Three Rivers
Hudson~Mohawk~Schoharie
History From America's Most Famous Valleys
The Flood
Without warning on Wednesday morning, June 28, 2006, water descended upon St. Johnsville. Ten inches of rain filled all the creeks and the Mohawk River. Unofficially, the Mohawk River crested at 22 feet above flood level.
Water rose rapidly and then the power was shut off at Beardslee Power Plant and Inghams Mills Power Plant and the phones were taken off line until temporary generators could be brought in. Every exit was cut off. Fort Plain was closed, Canajoharie, Little Falls and Herkimer along with St. Johnsville. The bridges were almost all closed, the NY Thruway from Albany to Syracuse was closed along with Route 5 and Route 5S.
Many homeowners lost the contents of their basements, furnaces, hot water heaters, washers, dryers. Others had their foundations compromised and have to leave their homes, some roads and bridges will have to be rebuilt. Recovery will take time. But we were fortunate, there were no deaths and it didn't happen during the cold weather. Limited power has been restored as of 6/30/06 by National Grid using two temporary substations. Inghams Mills Power Plant will be off line for some time.
It was heart warming to see the fire departments from across the state respond to the emergency. They went door to door many times to assess the conditions and help where they could. The St. Johnsville DPW and St. Johnsville Fire Department worked around the clock, even though many of the men had water in their own homes. We weren't alone, thank you!
Bailing
out The fire department pumped many homes several times,
but this
homeowner was using a "pass the bucket" system. Two days after the flood,
many still say their basements are still filling with water. There wasn't
just
muddy water but sewage in the basements.
Some homes have
3-4 feet of water in their basements.
Church
St. Water goes where it will. It had been deeper,
right up to the homes,
but here it is going down.
John St. This is deep
enough to knock over a child. It is between
6-12 inches and was like this
on all streets on the west end of the village.
Lighthouse
at Marina Lighthouse is to the left of the American flag.
Marina Gas pumps
are under water.
Main
St. Near the corner of W. Main and Division Sts.
The water has already
receding but an hour before
it was over the sidewalk.
Old Mill By Horn's
Mill between Church and N. Division.
West St. Looking south. You can see where the
water was, the grass is flattened.
William
St. Looking East.
Campers at the Marina Campers with a close to
the water location.
Church & Smith
Streets The mess the water left behind.
House
on N. Division
Garage
on N. Division
Smith Street House
on Smith Street.
Temporary
Power The Ingham Mills power plant is down and the substation
at St.
Johnsville. This
is a temporary set up so we have power.
Beardslee power plant has been
restarted and needs extensive clean up.
No dams broke, thank heaven!
Near the Thumb Road Bridge Note
the phone pole standing in the hole,
though it is much shorter than the other
poles. The hole is about 20' wide X 30' deep.
Thumb
Road This area of the hillside along the Creek experienced a mud slide
even though it was heavily wooded. You can see the guard rail
from Thumb
Road part way down the hill.
Inghams Mills Power Plant under siege
Aerial photos Photo #1 St. Johnsville , Photo
#2 St. Johnsville, St. Johnsville with
identification of landmarks
(These photos don't show the damage north of Main Street
or on North Division Street or at the eastern end of the village.)
Inghams from the air, Beardslee
from the air.
Terry
Potoczny sent these photos. Office
at the Marina, the
ball park,
campers at the marina, Inghams
Mills Dam, Thumb
Road Bridge, Top
of Thumb Road, Damage from creek
Governor
Pataki has announced a free hot line for disaster applications.
1-888-7-NYS-AID. Mon-Fri,
8 AM to 8 PM. Sat-Sun 8 AM-5 PM.
Many people want more photos of the flooding in the valley. You may download a 15 mb file to view the photos. I tried to take out those that might be copyrighted. People from all around sent photos to me, I took a lot of them and Terry Potoczy contribued many also. To advance to the next slide, simply press your space bar. Download. You need MS Power Point Application.
This was a 100 year flood, we thought floods happened every place but here, but it happened here.