Hurricane Irene: Stay Off The Roads

Rockland County emergency officials this morning are urging residents to resist the temptation to venture out of their homes and travel on area roads during Hurricane Irene.

Fire and Emergency Services Coordinator Gordon Wren Jr. said Rockland is experiencing flooding in a variety of areas of the county and more is expected. With the dawn, Wren said there have been several instances in which residents have ignored warnings to stay off the road and have become trapped on flooded streets.

New City and Spring Valley volunteer firefighters each had rescues of people trapped with their cars in flood waters. Despite the heavy rains overnight — an estimated 6 inches in Rockland — there have not been any serious injuries related to the storm.

Hurricane Irene has brought a state of emergency in New York, Rockland County and in municipalities throughout the county. The Town of Clarkstown has banned all non-essential traffic from the streets until 6 p.m.

Mandatory evacuations were ordered for West Nyack neighborhoods south of the Lake DeForest dam and evacuations were ordered in the Grassy Point section of Stony Point. Additional evacuations are taking place in Stony Point at the trailer park on Cedar Flats Road.

On the roads, Route 59 is closed in West Nyack at the Palisades Center mall and sections of Route 9W in the Congers, Valley Cottage and Upper Nyack areas is closed. Route 17 in the Sloatsburg-Tuxedo area is closed and a mud slide on the New York State Thruway in Ramapo closed northbound lanes. Highways throughout the region have been hit with closings from flooding and debris created by 38 mph winds.

The storm has also led to:

• Rockland County TOR, Trips and TZexpress Bus Services have been suspended, along with Metro-North, NJ Transit, Amtrak and New York City subway servivce.
• There are currently over 11,469 Orange and Rockland Utilities customers with service disruptions in Rockland County. Outages are spread throughout the county, but the New City area is among the hardest hit areas with trees and power lines down. O&R lists nearly 8,500 customers without power in the Town of Clarkstown.
• Road closures due to flooding and downed trees have been reported throughout the county. Saturday night, the state Department of Transportation closed Route 59 in West Nyack before heavy rains began as a safety measure.

Emergency officials said residents are reminded to:

-       Refrain from making phone calls unless absolutely necessary. 

-       Do not attempt travel unless absolutely necessary, many roads are flooded and blocked with downed trees

-       Don’t call 911 for non-life-threatening matters.

Shelters are open at the following locations:

Tappan Zee High School, Dutch Hill Road, Orangeburg

Nyack High School, Chrisitian Herald Road, Upper Nyack

North Rockland High School, Hammond Thiells Road, Thiells,

Rockland Community College Field House, College Road, Ramapo (pet friendly)

When going to a shelter please bring basic supplies for a 72 hour stay including medications, toiletries, clothing,

To report a flood-related problem that is not life-threatening, call your local police:

Orangetown 359-3700

Clarkstown 639-5800

Haverstraw 354-1500

Stony Point 786-2422

Ramapo 357-2400

An email address has been established for Rockland County residents to submit photographs of damages due to Hurricane Irene.

Photographs will be used to create an historical documentation of the extent of damages within Rockland County.

Please forward your photographs to rocklanddamages@gmail.com. 

Please include:

• your name 
• exact location of the photograph 
• date and time photograph was taken

Submission of photographs to this website will constitute your authorization for the county to use them in damage and grant submissions on behalf of Rockland County.