Monitoring agencies describe Fulton Chain region’s precipitation and water levels as ‘historically high’
The current spring season has been unusually wet with flooding being reported throughout the northeastern United States, and the Adirondacks have not been spared, including the Fulton Chain region, according to Ted Riehle who monitors rainfall for the Town of Webb.
Consequently local rivers and streams have been overflowing their banks and causing flooding to nearby areas.
On Friday, April 29, Jeff Auser, a dam safety officer with Brookfield Renewable Power, urged the public to avoid being on or near the Raquette and Beaver rivers and West Canada Creek, due to what he described as historically high and dangerous water levels.
“The combination of rainfall and snow melt has resulted in unprecedented flows in many New York rivers right now,” Auser said.
Ted Riehle said he observed the water level of the Moose River at 52 inches on Wednesday, April 27, according to the water gauge behind the American Legion building.
But with heavy rains continuing, the pond rose to 62.5 inches by Friday, an increase of 10.5 inches.
“I believe that’s as high as it got. It was a huge increase in just two days,” he said.
And the water in the Old Forge Pond was up as well, according to Riehle.
“It was right up to the top edge of the swimming dock at the beach and the boardwalks at the lakefront and Pied Piper,” he said.
Riehle said that, as Webb’s Water Treat-ment Plant Super-intendent, he frequently works with the town’s DPW, which needed to take preventive measures, including the sealing of a manhole, due to the excessive rain.
“The water was exceedingly high. The north branch of the Moose River was flooded right up to the bottom of the bridge beyond North Street,” he said.
At normal levels, canoes are able to travel the river beneath that bridge, he added.
Stuart deCamp, who lives along the Moose River at Thendara, said he remembers the water being this high maybe once since the 1960s.
At McKeever, motorists normally see rocks and small grassy islands in the Moose as it passes beneath the bridge on Route 28.
But last Friday, the river was so high that it stretched uninterrupted from shore to shore, covering any land masses.
Just south of the bridge, crews had blocked off the Moose River Road because of flooding further downstream.
According to the Robert Folton, Chief Engineer for the Hudson River/Black River regulating district, Old Forge received 9.3 inches of rain during the month of April, well above its historic average of 3.6 inches.
The run-off from all that precipitation pushed water levels to a peak that culminated on early April 29th.
