Hurricane Irene

Hurricane Irene August 2011, The Osterhout's home on the east shore, courtesy of Lee Jones

In August of 2011 hurricane Irene was forecast to travel up the east coast and come up the Hudson Valley. In anticipation of that the lake was lowered several inches to accommodate the expected rainfall. Over 13 inches of rain fell and combined with the failure of a beaver dam on the stream that enters the north end of the lake which added thousands of gallons of additional muddy water, the lake rose very rapidly to an unprecedented level never seen before. This caused the flooding of many lake front homes and property. At one point the water was going out 2ft higher than the top of the dam. The water level receded very rapidly and had gone down at least 2-3 ft by morning. After an engineering evaluation it was determined that extensive repairs would have to be made to the present dam.

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  Homes on Mill Dam Rd. on the south shore,courtesy of Lee Jones
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  Roger Freestone's home SE corner of the lake by the dam, courtesy of Lee Jones
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  From Roger's deck,courtesy of Lee Jones
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  Flooding along the waterfront on Mill Dan Rd.,courtesy of Lee Jones
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  Swamped boats,courtesy of Lee Jones
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  SE corner looking towards Dyer Rd. on the west shore,courtesy of Lee Jones
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  The green hand rails are on top of the dam walls above the spill way,about 2ft of water going over the entire dam,courtesy of Lee Jones
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  Dam seen from Jones Lane side,courtesy of Lee Jones
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  Lee Jones surveys the damage from the Freestone's deck
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  This home sits alongside the outlet on the north side of the the dam. The outlet rose so high it surrounded this house during the height of the storm,courtesy of Lee Jones
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  Bart, Lee and Dave stand along side rte 157 and see just how close the lake came to overflowing it
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  Conditions at Osterhout's boat launch,courtesy of Lee Jones
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  The pavillion at the Haufbrau at the north end of the lake,courtesy of Lee Jones
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  Warnie did not survive but his parts were found floating around the lake and he was returned home, photo courtesy of Stacy Loucks
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  The first time the lake ever came over the wall at Osterhout's,photo courtesy of Stacy Loucks
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  This float was eventually turned over, note the heavy rain in the picture,photo courtesy of Stacy Loucks
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  2ft of water in the basement at Osterhout's,photo courtesy of Stacy Loucks
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  I don't believe these belong here,photo courtesy of Stacy Loucks
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  The sluice pipe is almost under water,photo courtesy of Stacy Loucks/
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  Roger Freestone empty's his basement after the water goes down,photo courtesy of Stacy Loucks
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  Looking west from below the spillway towards Dyer RD.,courtesy of Lee Jones
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  Gary Mostert and Lee Jones inspect the dam for damages,photo courtesy of Stacy Loucks
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  Will and Jerri Osterhout check out their lawn the day after Irene,photo courtesy of Stacy Loucks
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  Don Dennis standing on Osterhout's boat launch where the high water mark was,photo courtesy of Stacy Loucks
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  Tyler, Kyle amd Amy Anderson towin one of the Osterhout's docks back home,photo courtesy of Stacy Loucks
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  Drying out the contents of the basement at Osterhout's,photo courtesy of Stacy Loucks
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  Jerri ponders how to get the float back in the water, photo courtesy of Stacy Loucks
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  Stacy helps the men get the float back into the lake, photo courtesy of Willard Osterhout