Remembering Irene: 'We gave it everything we had' recall ADK town supervisors - WCAX

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JAY, N.Y. (WCAX) - Tropical Storm Irene devastated parts of Essex County, New York, leaving homes and businesses flooded and challenging local officials tasked with managing the madness.

“It’s hard for me to fathom. It’s been ten years but I remember every moment of it,” said Randy Douglas, the former supervisor for the town of Jay.

Torrential rains pelted the area, forcing the Ausable River to rise eight feet in just 14 hours and leaving a path of destruction in the communities of Jay and Keene. “The bridge got stuck with a bunch of debris that came from upstream, came down and clogged the bridge -- had no place to go. It couldn’t go over the top anymore, couldn’t go underneath, so it came this way and went down Main Street,” Douglas recalled.

In Jay and Au Sable Forks, homes filled with water as homeowners collected what they could before evacuating. “They had to put in airboats to rescue people,” Douglas said.

Twenty-four homes were destroyed. FEMA later bought the properties and they remain bare today. “Unfortunately, you lose the tax base, you lose your identity, and you lose the generations of people that lived here,” Douglas said.

“It just continued -- I don’t think we slept for days,” said Bill Ferebee, the former supervisor for the town of Keene. He recalls losing the fire station after a boulder went through the side. “No time at all the building then started to crumble and then fell into the Gulf Brook.”

Emergency management in the county moved fast to help those living by the rivers and brooks. “You had to think on your feet, you couldn’t stand and dwell on one situation, you had to just keep moving,” Ferebee said.

Trying to keep up with the flooding, he recalls the community coming together to help anywhere they could. “Here they are at town hall saying, ‘How can we help? Let’s take buckets and get water out of this guy’s basement, let’s get mud out of this guy’s house,’” Ferebee said.

Over the years, reconstruction continued - all paid for with state and federal dollars. “All in all, I think we recovered well,” Ferebee said. And as the two supervisors reminisce about that day, they are proud of how they handled the situation. “There is no training manual, it’s just grab the seat of your pants and get to work. That’s what you are elected to do -- protect the town.”

“We did a good job, we worked hard. Did we make mistakes? Absolutely. We made mistakes but we gave it everything we had, and I’m proud of what we did because it could have been much worse,” Douglas said.

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Remembering Irene: 'We gave it everything we had' recall ADK town supervisors - WCAX
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