Come on Irene….

The National Hurricane Center  and NASA  is currently tracking currently Category 3 Hurricane Irene which appears to be heading right at us here in New York. The Weather Channel  has issued the following warning for our immediate area ” Irene has the potential to be a serious and multi-hazard threat for the major metropolitan areas of the Northeast along and east of the I-95 corridor. This includes Philadelphia, New York City, Hartford, and Boston. This hurricane has the potential to produce flooding rains, high winds, downed trees (on houses, cars, power lines) and widespread power outages. Significant impacts along the immediate coast include high waves, surge and beach erosion. The severity of the impacts will be determined by Irene's exact path and intensity, which remain uncertain at this time. “

  • My family is taking the possibility of Irene dropping by our area seriously. We own a 1792 cottage on the Hudson River front road in Piermont, NY. The last hurricane to cause damage was Floyd in 1999, luckily nothing since. We didn’t live here at that time, but know from the previous owners that they experienced flooding at that time. Not surprising as the main living area of our home is three feet under grade and a stream runs directly under the house into the Hudson!

Bring it on Irene, we are ready. My husband Tim has spent the morning breaking out our trusty generator, which up until now hasn’t ever been used. We hope that it won’t be needed again, but if we lose power from downed trees at least our trusty sump pump will hopefully be able to keep up. We’ll have the computers and TV for weather updates and food in the fridge. We flagged down Tom from Piermont’s DPW this morning and he is dropping by later today with some sandbags. A definite perk of paying Piermont’s high taxes; the service from our DPW is exemplary. We are packing up most of the low level books etc., from low lying built in’s in our living room, rolling up the rugs and hunting around for items to raise our furniture up of the floor. Not sure what to do with my antique Welsh dresser. It’s too big to go anywhere else in the house.

 I’m wishing that we were officially in a flood plain right now. Does that seem strange to you? It seems strange to me that living alongside the mighty Hudson we are not entitled to flood insurance. Should we experience flood damage, we will have to rely on savings or worst case scenario, disaster relief. As a Realtor, I’m very aware that buyers often turn away from homes for sale once they know the property is in a flood plain and requires additional insurance. I always point out that it’s a really good thing to have and why. For the extra premium it costs to have the additional coverage, I’d pay three times over for the peace of mind it brings. I remember the time I lived at the top of a hill in Eagan, Minnesota and experienced a storm that brought 14” of rain in four hours. Our deck fell down into the ravine behind the house due to the heavy runoff from the roof. It caused all kinds of damage to the house and we had to file for disaster relief funds as we didn’t have flood insurance. Why would we? We were at the top of a hill! And now we live river side and don’t live in a flood plain and a Cat 3 Hurricane is heading right at us. Do I wish I lived in a flood plain and had flood insurance right now? You Bet I DO!!!

Here are some handy numbers or websites you may need in the coming few days.

Piermont DPW: http://www.villagedpw.com/

Radio Rockland Emergency Radio 1640 AM 
Emergency News Tune In To   WRCR 1300 AM  

FEMA’s Hurricane Preparedness website: http://www.ready.gov/america/beinformed/hurricanes.html

Nyack DPW: http://nyackdpw.com/default.aspx

Cleanup: http://www.servpro.com/

FEMA’s Flood Insurance Guidelines: http://www.fema.gov/business/nfip/

 

OK it’s not Eileen, but close enough! Let us all be singing Too-ra loo-ra too-ra loo-rye-aye next Monday. Good luck!