Pawling Town Supervisor James Schmitt recalls feeling a little deja vu on that morning in early July, 2023: he says the town suffered a similar storm with severe flooding the year before. This time, Schmitt says an entire stretch of Old Route 55 was washed out, as were smaller roads, culverts, and homes.
“Once some of the photos started coming through, I could see, for instance, Murrow Park, which is a park that I grew up in — it was under four feet of water. The entire park, the basketball courts, the parking lot, It looked like one giant lake," says Schmitt. "We had impacts in every single corridor of our community, from that storm.”
Schmitt estimates the town suffered roughly $8 million in damages. And Pawling wasn’t even the epicenter: one person was killed and homes were decimated in the Orange County village of Highland Falls, which received a deluge of roughly eight inches of rain. New York Governor Kathy Hochul called it a “1,000-year event,” and President Biden approved a federal disaster declaration to provide local governments with funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Similar efforts by lawmakers to get FEMA relief for private residents, however, have fallen on deaf ears. While most roads, bridges, and public buildings are back online, Congressman Pat Ryan of the 18th District says many homeowners are still picking up the pieces — and it’s unlikely that FEMA relief is ever going to come through.
“We have many families still under a tremendous burden of financial pressure from dealing with the cleanup, who didn’t have flood insurance — justifiably, because they lived in an area that didn’t normally merit it," says Ryan. "So we’re working with each of those families and local leaders to try to help relief the pressure wherever we can.”
In the weeks after the storm, Hochul unveiled a $3 million grant program to help homeowners and businesses — but some families did not meet the low-income qualifications to apply. Hochul recently announced the availability of low-interest loans for residents, through the U.S. Small Business Administration. Homeowners can take out up to $500,000 to repair their primary residence.
Ryan, a Democrat, recently helped force a bill onto the House floor that would provide tax relief for flood victims, including those impacted by the 2023 storms and those still struggling from Hurricane Ida in 2021. He says it’s important for local residents and officials to reassess their risk for future storms, however, and plan accordingly.
“Given how much and how volatile the climate is, we need to rethink which areas are really at risk and who needs flood insurance. The flood insurance situation is really a mess, and a lot of families who think they’re covered often are not," he notes. "I think unfortunately we’re going to see these once-a-century storms more frequently, unfortunately.”
In Pawling, Republican Supervisor Schmitt agrees that intense storms are becoming more common, and that preparation is key. He says the town has been looking at ways it can rebuild stronger and redirect water in the future. In a way, he says, the town’s flooding in 2022 helped it recover more quickly in 2023.
“We had already been through the FEMA process the year prior, which made it a little bit easier for us, compared to other municipalities, because we had just lived this," he explains. "We’ve been able to get the paperwork done, answer all the deadlines, and get to where we have to get.”
Schmitt says some smaller roads in the town remain closed, as that financial assistance continues to trickle in.
