When the September storms hit these communities, heavy rains on already saturated ground led to intense localized flooding.
Federal assistance is necessary to help our neighbors in Orange and Wyoming on the road to recovery.
This is the fourth time since 1996 that the Village of Highland Falls has experienced flooding. Wyoming County was also hit by severe storms on September 2 and 9, which produced 4.7 inches of rain within 1 to 2 hours. Once again, the overall impact of the storms was worsened by the fact that the county had already experienced an unusually wet summer. These storms in September produced the same conditions that prompted the Federal Emergency Management Agency to declare 28 counties a major disaster area following the storms of May 3 - August 12. Joint federal, state and local teams surveyed the infrastructure damages and private property damages in Orange County on September 14 and in Wyoming County on September 25.