ELLENVILLE – A cold day, a broken pipe, and the result for a building can be devastating. That was the scene on Tuesday, January 27 at the Nevele Resort, just south of Ellenville on Route 209.

The first news of the disaster came when the Ellenville Fire Department was called to pump water out of a flooded basement. At the scene there was the sight of enormous icicles forming on the sides and ceilings of the Golden Gate building, which stands across the way, a little to the north, of the Nevele Tower and main building.

Mounds of ice had built up underneath the south wing of the Golden Gate building, where water had poured down from the building above. On the ground, under the building, the ice was almost a foot thick. The water in the basement had been nine feet deep according to eyewitnesses.

Earlier, observers at Honor's Haven, next door to the Nevele, heard water gushing out of the building, before the fire trucks arrived.

From observation of the site it would appear that pipes broke on the upper floors and water cascaded down through the building, freezing when it broke out into the cold air.

Management of the Nevele declined to comment on the situation for this article.