Almost every 30 seconds, since 5 a.m. the morning of Monday, April 16, pages to each of Colonie’s 12 fire districts were going out for flooded basements.
The water is anywhere from 4 inches high to above responders’ knees. And as the nor’easter responsible for the flooding continued to pound the region with no sign of stopping, firefighters weren’t sure when they would be able to call it a day.
It’s been very busy. The first call came in around 5 a.m. We are between 30 or 40 calls right now and that’s just us, said West Albany Fire Department Chief Vic Graves, while pumping out a basement at 2 p.m. on Monday.
Graves said it has been some of the worst flooding he has seen in the district outside of floods in the hamlet of West Albany a few years back. Typically, flooding occurs where the Red and Sand creeks merge at the hamlet’s eastern end.
However, flooding Monday was occurring in residences that had never before seen a drop of water in their basements, he said.
Some completely finished, carpeted basements flooded. In most cases, where there was one, there were several.
Often, neighbors would see the trucks in front of homes on their streets and ask firefighters to help them with water in their basements. It wasn’t uncommon to pump out as many as seven homes on the same street, Graves said.
To the northwest, roads were closed Monday due to flooding of areas abutting or near the Lisha Kill. The Albany County Sheriff’s Department reported road closings due to flooding at Consaul Road between Pearse and Lishakill roads and a portion of Waterman Avenue that runs from Watervliet Shaker Road to Central Avenue.
The closings came in the early morning as students made their way to Lisha Kill School. The areas were opened later in the afternoon.
Although flooding in the Lisha Kill area is common, the flooding of Waterman Avenue is not common, said Robert Mitchell, commissioner of the town’s Department of Public Works.
Public works crews have to wait out the storm to see what caused the flooding of Waterman Avenue. The area has a big detention basin that should be able to handle the volume of runoff, he said.
Whether the system was overwhelmed or a pipe in the drainage system was blocked has yet to be determined.
`All the streams are running high and we are having a rough time handling the runoff,` Mitchell said.
Public works crews reported throughout Monday on the areas of the town that typically flood, he said.
Only one other area, Campagna Drive off Sand Creek Road, was closed on Monday at 3 p.m., he said.“
