Important news

• State of emergency is still in effect in Greene County, with normal travel conditions and business operations in the valley towns, spotty power outages, and many roads on the mountaintop with only gravel surfaces, speed restrictions, or broken tree limbs hovering over lanes with the sides washed out. Please be careful, and officials ask folks not to visit the mountaintop.
• Travel to Prattsville is prohibited; Limited travel, for emergency workers and residents only, is allowed in Windham.
• Curfew, dusk until dawn, for Windham.
• Angelo Canna Park in Cairo is closed until further notice, and is now a staging ground for helicopters, trucks, and other equipment.
• Greene, Schoharie, Delaware, Albany, Schenectady, Rensselaer, and Ulster Counties have been approved to receive federal assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Please call 1-800-621-3362 to get your 9-digit claim number to start the assistance process or go to www.disasterassistance.gov is the website.
• Transfer stations in Windham and Hunter are now open with normal business hours. The Environmental Protection Agency has set up hazardous water drop-off centers at the Catskill, Hunter, and Windham transfer centers.
• Windham-Ashland-Jewett schools closed through Sept. 9, and sports may resume Sept. 12, per their website.
• Hunter-Tannersville schools open Thu. Sept. 8, per website.
• Starting Friday night Main Street in Windham will be closed from 8 p.m. to 7 a.m. until further notice. No onstreet parking. Violators will be towed. Nonessential traffic on County Route 40, from Hensonville to Maplecrest, and on County Route 56 in Maplecrest is prohibited. (These notices come from the Windham Town Board and the Windham Police Department.)
• The Zadock Pratt Museum in Prattsville was damaged but is in pretty good shape considering the damage in Prattsville. Their Facebook page just became active with reports.
• WRIP (97.9-FM) was featured in The New York Times for its terrific coverage of the storm aftermath. Sunday, the Windham-based station broadcast for five hours live from Prattsville.
• As of Monday, Sept. 5, Central Hudson reports only 109 Greene County customers lack electric service, which is more than they reported on Sunday.
• As of Monday afternoon, it is raining again in Greene County, after heavy rains overnight, and much more expected Tuesday.

Help needed

• Help your neighbors and friends by volunteering in Windham! Email HelpWindham@gmail.com. That email goes to the command center, and they will tell you what can be done. All and any cleaning supplies, wheelbarrows, trucks etc. are needed. Call ahead to make arrangements to 610-0380 or the Windham Command Center.
• Neighbors helping Neighbors is also a Facebook page organizing volunteers.

Road closures

• Route 32 South at Story’s Corners closed to Saugerties.

• Route 42 North Westkill to North Lexington is closed.

• Route 23 at Route 23A to Prattsville closed.

• Route 214 from Phoenicia to Route 23A open with sections of one-lane gravel roads.

• County Route 6 at Spruceton closed.

• County Route 4 limited to emergency vehicles only.

• Route 23A from Catskill to Tannersville is open with a 600-foot section of a traffic synchronized traffic light one lane north of Kaaterskill Falls.

Boil water advisories

• Boil Water Orders are in effect for Windham, Hensonville, and Tannersville.

• The Agroforestry Resource Center, Rt 23 in Acra has water testing kits available. Call 622-9820 for details.

Donations

There is not so much a need for food and clothes, but more specific items are needed: batteries of all types, pressure washers, large raincoats, flashlights. WGXC recommends you call a specific donation collection center and ask what they need, or donate funds to help. The Watershed Post has a Google spread sheet with many different places to donate here.)


• GREEENE COUNTY Greene County has specific requests for reconstruction equipment, such as circular saws, cordless drills, crowbars, hammers, screws, shovels, rubber gloves, work gloves, dust masks, wheelbarrows, extension cords, large fans and more. These items can de dropped off at the former Sawyer Automotive location on Route 9W in Catskill, near the Route 23 interchange, on Tuesday and Wednesday, Sept. 6-7, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• $10,000 MATCHING DONATION Unk Slater grew up in Prattsville. After taking food out there this week, he is being told they have more then enough, what they need is cash. So his Great American supermarket in Cairo is now collecting cash donations, and will match the first $10,000. That makes $20,000 for storm victims in Greene County. Slater's Great American Marketplace is at 241 Main St., in Cairo. Sunday, 7 a.m.-10 p.m., Mon.-Sat.: 7 a.m.-11 p.m.
• CAIRO Big Top Tent Rentals in Cairo is accepting donations destined for needy folks in Prattsville. They are accepting any common sense items that folks displaced by the storm might need: non-perishable food items, water, batteries, hand sanitizer, baby diapers, wipes, etc. 9 a.m.-5 p.m., at 88 Grove St., Cairo.

• CAIRO The Shiya-Do Martial Arts Center in Cairo collects food and clothing on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 3-9 p.m. at 7485 SR 32, Cairo.

• GREENVILLE The NAPA Auto Parts parking lot on 4979 State Route 81 in Greenville, hosted by the Greenville Rotary and Greenville youth is also collecting similar items.

• PRATTSVILLE Financial donations: NBT Bank, PO Box 380 Grand Gorge, NY 12434. Send to Town of Prattsville with Prattsville Relief Fund on the memo.

• HUDSON Herrington's is accepting donations that will eventually go to the Big Top Tent Rentals in Cairo, which in turn will go to victims in Prattsville. Herrington's is at 1 Graham Ave. The Register-Star, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 364 Warren St., Hudson is also accepting non-perishable items. So is Village Dodge, at 819 Rt. 66 at 9H in Greenport/Hudson. They are open Saturday 8 a.m.-5 p.m., closed Sunday and Labor Day, and open Mon-Thu 8 a.m.-8:30 p.m. On Tue. Sept. 6, the Greenville Rotary Club will be collecting donations from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Greenport Walmart.
• CASH DONATIONS The Bank of Greene County and The National Bank of Coxsackie are accepting financial donations for the Greene Irene Disaster Fund.

Fundraising events

• Large Benefit Concert Sat. Oct. 1, and maybe Sun. Oct. 2, at Michael J. Quill Irish Center in East Durham. Funds go to Greene County victims of the storms associated with Hurricane Irene through Community Action of Greene County. 20 bands confirmed so far. We will list names soon. More information to be announced.

Storm information by town

Links are to Watershed Post pages for each community.

• Windham
• Jewett
• East Jewett
• Halcott
• Prattsville
• Tannersville
• Catskill (Palenville)
• Lexington
• Preston Hollow

WGXC audio

• New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Rep. Chris Gibson hold a press conference about the storm and federal help in Catskill.

Recorded by Tom Roe near corner of W. Main St. and Bridge St. in Catskill. PLAY CLIP

• Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Rep. Chris Gibson speak to Catskill Village President Vince Seeeley.

Recorded at the corner of Bridge St. And W. Main St., Catskill. PLAY CLIP

• Watershed Post Half-Hour News Hour (Live from WIOX: 91.3-FM in Roxbury)

Hosted by Julia Reischel and Lissa Harris, who are joined by Governor Cuomo and others for an hour-long conversation about the impact of Hurricane Irene in the Catskills. PLAY CLIP



[caption id="attachment_13769" align="alignright" width="294" caption="Rep. Chris Gibson and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand Aug. 31, 2011 at corner of W. Main St. and Bridge St. in Catskill. Photo by Tom Roe."][/caption]

Media sources

• Watershed Post

• WRIP 97.9-FM

• The Daily Mail

Other sources

• For streambank erosion assessment call the Greene County Soil & Water Conservation District at 622-3620.
• Community Action of Greene County: 943-2814.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="3264" caption="New York Army National Guard Soldiers of the 1156th Engineer Company traversed flooded areas to rescue some of the town of Windham's residents. (Photo courtesy Capt. Daniel Colomb.) "][/caption]