In 2011, Irene and Lee battered the towns of Rosendale and Marbletown.

"Rosendale had no power for 11 days, and that was quite a strain on the community," recalled Rosendale Supervisor Jeanne Walsh.

The town opened up the recreation center so people could shelter there, use the Wi-Fi and electricity. In the aftermath of the severe storms, it became clear the town needed to become more storm resilient.

Rosendale was awarded $3 million from the Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery and its NY Rising Community Reconstruction and Infrastructures Program to input flood control measures, repair collapsed roads and make the towns two most critical buildings — the municipal center, which it shares with the town of Marbletown, and the recreation center — more equipped to act as shelters during storm emergencies.

"In the worst case scenario, when we have storms that last multiple days, when we're out of power, people can come here to get help, to either stay or just to get out of the weather," said Walsh.

The municipal and recreation centers were equipped with new emergency backup power generators that will supply continuous power to the two facilities during power outages so they can act as emergency shelters for residents in need.

"It's always been a struggle whenever the powers out. How you're gonna continue payroll, how you're going to continue services for residents, and this gives us that ability," said Walsh.

In February’s ice storm, residents sheltered at the rec center when they had no heat or electricity.

"Even though it was crowded, people got along and they made friends," said Dorene Whitiker​, the town of Rosendale director of recreation.

The bath house at the recreation center, which was previously only equipped for summer months, was also renovated and winterized with insulation and heat so that neighbors could shower and change while sheltering in the recreation center in the days after the storm.

"It’s a comfort to know that we can provide this," said Walsh. "We didn’t have just Rosendale residents. We had residents from the wider community also, and we were able to provide a safe place for them to come to stay."

Because the municipal center is shared by the town of Rosendale and the town of Marbletown, each town contributed $73,000, in addition to the NY Rising program funding, to install the generator at the municipal center.

The program has invested over $4 billion in disaster recovery funding to better prepare communities across New York for weather disasters.