Good Riddance, Irene!

I’m sure by now that everyone has had his or her fill of Irene.  Can you stand one more story?

The hurricane, which was downgraded to a tropical storm by the time it reached us, did more damage to our community than I ever imagined.  At least, nothing like I’ve ever seen in my lifetime! 

Last Monday morning, with the storm safely behind us, I arrived at work and was stunned to see our school parking…normally a huge empty lot…filled to capacity with travel trailers, motor homes, trucks, and school buses.  The county fairgrounds, located at the bottom of our school hill and next to the Mohawk River, had flooded.  The annual county fair, set to open the very next day, was postponed and carnival workers were evacuated and moved to our school parking lot. 

Later, I would see photos…taken high above from a helicopter…that showed water up to the roofs of the colorful striped carnival tents.  Park Street, directly across from the fair entrance, had morphed into a huge lake.  The ice-cream business, located on the corner of Park Street, had raging water up to its counters!  Beyond that sits the bus garage, which now housed six feet of water instead of school buses…which had also been moved to our parking lot.

Beyond the obvious damage done by raging water and flooding, roads and bridges were closed, and thousands were without electricity or phone service.  With the NYS Thruway and Routes 5 and 5S closed in both directions, State officials hastily put together a plan to re-route traffic from Amsterdam going west via Route 29 to Route 67.  Unfortunately, officials did not realize that their plan forced traffic…including huge tractor-trailers…to snake through the small downtown streets of Johnstown.  This resulted in one gigantic mess…with bumper-to-bumper traffic stretched for miles.  Thank goodness for businesses with big hearts.  The Stewart’s in Johnstown offered their restroom facilities…and I heard that the line snaked out the door and around the block! 

The above photos were taken on Monday afternoon.  By that time, the tremendous floodwaters had receded a great deal.  Bright, sunny skies disguised the havoc that inflicted the area only hours before.

Now, nearly one week later, things are considerably calmer.  The majority of roads and bridges have re-opened, and electricity has been restored to all of Fulton and Montgomery Counties.  The “carnies” moved back to the fairgrounds, and the 170^th Fonda Fair finally opened its doors on Thursday evening; ironically, as rain fell from the sky. 

Goodnight Irene…and good riddance!  Uh oh…here comes Lee!