![]() ![]() Though more attention to the creek through federal gauging would be welcome, he said later is not the time to do it. Barton said it’s his recollection the gauge gear was torn off of its foundation in a 1989 flood, then never replaced. There was a gauge on the Otsquago Creek for 40 years. Geological Survey, which installs and operates flood gauges nationwide. Schumer, D-N.Y., began calling for increased funding last month for the U.S. “We could’ve lost 20 or 30 people in a heartbeat if it happened at 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning,” said Barton, who still remembers hearing the sound of buildings slamming into the Route 5S bridge over the Otsquago. Luckily, many residents near the Otsquago Creek were awake or awakened by early risers during the 6 a.m. The June 28 flood, he added, could have killed more people had it struck at a different time of the day. “This last seven years has just been hell here,” he said. The June 28 death of Ethel Healey, an elderly woman carried away by the Otsquago Creek while inside her modular home, should be the last straw, Barton said. We were getting close to being there until this last damn flood came through.” There were two or three shoe stores, you name it, we had it,” he said. For many years, you couldn’t even find a parking space. “Fort Plain was really the center of shopping in the Mohawk Valley. The county’s hazard mitigation plan points to damage from the waterway in January 1952, February and March 1955, February 1957, February 1960, March 1963, January 1979 and March 1979.īarton said there’s no question that the village should rebuild - nor any question that it should also do what it can to alert residents in the event a repeat of the June 28 storm is imminent. The Otsquago Creek has been no stranger to ice jam flooding, either. in Fort Plain took on water up to the second floor.įort Plain has flooded several times since then, including April, June and November 2006 and then March and April 2007. Montgomery County’s Hazard Mitigation Plan, completed in 2008 by Tetra Tech of New Jersey, is rife with examples of how and where flooding occurred - and the little Otsquago Creek has been the culprit on several occasions.įlooding records listed in Montgomery County’s Hazard Mitigation Plan detail devastation between 1865 - the year of the “Civil War Flood” - and 2007, when snowmelt, rainfall, ice jams and the Mohawk River flooded parts of the county.īridges along the Mohawk River were carried away in the March 16, 1865, flood, which caused significant damage to the original Erie Canal, which ran through Fort Plain and other communities.Ī storm on March 26, 1904, shut down rail traffic throughout the Mohawk Valley, when the Erie Canal and Mohawk River were running as one.įort Plain’s busy manufacturing district, including the Mohawk Valley’s largest mill at the time, the Bailey Knitting Mills, was under several feet of water, and the Borden’s Condensed Milk Co. Officials said they likely saved lives, as residents were prompted to flee the rapidly rising Schoharie Creek before it caused so much damage through the valley.Įngineers delved into the history of flooding in Montgomery County not long after Fort Plain and other riverside communities were flooded by the Mohawk River in 2006. Though installed to warn of a dam collapse and the resulting devastating wall of water that would roar down the valley, the sirens were sounded in 2011 during Tropical Storm Irene. Schoharie County had a series of warning sirens installed along the Schoharie Creek after engineers determined the Gilboa Dam didn’t meet modern design standards. As envisioned, the system would recognize rapidly increasing water levels, sound off and alert residents to head to high ground. ![]()
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