As communities across New York state continue the cleanup from the most recent flood event, Lewis County is still doing so from July’s storm.

Several roadways still remain closed after a dam gave way, and the repair costs are more than small towns can afford.

What You Need To Know

  • As communities across New York state clean up from recent flooding, Lewis County is still working itself out of July's storm

  • New Bremen saw several culvert bridges collapse after water rushed through, causing an estimated $15 million in damage

  • The county has detours, but worries it would take emergency crews too long to respond in some instances. It is asking local officials to push for FEMA to expedite a funding process

“We talk about storms in hundred-year storm capacity, right? So a 1 in a 100-year storm,” Lewis County Highway Superintendent Timothy Hunt said.

County Highway Superintendent Tim Hunt said he's never seen anything like the rain that fell one month ago.

“This was somewhere between a 250 and a 500-year storm,” he added.

It's a storm that when you consider homes, businesses, schools, roads and other infrastructure, may have left damages in excess of $40 million in Lewis County.

“It was only, they say, about a couple of miles wide. And it just sat there and rain, and rain, rain and rain," Hunt said.

Perhaps the hardest hit was the town of New Bremen, an old wood mill on Crystal Creek.

“There was a pond and a dam, and it took more water than it could handle. And it blew the dam out,” Hunt said.

Rushing water then took out five different culvert bridges. Those roads are still closed. The town is looking at damages of about $15 million.

“How is a town going to afford that? How are they going to be able to do that?” he asked.

That's only a small consideration. With the road still closed, detours can take anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes. What if there's an emergency?

“If your house catches on fire or you have a heart attack, we need to get the ambulance to you. We need to be able to fire truck. And when a detour is 30 minutes or 45 minutes, that could be the difference between life and death,” he said.

That's why Hunt and Lewis County are documenting everything. FEMA is one avenue for funding, he said, but that could take years.

“it's not nimble. It's very difficult and it's very rule-driven,” he said of the process.

While he understands there are always fraud concerns with FEMA funding requests, he said having that kind of proof with an event like this, he's hopeful something can change.

“These events are happening more and more often. They're devastating both to the individual businesses and homeowners, as well as the local governments,” said Hunt, who was recently named the next Lewis County manager and takes over that job next month. 

He said one of his main focuses to start will be not only roads, but homes, businesses and the school.

Lewis County is hopeful the state can help with some temporary bridges until full funding does come in and then it can start to rebuild permanently. But it knows it has to do so with more resiliency than ever before.