And Now The Rain

Since today has been rainy across the entire Northeast many of you are probably wondering what is happening in Woodland Valley. The rain started last night at about 8 or 9 o'clock. It is still raining hard at this point. Both the Esopus and the Woodland
Creek have risen significantly.

I have been checking the Esopus height on the USGS gage at Coldbrook every few hours. Those of you who would like to do the same can go to USGS 01362500 ESOPUS CREEK AT COLDBROOK NY.

I will give you a little insight on how to follow the status of the Esopus from that site. Go to the bottom of the page and look at the "Gage height, feet" graph. Normal river height is generally between 4 and 6 feet, 11 feet is flood stage. In practical terms, that means that the initial effects of flooding in low lying areas will start to occur.

Based on stream bank damage from prior floods, Phoenicia starts to see the initial effects from flooding at a gage height of somewhere between 14 and 16 feet. At approximately 19 feet the Esopus hits the lower girder on the Bridge Street bridge and at about 20 feet starts to wash over the deck.

The highest reading I have ever personally witnessed was in the April 2005 flood. The reading was 20.5 on the gage in that event. The water at that point was over the Woodland Valley bridge. Please don't get alarmed that I am telling you about the higher flood stages. I am just giving them to you as reference points for reading the gage. Right now the National Weather Service is predicting that the Esopus at Coldbrook will rise to the final height of 12.6 feet. I personally think it will go beyond that but since the precipitation is supposed to change to a wintery mix later on I am hoping it will slow down the rise of the creeks and rivers. I will let you know how it turns out.

PS - Special thanks to WCA member Harry Jameson who is my expert Esopus Creek advisor having operated the Town Tinker Tube Rental for the past 31 years. There is not many river conditions that he hasn't seen. And I appreciate him sharing his expertise with us.