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County now declares state of emergency for flood and effects

Posted 5/5/11

A countywide state of emergency has been declared as the sounds of pumps and expressions of concern from property owners can still be heard in communities along the swollen Raquette River. While he …

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County now declares state of emergency for flood and effects

Posted

A countywide state of emergency has been declared as the sounds of pumps and expressions of concern from property owners can still be heard in communities along the swollen Raquette River.

While he says water levels at least appear to have stabilized and may be coming down, “it’s an ongoing event,” said Martin Hassett, St. Lawrence County Emergency Services Director.

Hassett explained that there has been no great increase in the threat to life and property today, but the fact that the crisis has been going on since April 27, when Brookfield Renewable Power decided that the levels in its reservoirs were so high with snowmelt and rain runoff that an emergency release of water downstream was required, that an emergency declaration seemed appropriate today.

As Potsdam Mayor Ron Tischler said in the emergency declaration he signed Wednesday for the village, volunteer emergency workers and their equipment were starting to wear out as they try to keep up with the flooding, and Hassett agrees with that assessment.

“And the declaration will help with public awareness, and it will make things flow easier among different levels of goverrnment,” he said.

Hassett said assessments of damage will be done for federal authorities almost immediately, “and then the process begins as to who qualifies for aid and who doesn’t qualify.”

He said federal authorities were already in Franklin County sorting out what appears to be about $10.2 million in damage to public works there, including roads, buildings, bridges, and sewage and electric facilities.

Hassett says he has asked those authorities to come to St. Lawrence County, although he says there has been no damage to public facilities reported here so far.

He also said that while it is too early to say for certain that there is a trend that will continue, water levels down the Raquette seem to be stabilizing if not getting lower.

The graph above, from the U.S. Geological Survey, shows the gauge height at the South Colton dam, from when the National Weather Service first began posting flood warnings for the Raquette, through the first emergency releases on April 27, through this afternoon.