CHENANGO COUNTY – Even though buffeted by the same heavy rains and high winds which ravaged the rest of the region, Chenango was largely spared from Irene’s wrath.
“I think we’re pretty fortunate,” said Chenango County Emergency Management Director Matthew Beckwith.
According to Beckwith, radar reports indicate the tropical storm system dropped close to 4 inches of rain over much of Chenango, with some localized areas receiving up to an inch more.
“There was a big band that came right down Route 12,” he said.
That rain – coupled with sustained winds of 17 and 22 miles per hour gusting up to 40 – downed trees and power lines around the county. Remarkably, however, there were no reports of flooding in Chenango.
“The rivers were rising, but they just leveled off,” said Beckwith, who spent much of Sunday afternoon in the county’s Emergency Operations Center with representatives from other agencies.
Other counties – including neighboring Delaware and Broome – weren’t as lucky.
“I can tell you the ground was dry. That’s what soaked up a lot of the water here,” Beckwith said. “It was nothing like it was in June.”
Flood warnings for Chenango County have been canceled.
Calls to clear roadways kept area fire departments and highway crews busy throughout the day Sunday and into the evening, the emergency management official reported. As of press time, portions of one state highway and a number of local roads remained closed. For a complete listing, visit the road closure section of the Chenango County Bureau of Fire website at www.chenangofireems.com/road-closures-delays/.
While trees and branches did come down on several residences and vehicles, no injuries have been reported, Beckwith said.
The storm knocked out power to some 4,730 of NYSEG’s 22,986 customers in Chenango. As of 8:30 a.m., 4,686 remained without power. None of National Grid’s utility customers in the Northwestern corner of the county experienced outages.
Conditions in the City of Norwich were similar to those around the rest of county during the storm.
“City of Norwich DPW, Fire & Police responded to several locations in the city and out of the city for reports of trees, limbs and wires down,” reported Norwich City Police Chief Joseph Angelino.
When it became clear that the worst was over for Chenango, City of Norwich Emergency Management Officer A. Wesley Jones answered a call issued by the state for available to emergency managers to assist in the counties hardest hit. Last night, he headed to neighboring Delaware County where he helped man their emergency operation center through the night and into Monday.
“They got crushed,” said Jones, who described the flooding reported in eastern Delaware County as “massive.”