3353 Flood?

Thursday, September 8, 2011

“Some people make your life better by walking into it,
other people will make your life better by walking out of it.”

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I'm north, at the old house. I plan to head back south this evening, with a stop in Goshen, NY, in Orange County, only slightly out of the way, to attend a Mensa dinner. I haven't seen those people in six months. I keep trying to go to dinners and events, but the weather, health, and schedules haven't cooperated.

So I really thought I'd make it this evening.

But TV news reports flash flooding all over Ulster and Orange counties (west of the Throughway) , and the NYS Throughway southbound is CLOSED between exits 18 and 17. I'd be getting on at exit 19 and off at 16 to go to the dinner. The detour would be through local roads in Ulster county, which is not good, since there is a good chance of flooding, and a guarantee of being full of Throughway traffic.

I put out a call for information and route advice from locals on the Mensa Yahoo group, but have not had a response yet. I'm not sure what to do.

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11:00 am - Just got a response to my group note for advice, from Roman (long-time readers, remember Roman?). He says the Throughway is now open except for the shoulders, and that 9W south to 84 is open and clear if I still want to detour, and that I can call 511 to get road condition info.

That's one good thing you can say about Roman. He always has good info about everything.

4:00 pm - Went to visit Piper and ran into The Angel, my CPA. He says I don't really want to go to Goshen. Even if the roads are open and the bridges are up, Goshen itself is flooded and they have no power, so the restaurant probably won't be open.

11:30 pm - I went anyway. I'd be headed south, which is where I want to eventually end up anyway, so I may as well try. All roads were open, there was no sign of flooding anywhere along the way, and Goshen was fine. I got to see several of the people I'd been missing, and it was a good evening.

You know, I think there's simply a lot of exaggeration in the reports of conditions. Kind of like when it's windy, and a roof blows off a building, and everybody yells "Tornado!", when it's really just strong wind. It's tiresome.
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