordered 150. He brought the first batch back to Liberty himself around 3pm. The bulk will arrive this evening.

“They're going to show up at 7pm,” said McDonald. “And as long as people know they're here, they're gonna fly. People are buying three or four at a time.”  Read more

As of Saturday, we are hearing reports and increasing social-media chatter about gas outages spreading north into Sullivan and Ulster County.

If you have first-hand information about a gas outage -- or, better yet, a photo of a local station where gas is sold out or lines are long -- let us know at editor@watershedpost.com. Please include the date and time of your information.

We are posting all info we get about local gas availability on Twitter, using the hashtag #CatskillsGas. Below: A widget showing all tweets using the #CatskillsGas hashtag. We have not verified all the information in the feed below, so please be aware there may be inaccurate information included, and use your best judgment.

Tweets about "#catskillsgas"

Hurricane Sandy shook up many aspects of public and private life in Sullivan County, but the elections will go on much the same as always. Only two polling places will be changed due to complications following the storm, a Board of Elections official told the Watershed Post.

“Sullivan county has 39 poll sites and 63 election districts,” said Rodney Gaebel, the county's Republican election commissioner, on Friday evening. “They're all up and running, and I can tell you that 37 are staying exactly the same with no change.”

The two exceptions are Willowemoc Baptist Church in the Town of Neversink, and the Town Hall in the Town of Forestburgh. These two polling places have been relocated to the Neversink fire house on Route 55, and the Forestburgh fire house on Route 42, respectively.

“The only reason those two sites are being moved is because they have no power,” Gaebel said.

When asked if he's confident the elections will go on without a hitch, Gaebel said, “I'm more than confident, that's the way it is. The machines have all been delivered. Barring another storm like that, we're good to go.”  Read more

Above: An Alliant Energy crew repairing power lines ravaged by Hurricane Sandy in Woodstock on Thurdsday, November 1, 2012. Photos by Anne Pyburn Craig.

Gregory Brouwer and his Alliant Energy crew left Iowa at 6am Sunday and drove two and a half days to get to New York, driving through Pennsylvania during the worst of the storm. Early Thursday afternoon, they were preparing to “go live” with the major line on Wittenberg Road in Woodstock.

“I’m not sure how they organize it all,” said one of Brouwer's crew members. “Maybe Homeland Security? We just get the call and go."

Crews work 16-hour shifts, coordinating with Central Hudson and local tree trimming crews and highway crews.

“People around here are really, really nice,” said Steve Arneson of southern Minnesota, “with the very rare exception. But those people are just frustrated. We’re used to that.”  Read more

Woodland Valley is one of the few neighborhoods in Shandaken where the power is still out today, four days after the storm.

Carol Seitz, the president of the Woodland Community Association, has been blogging about the valley's experience of the storm at the Woodland Valley View. Her account of the Monday night Sandy hit the valley is worth reading in its entirety, but here's a little peek:   Read more