Irene Brings ‘Historic’ Rain, Power Outages to Mount Pleasant
Hurricane Irene wrecked havoc in Mount Pleasant, causing thousands of homes to lose power.
In an interview on the afternoon of Aug. 28, town Supervisor Joan Maybury said the town received about five inches of rain, which she described as an “historic” amount. About 2,000 households in town, including her Hawthorne home, were without power, she said. Maybury said Con Edison said power would probably not be restored to all the homes until Monday and the utility could not restore power to some neighborhoods until downed power lines were dealt with. “It’s pretty widespread,” she said.
Maybury said there was extensive damage in town. “There is significant flooding and people without power,” she said.
Maybury said the storm had not resulted in any fatalities in Mount Pleasant. The only injury occurred when a tree hit a highway department truck. A town employee who was in the truck was hospitalized, but Maybury said she did not know the person’s condition.
There have been several downed trees in Mount Pleasant, Maybury said while touring the town in her car where she viewed a tree on the tracks at the Valhalla Metro-North station.
The hurricane also caused flooding in various areas in town, Maybury said, adding that many sump pumps have been in operation in such portions of town as Hawthorne and Valhalla. “There are some areas with two or three feet of water,” Maybury said. The flooding has caused the closure of all major roadways in the vicinity of town, she said.
Maybury declared a state of emergency in town early Saturday night, meaning that all vehicles, except emergency vehicles, were to be off the roads. Maybury said she did not know when the emergency declaration would be lifted. If it was not lifted by Monday morning, town employees could not report to work at town hall, she said.
For “the first time in the Town of Mount Pleasant,” an emergency shelter was opened on Saturday at 6 p.m. Two families and an elderly woman came to the shelter at the town Community Center for brief periods before finding shelter elsewhere, Maybury said.
Also on Saturday, Maybury activated an emergency center in the basement of town hall to coordinate the efforts of emergency service workers, such as police and fire department officials.
Maybury said she had no estimate of the cost of overtime, but she has instructed workers to compile logs of how many hours they have worked so those figures could be sent on to FEMA for possible reimbursement to the town.
Despite the difficulties, “I would say that things are getting back to normal,” Maybury said
