A Voice from the Eastern Door
A Voice from the Eastern Door
The calm after the storm; far left of the photo shows the river extending itself on to lawns along the St. Regis River. Photo by Nikaiataa.
Looking north on the St. Regis River, huge ice floes tumbled over each other as the warm weather broke up the ice and then froze it all, less than 12 hours later. Photo by 'Sweets'.
Sonja Rockhill-Mitchell, and many others, lost almost all the contents of their garages and first floors. Her vehicle is considered 'totalled'. A GoFundMe site has been set up by her friend, just type 'by Sara Nichols' on the GoFundMe website to find the page. The river receded, but not before breaking all the windows along the bottom of the building, marking where the river had been. Photo by Sonja.
In neighboring Fort Covington, residents along the river didn't fair as well, as residents were evacuated by front-end loaders. Photo by Sonja.
What we had to look forward to after the storm - besides ice, about a foot of snow covers this vehicle. Facebook photo.
A closer look at the ice jam on the St. Regis River. Photo by Nikaiataa.
A wild swing in temperatures coupled with a winter storm that dropped more than a foot of snow in some areas caused flooding in Akwesasne and the surrounding communities, and set a local temperature record.
Between Jan. 11 and 13, the temperatures in Akwesasne and the North Country swung by nearly 80 degrees and caused ice to melt, which flooded the St. Regis and Salmon rivers.
Temperatures in Akwesasne on Thursday, Jan. 11 spiked at 53 degrees and the following day got as high as 60 degrees, according to Weather Underground. The 60-degree high on Jan. 12 set a record for Akwesasne, the website said. Temperatures later on that day dropped to 16 degrees as a severe weather system some meteorologists dubbed "Winter Storm Hunter" blew into the area.
Thermometers in Akwesasne dropped 76 degrees to a low of -16 degrees on Saturday, Jan. 13.
The high temperatures melted dense ice that had been forming on local rivers that had formed along with recent subzero weather.
This endangered some homes along the St. Regis River, but it didn't come to evacuations, according to Tribal authorities.
"There around 10 homes along the St. Regis River in Hogansburg that were impacted by this past weekend's flooding, which were responded to by the Hogansburg-Akwesasne Volunteer Fire Department and the St. Regis Mohawk Tribal Police. The Tribe's Emergency Planning Office was notified by Tribal Police about possible evacuations and monitored the situation however; the waters began to recede as they canvassed the homes. They had sand bags and accommodations available for affected homeowners that one homeowner utilized," Brendan White, a spokesman for the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe, said in an email.
People in nearby Fort Covington were not so lucky.
Homes along the Salmon River had to be evacuated as floodwaters entered homes, North Country Public Radio reported. Franklin County's emergency services head told the publication that 37 people had to abandon their dwellings.
"We moved thirty-seven people and we did it in the dark with less than adequate equipment. We were using front-end loaders and air boats," Ricky Provost, head of the county's emergency services, told NCPR. "Those are dangerous pieces of equipment on their own using them the way they're supposed to be used. We did it without injuries to firefighters, first responders or residents."
The full NCPR story can be read at http://bit.ly/2Dl93Is.
Residents of Massena's Pratt Place also had to be evacuated from their homes when the Grasse River rose to dangerous levels.
"This created a dangerous situation for those in the area as there was no way to pump out cellars that had been submerged by the swollen river and utilities were in danger of being overcome," according to a post from the Massena Volunteer Fire Department on their Facebook page. "MFD made the tough decision to evacuate the residents of the flood stricken homes before the water rose higher."
Most residents were able to evacuate on their own, but a few in the deeper sections of water had no way to escape, the post says.
Massena Fire Chief Tim Quenneville said the Department of Public Works brought in a front-end loader that was used to help four people and some pets evacuate their homes.
He said there are four homes in the flooded area, and some people did not want to leave.
As of Tuesday afternoon, all of the evacuees had returned home.
"The water has receded. Some of it turned to ice and the village DPW took care of that with a loader, went in and plowed it out for them. The residents are back in their homes with electrical back on so they can have heat, and they were still working on their hot water heaters," Quenneville said. "Everything was a job well done by the village DPW and my fellow firemen."
And on Jan. 14, temperatures in nearby Jefferson County for the second Sunday in a row as the coldest place in the continental United States. An automated weather station in Philadelphia caught a 6 a.m. reading of -34 degrees, according to a story on syracuse.com at http://bit.ly/2DoEjFG
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