catskill flooding donation information & resources

I promised to compile a list of ways to help the victims of the catastrophic flooding in the Catskills. As promised, that’s what this post is about.

Twitter has been a great tool during this period for helping get the word out about people in need of help, and it’s probably the best place to keep tabs on the latest. Search for “Catskills” or a specific town.

Watershed Post is covering the story in an amazing way. Check their liveblog for up-to-date information on everything related to this disaster.

General Donation Info

School Supply Donations

  • Chatham Kids (21 Main Street, Chatham) is a drop-off site for school-supply donations to benefit local families affected by the hurricane. Those who lost their homes also lost their children’s school supplies. St. Joseph’s Church (Route 9, Stuyvesant Falls) and St. John the Baptist (Valatie) are two other school-supply donation sites.

Fundraisers & Benefits

  • News10 Albany is holding a fundraiser Thursday, Sept. 1.
  • Farms and Family Benefit at Water Street Market on Monday, September 26th from 5 to 9PM. Live Music, potluck, $20 suggested donation. Anyone interested in volunteering to help get sponsorships, work the event, etc, we are having a meeting at Water Street Market Tuesday at 6PM to coordinate. If you cannot attend the meeting and still want to help, contact KT Tobin at ktobinf@gmail.com.

If I’m missing something, leave a comment and I will be sure to add it.

hurricane irene

I don’t even know what to say, but I feel like I should write something about this weekend’s hurricane. We are very lucky to live in a part of town with what has to be a slightly higher elevation because aside from some leaves and a few small branches on the deck and some standing water in the lowest part of our yard (not unusual), we experienced nothing from this storm.

At first, from just the observations outside my window, I thought the storm was a real dud. But then I started to hear from friends, and photos started popping up on Facebook, and I realized that it was pure luck that we somehow escaped with no flooding or property damage. If you want to see photos from other parts of the area that were hit, just browse through the Hudson Valley Weather Facebook page. There are plenty. I did not personally venture out, and I plan on just staying out of the way so clean up crews and the electric company can do their jobs.

I think the most heartbreaking thing for me, though, was learning how hard the Catskills were hit. This area really isn’t that far from where I live and it is already a depressed area. To add insult to injury, these people experienced complete and utter devastation. I cannot even imagine. Here’s a video from someone local:

Hurricane Irene – Margarertville 8-28-11 11am from Fred Margulies on Vimeo.

And here is a segment from Good Morning America, in case you missed it:

It’s wonderful that New York City didn’t get hit as hard as expected, but don’t think that the rest of the state fared as well. People in Westchester County, which is considered the NYC suburbs, experienced horrible flooding. Many roads are still closed. Communities in southern Vermont and western Massachusetts are also flooded, roads and bridges have washed away, and people are at a loss.

Once I find out more about ways to help the storm victims, I will post more information. If you know of ways to help, please feel free to comment and I will add the information.