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Orangetown begins updating comprehensive plan

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The Town has started the process of updating the Orangetown Comprehensive Plan. When complete, this Plan will serve as a guide for growth and development in Orangetown for many years to come. If you are interested in getting e-mail updates, please click here to sign up.

Rockland County Morning Update and Overnight Information

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New City, NY, – Rockland County Executive Ed Day continues to ask residents to stay home and off the roads to allow for flooded areas to drain and for cleanup from the remnants of Ida. 

“Major roadways, including the Thruway, are closed and there are all kinds of obstructions on minor roads throughout Rockland due to the overnight flooding conditions. Please stay home, work from home if you can and allow for cleanup to take place. If you go out now you will just clog the roads with additional traffic and further delay a return to normal conditions,” said County Executive Day. 

The New York State Thruway IS CLOSED on I-87 in both directions between exit 12 and 14 due to flooding. 

Rockland County Maintained Roads Currently Closed (this is not a comprehensive list of roads closed around Rockland): 

  • Hungry Hollow Road by Sparrow Avenue in Chestnut Ridge is closed due to a down tree (expected to reopen late AM/early PM 9/2). 
  • South Pascack by Lillian Drive in Chestnut Ridge is closed due to a tree down on wires (expected to reopen shortly). 
  • Spook Rock Road between Joy Road and Wesley Chapel Road is closed due to flooding and concerns related to a rock wall dam lining the roadway (expected to remain closed for 24-48 hours until water recedes and dam can be inspected). 

TOR – Current Bus Service: 

Transport of Rockland (TOR) #59 is suspended until further notice due to flooding and road closures. Service will resume as conditions improve. TOR is providing limited service on all other routes.  Please expect delays. Road conditions will be monitored throughout the day to determine when additional TOR bus service can be resumed. 

Power Outages Countywide:  

  • 872 (as of 9:10 AM, 9/2) 

Overnight Response: 

Last evening Director of Fire and Emergency Services Chris Kear requested that the New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services (DHSES) relocate their prepositioned water rescue assets to the Rockland County Fire Training Center in Pomona.  

The DHSES Water Rescue Team was then deployed to Orangeburg where they assisted the Orangeburg Fire Department in rescuing 11 individuals from floodwaters at the intersection of Route 303 and Orangeburg Road. 

Several other Fire and Police Departments were involved in rescuing people from vehicles submerged in flood waters in the following locations: 

  • New City 1 person rescued 
  • Tappan 3 people rescued 
  • Nanuet 10 people rescued 
  • Tallman 25 people rescued 
  • Spring Valley 35 people rescued 

There were 212 total fire calls from 5:30 PM yesterday (9/1) until 7 AM this morning (9/2). These calls could have been rescues, pump out requests, alarms or flooding concerns among other issues. 

“The incredible response by our volunteer fire departments, police departments, EMS agencies and the assistance of New York State teams prevented significant loss of life last night. I am incredibly proud of and thankful for our first responders and commend them for their work and heroism,” said County Executive Day. 

Storm update from the Clarkstown Supervisor

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This is an update on the aftermath of Hurricane Ida as of 7:15AM, September 2nd. 


Clarkstown received over seven inches of rain which caused significant flooding issues across the entire Town. According to Orange and Rockland Utilities, Inc.  there are 1,481 people out of power in Rockland; 183 of those in Clarkstown mainly in Upper Nyack. O&R has extra crews on working to restore power. The Clarkstown Police Department had over 200 calls for service almost all weather related between 9:00PM and 4:00AM. Approximately thirty one roads were closed within the town most are now open. However, some notable exceptions including the New York State Thruway is closed causing significant back ups. As a result literally there are thousands of tractor trailers that have been diverted onto local roads. Route 59 by the Shoppes at Nanuet one lane only open Westbound; also 59 in West Nyack Bobby Lane to the Cemetery is closed. Congers Road is also closed Goebel to Strawtown.

So what happens next? Well, the clean up is underway as well as assessment. Throughout the town highway crews are out checking roads, clearing debris from previously flooded areas. This will be ongoing. Barricades are being picked up from previously closed roads and continues. Be careful as you travel as you may find debris on roadways and storm drain covers off in some areas where we have had flooding. Further, dozens of cars were abandoned in flooded areas due to rising flood waters. In fact we had several water rescues in the town of trapped motorists. Unfortunately, many of these cars are in the roadway and must be towed like the one in the photo which was on South Pascack Road and had been submerged last night. This will continue throughout the day as we continue to clean up. 

Finally, the weather is cool and more importantly clear with no rain in the forecast until Sunday. However, the runoff will continue so large streams and rivers will still have rising waters for the next twelve to twenty four hours. So expect continued flooding around the Hackensack and other rivers in the County. Governor Hochul and County Executive Day have declared emergencies and I am certain that the State will seek FEMA assistance from the federal government. Therefore, if that is to occur we will post information on how to apply for FEMA assistance. This was the most significant rain/flooding event we have experienced since 2004. We had flooding in places that never flood; scores of homeowners have flooding in their homes and fire departments were busy with water rescues and pumping out homes. Be patient and careful as you travel in the town and the region over the next day as the clean up and aftermath continues. We will post a further update later today. Be safe everyone!

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