Recovery efforts are continuing in the Hudson Valley after damaging floods and record rainfall.
Roads were washed out and buildings flooded, especially near West Point. Damoy Batista, who works for the Holiday Inn in Fort Montgomery, says the Orange County hotel saw the crisis unfold, even though there wasn’t flooding like in nearby Highland Falls.
“I had a bunch of people stay here at the lobby, the meeting room. And luckily, I was able to give it [to] some people, but people that had reservations already ended up coming. So I wasn't able to give it to every single person. And I also had people sleep in the parking lot. Because, you know, we didn't have enough space," Batista said.
Batista says people had nowhere to go.
“Yeah, everything was closed, nobody could move because the traffic was really bad," Batista said.
Orange County Executive Steven Neuhaus says while some roads are now passable, infrastructure repairs may take months.
“I think- the main arteries are open now, like 9W, the state highway. There's some bridges that needed major overhaul. So what you're looking at right now is, these are opening up. They're not gonna look pretty, they're not gonna be a hundred percent what we want, like some of them will not have shoulders, but at least they'll be able have traffic flow through at some level, but I think you can easily say we're gonna be months into this when we're rebuilding full culverts, full bridges, and some sections of road," Neuhaus said.
Kim Espinoza Donnery is with the Overlook on Hudson Bed and Breakfast in Highland Falls.
“Right down the street from us is the water treatment plant. And there's been just constant activity there was trucks out here every single day just going up and down to fix the railroad track down there I think and also working on the water system. Town all you see it's very sad because when you drive around you just see all the streets loaded with everybody stuff that you know they're taking out of their houses and stuff like that," Donnery said.
Espinoza Donnery says the flooding was national news.
“All I've gotten since this happened is constant phone calls, constant texts from people all around the country that are texting me, ‘Are you OK? We've seen this on the news. You know, we're hoping your property is great. How did you fare?’ I mean, it's been nonstop.”
Espinoza Donnery says her family’s hotel was lucky," Donnery said.
“We had no damage. You would never know from our property, you know, but we are up high and we look at the river. However, down the road for me there was a lot of damage and houses that really got destroyed and then our road, Old State Road, the road coming in was buckled, you know, well, lost," Donnery said.
Stacey Falk, of the Highland Falls Public Library, says she’s lived there for 46 years and never experienced such a storm. She says the ground around the library was covered in mud, water, rocks and asphalt.
“We had to close on Monday. And we couldn't, you know, couldn't safely get the staff here, and patrons here, but we've been open since Tuesday," Falk said.
Falk says the library is in decent shape and serving as a gathering place.
“You know, making sure that we can be here for the community, as far as like extra support and stuff, but we don't have any, no building damage or anything to fix," Falk said.
Senator James Skoufis, a Democrat from the 42nd District who represents the area, says he’s doing everything in his power to help those affected by the storm.
“My team was going door to door today in Highland Falls pamphleting. And the most important thing that we were sharing was encouraging property owners and residents to click through a link to fill out a form and share it with the county who is then going to share with FEMA, the damages that were in one's home, damages to one's property," Skoufis said."
For WAMC News, I’m Alexander Babbie.
