Shandaken is working to educate residents about what to do if a town named for rising waters lives up to its moniker.
Environmental groups invited by the town’s Conservation Advisory Council this week told people who live on Shandaken’s floodplain to sign up for emergency alerts, look into flood insurance and consider raising their homes or plant trees to mitigate flooding. More resources are available than local homeowners may have thought.
“We’ve got a lot of funding here to help you out,” said Heidi Emrich, a certified floodplain manager at the Ulster County Department of the Environment who attended the June 16 meeting. “We want these small communities to stay vibrant and viable with these changing weather conditions.”
Shandaken, whose name is derived from the Indigenous word referring to Esopus Creek, already has a flood mitigation plan on its books, reflecting a history of flooding that includes heavy downpours from Tropical Storm Irene in 2011. The town was also hit by flooding in April 2005 and March 1980.
This year, after six months of soggy weekends in parts of upstate New York amid the rising threat of climate change, officials are bracing for ways to cope with similar events.
Shandaken resident Frank Marra said he heard about this week’s meeting from a flyer in his mailbox. Marra, who’s also hoping to support a friend who lives alongside a local river, said he hadn’t realized that so many resources were available.
“Not many people knew about it,” he said. “It’s a tremendous amount of information.”
Since homeowner insurance typically doesn’t cover flood damage, meaning that a homeowner may have to pay for reconstruction on their own, Emrich said. Average flood-insured homeowners, who pay about $1,500 a year for the protection, file claims of about $69,000.
Such insurance could come in handy because federal compensation can be as low as $5,000 and President Trump plans to phase out the Federal Emergency Management Agency after the 2025 hurricane season.
The Catskills Watershed Corporation, a non-profit also at this week’s meeting, said it offers strategies for public infrastructure to better withstand flooding, property protection measures, stream construction and community-wide elimination of potential pollution sources. Home alterations can include raising it two feet above base flood elevation, adding flood logs to block water and anchoring gas or propane tanks so they don’t get swept away.
Catskill Watershed provides funding for residents of towns like Shandaken that have completed a flood analysis to help residents or business owners in danger of erosion relocate to safer areas.
Another strategy, proposed by the Ashokan Watershed Stream Management Program, hands out free plants for flood mitigation to people who live on streams in Shandaken, Olive and Woodstock.
“Trees are a really effective erosion control method,” said Max Kelly, an educator at the Shokan-based program. “It also provides really high-quality habitat.”
Flood maps showing areas most at risk can be found at the FEMA map service center and Ulster County’s parcel viewer. Areas shaded blue represent those in the worst flood hazard areas with a 45% to 71% chance of flooding over the course of three decades.
Mia Quick is an intern and contributing reporter. You can reach her at reporting@theoverlooknews.com.