Flash Flood — Delaware, New York

2006-06-27 to 2006-06-28 · near Countywide, Delaware, New York

Wider weather episode

Tropical moisture continued to stream northward into upstate New York ahead of a frontal system which slowly moved westward into the eastern Great Lakes by Tuesday morning the 27th. This tropical moisture developed a batch of heavy showers and thunderstorms across much of upstate New York late Monday evening the 26th through Tuesday morning the 27th. From 3 to 5 inches of rain fell across Delaware County by Tuesday morning. The rain fell on saturated ground from previous rains that occurred Sunday and Monday leading to major flash flooding in Hancock, Colchester and surrounding areas by Tuesday morning. Hancock experienced the worst flooding this town had ever seen with most of the downtown underwater. In addition, Walton, Downsville, Delhi and Sidney also became inundated with record flooding as intense rainfall focused on these areas later Tuesday. Numerous streams and creeks were flooding homes, businesses, roads, bridges and government facilities. Despite the major flash flooding that was occurring Tuesday morning, the situation was about to turn even more grim. The front, which was across the eastern Great Lakes Tuesday morning, moved back east and combined with a low pressure system that moved up the eastern seaboard by Tuesday night. This set the stage for additional heavy rains from Tuesday evening to Wednesday morning deluging Delaware County with more rains that brought three day totals to 8 to 15 inches. This caused even more catastrophic flooding to most of the county by Wednesday morning the 28th. At least 200 structures were damaged in Hancock alone, the entire business district of Walton was under 6 to 7 feet of water. Several small streams and the Susquehanna River combined to cause major flooding in the village of Sidney, NY. Many homes were flooded in Sidney with up to 6 feet of water. Amphenol Corporation in Sidney was flooded by up to 5 feet of water causing 40 million dollars worth of damage. The flooding also caused Interstate 88 to collapse early Wednesday morning near Unadilla killing two truck drivers. The flooding caused 189 million dollars worth of damage to roads alone. Damages are estimated at 250 million dollars from the floods. At least 1000 homes were damaged by flood waters with 30 homes completely destroyed. Hundreds of businesses were damaged including major corporations like Amphenol and Kraft foods. There were at least 10 businesses destroyed. Over 500 people were evacuated with hundreds of people rescued from the flood waters. At least 20 bridges were flooded. During the height of the flood, all roads were closed in Delaware County as a state of emergency was declared Tuesday. This flood will go down as the worst flood on record ever experienced by Delaware County.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 5519034. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.