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General News: Gas Leak, Bridge Out in New Windsor
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| The Moodna washed out the hillside next to this home on Forge Hill Road, leaving this car dangling off the edge. Photo provided. |
August 29, 2011
Dozens of residents of Butterhill Estates in New Windsor were roused from their beds early Monday morning after a gas leak forced an evacuation of the housing development.
New Windsor police lieutenant Michael Farbent said that an officer on duty heard an explosion at 4 am and soon determined that it was a gas line that stretches south into Cornwall. Butterhill residents were told to leave their houses, then allowed to return at 6:40 am as Central Hudson worked to cap the gas line.
People living at Butterhill also lost a primary access road into the development as a result of the fury of Tropical Storm Irene that pummeled the region on Sunday. Butternut Drive, which runs north from Forge Hill Road, was covered when the side of the riverbank collapsed, sweeping away about 30 yards of the road. Lt. Farbent predicts that the road may never re-open.
New Windsor police also conducted evacuations on Sunday of residents of a half dozen homes on Forge Hill Road, where the Moodna swept over it banks. The concrete pillars holding up the bridge on that road were destroyed and eight feet of the roadway was carried away by the swiftly-moving water. The road will remain closed indefinitely, Farbent said.
Residents of a trailer park next to Sportsplex also had to be evacuated on Sunday, Farbent said, explaining how the waters rose so quickly that police had to use rubber boats to get some 60 to 80 people out of the area.
One of the biggest frustrations for both police and residents was the closing of two bridges that cut off access to Cornwall from the north and west. The bridges over the Moodna at Route 9W and at Route 32 were shut by mid-day and some people who had gone out could not return home for hours. “People had left their kids at home and wanted to get back,” Farbent said, adding that in other flooded areas people moved barricades, driving right through the water regardless of the risk. Both bridges were re-opened by early evening.
“The flooding was definitely the worst I’ve seen in 26 years on the police force,” Lt. Farbent said. “I don’t think I will see this again during the rest of my career.”
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