Saugerties town supervisor Kelly Myers and village mayor William Murphy have declared a state of emergency for their respective communities beginning at 4 p.m. They are asking that all non-emergency service individuals be off the road at that time.
For residents whose roads will be closed because of flooding and are concerned about going to friends homes or to the town’s emergency shelter at the Senior Center to ride out the storm, Murphy, and police chief Joseph Sinagra said that a police officer will be stationed at those roads to ensure that no one is allowed to go down those roads.
In a 2 p.m. conference call with Central Hudson that included officials from Ulster, Orange, Putnam, Dutchess, and Greene counties along with a number of state officials, the electric and gas company’s John Maserjain said that its 120 line crew members will be out restoring power as soon as it is safe for them to be up in the bucket trucks. Sixty-two crews from out of state including from Florida, Iowa, Wisconsin, and from as far away as Alaska will be arriving by tonight to help.
Central Hudson has about 8,000 customers without power, however most of them are located in the Poughkeepsie district.
Dry ice will be distributed as soon as the storm abates, Maserjain said. However, no distribution sites have been set up yet. Myers said she expects that for Saugerties it will be the large pavilion at Cantine Field, which is where it was distributed after Tropical Storm Irene.
Maserjain said, in his update on the storm that the worst is expected to hit about 6 or 7 p.m. tonight and last until 6 or 7 a.m. There is no widespread flooding expected, he added.
Wind gusts are expected to be in the 60 mph to 75 mph range with sustained winds of 30 mph to 40 mph.
Myers said an emergency evacuation shelter at the Senior Center is open, and that no food will be served. However there is a kitchen and evacuees can make use of it.
One of the first homes to sustain some damage from the storm was the Paskoff family home on East Bridge Street.
Lisa Paskoff said that at about 7 a.m. the family heard a large boom and the house shook. They found that a large tree had struck the home a glancing blow and damaged a portion of the roof, however the damage was not enough to drive them from their home, she added.