SHAWANGUNK RIDGE – The storm and power outages of last Tuesday seemed bad enough. But it was only the lead punch in a one-two combination that brought the ridge area to its knees, as an even bigger storm dumped upwards of two feet of wet snow on top of the foot that had fallen earlier in the week. The storms took out power and phone lines, ensuring that employees of area highway departments and utility companies would be working overtime to restore power and communications to nearly 200,000 customers who for an extended period of time were forced to go without. But the storm was oddly selective in its wrath, sparing certain places such as Kingston, an area that saw little in the way of accumulation, while places just a few miles further inland got clobbered.

Ellenville and Wawarsing
The Village of Ellenville and the Town of Wawarsing both took massive hits during the storms, prompting the municipalities' elected officials to declare a state of emergency on Thursday afternoon. The emergency condition lasted until Saturday for the village, while the town's declaration was in effect through Tuesday. The declaration, in fact, kept the Ellenville Central School District closed on Monday, since closed roads made it a logistical impossibility to send buses on their routes to pick up children. Town Supervisor Lenny Distel called an emergency meeting at town hall on Monday afternoon (see expanded article on page 21) to modify the state of emergency to allow the district to reopen on Tuesday.

Central Hudson continued to work on restoring power to customers in Ellenville and Wawarsing, saying that, as of Monday, about 400 Ellenville customers were still in the dark, with about 1,200 similarly afflicted in Wawarsing. The company's press releases indicated that they expected to have power restored to everyone by midnight on Wednesday.

By Wednesday afternoon, the Town of Wawarsing was able to provide estimates as to what the storms cost the municipality. Over $53,000 was spent in total by the Highway Department, with over $23,000 spent in overtime alone, a result of the crews putting in hours around the clock to get the roads clear.

In the meantime, the American Red Cross shelter set up at the Kerhonkson Firehouse remained open, welcoming residents from the area who were without power. According to their records, the highest number of people staying overnight at the shelter totaled at 27, while upwards of 40 people came to the shelter during the days to utilize hot showers and to eat.

The shelter was run by a rotating team of Red Cross volunteers from the Adirondack chapter, while their efforts were aided by members of the Kerhonkson Fire Department, as well as the Kerhonkson-Accord First Aid Squad, who kept staff on-site to assist with medical conditions and to take people to the hospital when necessary. Ulster County Fire Coordinator Charlie Mutz helped synchronize the assistance efforts, and two local Boy Scouts, 15-year-old Lucas Augustine and 14-year-old Stephen Lopez, were at the shelter every day to help set up cots and distribute meals.

"They were a great help," praised disaster service volunteer Tom Parsons of the scouts, who, with his wife Jo Ellen, made their way from the Adirondacks to direct the shelter on Monday.

Crawford, Wallkill, and Gardiner
The big snow knocked out power in Pine Bush early on Thursday morning, according to Fay.

"It was out by 12:30 a.m.," said Tim Fay, Chief of the Pine Bush Fire Department, who called the series of storms "Snowmaggedon."

The fire department moved into action immediately, he said.

"We had preplanned this since we built the building," said Fay. "We set up here as a warming shelter, open 12 hours a day. "

"We formed a storm standby crew here," said Chief Fay. "And once people got here, they stayed here, responding with the apparatus to the calls coming in. Fortunately, we had no house fires. Mostly it was pumping assistance calls on cellars and calls about downed wires."

"Power in Pine Bush came back up 3 p.m. Saturday, and by 8 p.m. we had 99 percent power and we closed the shelter."

Meanwhile the Town Government Center was running on its own automatic backup generator, at least for a while.

"It stopped working sometime in the morning on Friday," said Town Clerk Kelly Eskew. "But then Pine Bush Equipment sent another one over, so we got power back on here."

At the Pine Bush Fire House, the Ladies Auxiliary had gone into action early, too. Judy Parsells, President of the Ladies Auxiliary, said, "I was notified by John Boyle, Assistant Fire Chief, that the fire department and police were setting up the warming station. I called a lot of people, but a lot of phone lines were down, or they had lost electric power so I could only get a few who could come out. But, we all pulled together and cooked a lot of meals and made the seniors welcome as they were brought in."

Lieutenant Dominick Blasko and Deputy Supervisor Dan Flanick went door to door in Pine Bush checking on seniors and anyone without power or heat.

"This was the heaviest snow I ever plowed," said Flanick. "I plowed people out that I don't even know. Such a mess, I saw trucks off the road, power lines down all over the place."

Blasko and Flanick went through the senior housing on Boniface Drive on Saturday and took some seniors up to the warming center at the fire house.

"The Ladies Auxiliary did an outstanding job keeping the center open and feeding all those people," said Flanick.

"They also sent food across to the seniors who stayed in the senior housing."

Flanick noted that the utility companies worked well with the local authorities to keep everyone up to date on what was happening.

"They staged at the high school," said Flanick. "They brought in all these tree companies, and their own equipment. The parking lot was full. And it looked like an army of ants out there when they went to work."

Behind the scenes, operating from the generator-powered Cup and Saucer, Dino Mavros was supplying food and supplies to the Fire House Warming Center and to the seniors.

"We sent meat loaf, gravy, sausage and eggs, pasta and ricotta cheese, burgers, hot dogs, over to the Ladies Auxiliary. And we poured lots of free coffee.

"This is Pine Bush," said Mavros. "Everyone did whatever they could."

"I want to give a big thank you to all those who came out, as well as to the police and fire department guys, who worked so hard for so long," said Judy Parsells.

Over in the Hamlet of Wallkill, the situation was much less stressful.

"In the hamlet," said Town Clerk Margaret Tremper, "the power was only out for a few hours. By and large, we were pretty lucky."

Scattered power outages continued, however.

"This morning, Sand Hill Road and Bates Lane were still out."

Gardiner too, was largely spared the worst.

"The snowfall was very mixed. Close by the mountain it wasn't that bad," said Supervisor Joe Katz. "But power was out for days, and it's still out on Albany Post Road, that whole area."

Town Clerk Michelle Mosher said, "Gardiner was not hit as hard as surrounding areas, though the power was out from Thursday and still out on Monday in some places."

Mamakating
In the Town of Mamakating a total of 50 inches of snow fell last week, according to Highway Superintendent Richard Johnson, an amount that is without precedent in his 25 year tenure within the department.

"We had 12 inches on Tuesday, and about 38 on Thursday and Friday," he said.

Johnson said that the last several days have been pretty much a blur, as he and his crews have been running almost nonstop.

"I don't even know how much sleep I've had over the past few days," Johnson said.

Johnson says that the highway department is now focused on improving sight distances at intersections — the huge piles of snow on street corners making it difficult to see oncoming traffic — as well as widening roads that have been narrowed by mounds of snow piled along the shoulder. Overall, Johnson says, things are slowly returning to normal, and that he's pleased by the hard work the department has done over the past few days.

"I'm really proud of the guys, Joann [Salamone, Deputy Highway Superintendent], everyone," he said.

Johnson said, however, that budget constraints over the past few years have definitely made the task more difficult, as some of the older equipment the department owns has seen better days. Mamakating Town Supervisor Harold Baird says that several of the town trucks have had to be towed.

"They've been maxed out," Baird said. "We've had a few breakdowns."

Baird said that getting to problem areas was one of the biggest problems over the past few days.

"You can't get up the road because a tree or a wire's down," he said. "Fire departments are also having a tough time [reaching certain calls]." Interestingly, Baird said that, though the town hall was available as a shelter for those who had lost power, no one took advantage of this, preferring instead to seek shelter with friends or relatives.

Orange & Rockland Utilities, the electrical service provider for a large section of Sullivan County, has the situation mostly under control now, according to spokesman Mike Donovan.

"We have 184 without power in the Town of Mamakating," Donovan said, "and a total of 195 in Sullivan County."

Donovan said that protocols for the restoration of power calls on utility companies to restore power to the most customers they can as quickly as possible. This means that villages and other built-up areas tend to see power restored the earliest, with individual customers in the more rural locations — who may have had a tree branch take out the line leading to the house — often coming last.

"It's the law of diminishing returns," Donovan said. "You help the biggest number of people first."

Town of Rochester
Town of Rochester Supervisor Carl Chipman said that town employees have been burning the candle at both ends when it comes to working toward some sense of normalcy. He also echoed Mamakating Supervisor Harold Baird's sentiments that the highway department, in particular, has been run ragged by the storm.

"I really feel sorry for the guys in the highway department," Chipman said. "They've busted their buns."

He also reiterated what others had to say when it comes to problems accessing many roads. He said that Central Hudson Gas & Electric provides a direct phone number that town officials can use when they encounter a road that has been blocked by a downed electrical line. He says that this process worked well, for the most past, but that by Thursday evening — when the heaviest, wettest snow fell — it started to break down.

"They go out to repair one line, only to see another further up the road," Chipman said. "And, on some of these roads, it looks like a bomb went off."

Chipman is also reassessing whether to add to the Rochester Town Hall an emergency generator that can be used during prolonged power outages. He said that the town hall lost power on two occasions over the past week; and, since many people rely on town government during a natural disaster, it might make sense to upgrade the town hall using a small discretionary grant the town has already received.

Town of Rochester Highway Superintendent Wayne Kelder said that the storms, had they happened earlier in the winter when temperatures are colder, were actually manageable insofar as snow accumulations are concerned.

"The problem was that it rained for a short while down in the low-lying areas," Kelder said. "This caused the snow to stick to the trees and power lines — and that caused problems."

Kelder said that, normally, it's the higher elevations that get hit the hardest. In this case, however, residents further up the ridge received snowfall that was lighter, and which didn't stick the way it did in the valleys.

Kelder also wanted to thank the hard work his crews put in over the past few days.

"The people of Rochester should feel fortunate to have such a capable, knowledgeable and experienced highway crew," he said.

Kelder said that the Town of Rochester Highway Department employs only nine people to maintain approximately 120 miles of road, so the workload can be overwhelming at times such as these.

'We got through it, though," he said.

Kelder also said that this kind of weather is a reminder to us all that we need to be prepared.

"We take for granted that we have electricity all the time, and roads open all the time," he said. "Mother nature can sometimes throw us a curve."