If the mighty Mohawk River ever reaches the record-breaking flood levels brought on by Tropical Storm Irene and Lee again, residents now have a wider assortment of tips and resources to draw on.
Congressman Paul Tonko hosted a forum discussing flood safety awareness at Jefferson Elementary School on Wednesday, March 14, in connection with National Flood Safety Week. A panel of experts discussed what resources are available for people to track and be aware of potential flood risks and what steps can be taken to better prepare a home for floods. State trends also indicate a shift in the level of water bodies, which could lead to increased flooding and a changing flood plain.
“Floods this past summer gripped this area particularly hard, where people lost everything for which they worked — they literally saw their life savings washed away,” Tonko said. “It behooves us to prepare and prepare well, to reach out and assist people in this current scenario, but also enable us to perhaps think about the future in a different sort of lens.”
Neal Estano, meteorologist for CBS6, said throughout his career he’s seen many floods, but nothing similar to recent flooding.
“I was working that day and we knew it was going to be a big event,” Estano said. “It wasn’t until the pictures started coming from the areas affected by the flooding … literally my jaw was dropping — that was a lot of water.”
One way residents can stay informed on emergency information for weather events is a NOAA weather radio, which Britt Westergard, senior service hydrologist of the National Weather Service, highlighted as an important tool.
Westergard compared the radio to a smoke detector people place in their homes.
“It is kind of like a smoke detector for any kind of severe weather,” she said. “As far as I am concerned, they are as important as a smoke detector in your home.”
The radio will turn itself on if a weather warning is issued and alerts someone with “honks and beeps,” she said. The radio costs around $30 to $40 and is typically available at electronics or “big box” stores, she said.
“Even if it is the middle of the night, it turns itself on … and lets you know something is going on you need to take some kind of action for,” she said.
Another device that can be used to alert of an impending flood is one most people carry with them all time — a mobile phone.
“You can have your river text you or send you an email,” Ward Freeman, of the U.S. Geological Service, said. “It is a useful tool.”
To receive such a message, Freeman said people can go to the website ny.water.usgs.gov and click on what river or waterway they’d like to informed about. Then you specify what water level threshold to send the notification.
“Perhaps you know your driveway floods at 23 feet or the road you need to access your house floods at 25 feet, maybe you want to set it for 22 feet so you can start moving your or getting things out of your basement,” he said.
In 2011, 73 of New York’s 300 active USGS river gauge sites recorded the highest levels ever seen, Freeman said. A large majority of the sites have been active for more than 50 years. Hurricane Agnes was touted as the most significant widespread flooding in the state, he said, but only 22 peak water levels were recorded during the 1972 floods.
Lake Champlain had an “amazing” level of flooding in 2011, he said, with it rising above the flood stage for 66 days.
“We have never seen it remain above the flood stage for that many days,” he said. “It was a full foot higher than we have ever recorded at the site before.
John Garver, geology professor at Union College, also talked about changing flood patterns and what is causing them.
The Mohawk Watershed is an integrated system, so Garver said what happens in Schoharie affects what happens locally. He said there was a considerable amount of excess rainfall in the Catskill Mountains.
“This is an integrated system that we need to worry about,” he said.
During Irene, he said nearly one cubic kilometer of water came through the region, which is equal how much water the region sees throughout an entire year.
“This was a big, big event,” he said.
He suggested the hydrology of the basin could be changing, which would change the frequency and magnitude of flooding. He said there has been a drastic increase in “big events” throughout the region relating to flooding.
The number of declared disasters per county statewide has increased greatly over the last six to seven years, too.
He also said infrastructure throughout the state isn’t ready for the change in water levels and increased flooding.
“It is fairly clear that after Irene and Lee … there is a number critical pieces of our infrastructure that are not ready for an increased amount of water going through the Mohawk Watershed,” he said.
