Even in balmy weather, Kingston is susceptible to flooding.
Sea levels have risen 9 inches in New York since 1950 and continue rising an inch every seven to eight years. At high tide, the Hudson River goes up, too.
Julie Noble, project manager for the city, and lifelong Kingston resident, says the city is already experiencing a type of flooding called sunny day flood, which is caused by high ocean tides that push up the Hudson River.
“We have a couple areas along our Rondo Creek waterfront, and a couple of areas along our Hudson River waterfront that we normally keep road barricades located by the side of the road that have a big sign that says ‘road floods regularly’ and ‘flooded road closed’. And so we actually have both of those signs. And so now we have to deploy that pretty regularly,” said Noble.
A USGS water level monitor on the Rondout Creek shows the river height spiked from its usual spring height up 5 feet on May 9th, 2025, before midnight while much of the Hudson Valley was in a flood warning.
As part of Kingston’s flood mitigation efforts, a new tool can help.
Riverkeeper, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting the Hudson River, has developed a resource that includes a map of the Hudson that is filled with data.
Science Director at Riverkeeper, Shannon Roback Ph.D., says communities can use the tool to learn how global warming will affect their area in the Hudson Valley.
“So you can see where the current sea level is, what will three feet of sea level rise look like? What will six feet and 10 feet of sea level rise look like? And what's really nice is that you can zoom in. You can actually type in your address, it will locate you on the map… You can see in your community how that sea level rise is going to affect your community,” said Roback.
The tool also shows if big and small waterways are safe for swimming, fishing, drinking, and if DEC has tested the water quality and said it’s safe.
The tool’s climate change layer offers predictions for sea level rise on the Hudson River. Some areas that are already at risk include Piermont, Tarrytown, Stony Point, Peekskill, Kingston and Albany.
Kingston is already thinking a lot about sea level rise.
Noble says between FEMA dollars and other sources, Kingston is investing about $45 million dollars into projects like converting a parking lot that remains permanently flooded into a wetland.
“It's already growing on its own, and so we're letting it establish on its own, and letting the natural vegetation make its way there on its own,” said Noble.
Another project was to protect the wastewater treatment plant from flooding. Upgrades included adding floodgates at the doors and elevating critical infrastructure 11 feet off the ground, which Noble says has effectively stopped the risk of flooding.
Noble says that as part of the advisory committee of the Hudson Valley Flood Resilience Network, she sees what different communities in the Hudson Valley are doing to prepare.
Like Kingston, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which has tracks going up and down the Hudson Valley, is working full steam ahead on flood mitigation plans.
“We want to make sure that, as climate change occurs, we can continue service on the Hudson line for the next 100 years. And in order to do that, we have to prevent slope failures, culvert washouts, sea level rise and tidal flooding, encroachment and all these sort of risks that are going to be magnified by climate change,” said Eric Wilson, senior vice president for Climate and Land Use Planning at MTA construction and development.
Wilson says the MTA is regularly planning for sea level rise and other extreme weather events like flash floods and heavy rainfall.
“We're experiencing the impacts of torrential rain right now, as we are sea level rise, but in terms of magnitude of consequence, it's truly the flash floods, the intense rains, that are most consequential and frequent,” said Wilson.
That doesn’t mean that sea level rise is not also impacting the Metro North train lines.
“Well, in our [2025] to [2029] capital plan, we did reserve $800 million just for the Hudson line,” said Wilson.
Because it runs along the Hudson River, Metro North’s Hudson Line is one of the MTA’s most vulnerable train lines. The MTA says it is making investments to help. These include modernizing aging infrastructure and installing barriers that can prevent landslides or flashfloods as well as elevating the most low lying areas of the Hudson Line, like the Garrison station,
“A lot of our existing culvert infrastructure was built nearly 100 years ago for a different climate, also for a different time when the upland was not as developed,” said Alda Chan, director of Climate Resilience Planning who manages Metro North projects.
Chan and Wilson said in the MTA’s $68 billion 2025-2029 capital plan, every investment takes climate change into account.
Shannon Roback says that while sea level rise is gradual, it’s really storms that show how bad it can get.
“That degree of flooding will worsen as the base level sea rise gets higher, then those flood events push further inland, and the flooding becomes worse,” said Roback.
Noble says communities need to start thinking and investing to deal with sea level rise and other extreme weather. She says if your community is not thinking about it, then talk to other communities that are and join groups that are looking for funding.
“But the reality is, the future is also now. We're seeing flooding right now. We have damage right now.”
