Flash Flood — Warren, New York

2011-05-28 · near Brant Lake, Warren, New York

Event narrative

Numerous roads were closed due to flash flooding and damage from heavy rainfall from training thunderstorms in Thurman, Stony Creek, Warrensburg and Chestertown including the following: Mountain Road, High Street, River Road, Harrisburg Road, South Garnet Road, Combs Road (severe damage), Dippikill Road, Green Mansions Road, Stock Farm Road, and Route 9 between Warrensburg and Chestertown.

In Stony Creek, an elderly woman was rescued from her trailer alongside a creek off Murray Road; her home and another trailer were destroyed by the flood waters. Also, a man was rescued from the roof of his home on Warrensburg Road. Some residents of South Garnet Road were stranded in their homes and some students missed several days of school due to a washed out bridge. The Warrensburg Central School District had to reroute bus routes due to damaged roads.

The Lake George Schroon Valley Resort flooded. Visitors to Camp DippiKill, a retreat owned by the University at Albany student association, were stranded as all access roads were reported washed out. A farm off near Mountain Road suffered flooding, no animals were harmed.

Wider weather episode

A warm and humid air mass was over the region and had been in place for several days. A slow moving surface boundary was draped across the North Country and extended westward towards western New York and Lake Ontario. This boundary was the focus for convection on May 26th and 27th and again on May 28th.

A combination of individual storms and merging storms trained over the same area of central Warren county in a southwest-northeast direction, with at least 10 or so storms moving over the same area Saturday afternoon, May 28th. This resulted in a swath of heavy rainfall which fell in just a few hours causing flash flooding resulting in road closures with significant damage to many roadways, washed-out culverts and a least a couple of washed-out bridges. Thurman, Stoney Creek, Warrensburg, and Chester were impacted with some residents displaced from their homes. The worst flooding and damage occurred in Thurman where about a quarter of the roads were closed due to the flash flooding. It was reported that seven area fire departments, three EMS crews, the Warren County Sheriff's Office, State Police, along with state, county and local highway departments all responded to the flooding.

Damage in Warren County from the May 28th flooding were estimated at 12.6 million dollars.

In addition, a few of the storms were severe producing large hail up to the size of a golf ball and some trees were downed by strong thunderstorm winds.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (43.6599, -73.7224)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 309671. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.