Adirondack communities plan for future storm resilience

Towns search for solutions, and financial help, for making repairs and preparing for additional severe weather

By Chloe Bennett

Assessing the landslide in daylight, he saw shattered pavement, blown culverts and at least nine feet of debris in a ravine and in neighboring yards. Heurich’s property had been in his family since the 1950s and he never saw damage like it before. Highway department crews spent more than two weeks repairing and cleaning the mess.

“It’s remarkable — the size of the material that Mother Nature moved with that water,” Heurich said. 

Precisely one year after record-breaking floods in the Adirondack Park in 2023, remnants of Hurricane Beryl battered Heurich’s town and other Essex County communities. Towns in the Champlain Valley caught the worst of the 2024 storm, with some areas receiving seven inches of rainfall, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). 

Meteorologists in the same month confirmed seven tornadoes in Herkimer, Saratoga, Hamilton and Warren Counties, a rarity that resulted in widespread forest destruction and power outages. 

Community leaders are finding solutions to exit the cycle of patching up after severe weather. Supervisors are working together on a defense plan for future storms while nonprofits collect funding opportunities for climate-ready infrastructure. Repairs and updates are also underway to the park’s electrical grid.

August’s Hurricane Debby caused more than 8,000 people and businesses to lose electricity in Warren, Hamilton and Herkimer counties. The remnants of the two summer hurricanes caused tens of millions of dollars in damage across the North Country.

Expensive repairs

As they race to upgrade drainage systems and roadways, many local governments seek adequate funding to help towns adapt to the changing climate. Reimbursements from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) help with repairs, but supervisors seek ways to build towns back better.

In the High Peaks town of Keene, a recognizable pattern of flooding caused Supervisor Joe Pete Wilson to think seriously about planning ahead. With the help of the highway department, Wilson is organizing a list of infrastructure projects, but identifying funding opportunities proves challenging.

“When you lose a half mile of road, and all the culverts and stuff, that’s a lot of money,” Wilson said. “And if your total budget for a whole year can’t even come close to covering one repair, it’s tough, you’re in a hole so quickly.”

About 12 miles east, Elizabethtown is accessible only by bridge. The valley town is vulnerable to high waters and experienced some of the worst damage from the July 10 storm. 

Broken roads, bridges and culverts amassed $6 million in damage, about three times Elizabethtown’s overall budget, Supervisor Cathleen Reusser said. The town received help from local construction companies for immediate fixes and had plans to acquire a loan to pay for larger projects.

Roaring Brook Lane, which runs close to a tributary of the Boquet River, was sliced in two from flooding. The earth beneath the road appeared hollowed out from the damage. Reusser said it would be the most expensive project in the town. 

Reusser in late August was standing by for confirmation from FEMA on how much the town would be reimbursed for projects She waited more than a month for the approval of public assistance funds. News of the money, which is supposed to cover 75% of the damage, came a day later. 

Still, assuming even part of the recovery costs would be difficult in a community with a poverty level of 13% and a narrow town budget. “We can’t afford this,” Reusser said. “We have an older population – fixed income.”

Elizabethtown isn’t alone. Residents with low incomes are disproportionately affected by floods, a 2022 study in Nature Climate Change found. 

“We can understand that these heavy rainfall events are going to be disastrous for the people who are on fixed incomes, who have been historically disadvantaged,” said Shana Udvardy, senior climate resilience policy analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “It’s important for the leaders in local communities to partner up with municipalities and states to think about how they can share resources.”

Potential state solutions

The Climate Change Superfund Act, which awaits Hochul’s signature, could fill funding gaps for communities ravaged by storms. The bill, introduced by Sen. Liz Krueger, D-Manhattan, would collect $3 billion a year from 40 oil and gas companies over 25 years. Krueger said the money would be “like loose cash in their couch cushion,” but highly valuable to small towns in the state.

“Let’s at least make the polluters pay some amount of those costs,” she said. “They are the ones who significantly contributed to our having these crises that we must pay to deal with. Shouldn’t polluters pay some share of those costs?”

Krueger’s superfund, opposed by New York’s business lobby, would pay for technical assistance and help towns plan for storms.  “It’s unrealistic to imagine every little community out there throughout New York State is going to, nor should they, be using a budget (to hire) their own specialists,” Krueger said.

In May, Vermont became the first state to pass such a law. The measure was enacted without Gov. Phil Scott’s signature. In September, the state was seeking input from residents on implementing its superfund. 

‘Getting out of harm’s way’

Hochul announced in January the creation of a $250 million home buyout program for flood-prone areas. The money will come from the $4.2 billion Environmental Bond Act of 2022. “Blue Buffers” is the first buyout program of its kind in the state that will not be reactive to storms, instead offering help before floods wreck residences. 

State officials in the fall were analyzing vulnerable areas that could benefit from the future program. 

“It’s a balancing act about how do we get people out of harm’s way and find places in the community for them to stay?” said Suzanna Randall, the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s chief resiliency officer. “When you go through something like a flood, the last thing you want to do is have people disperse.” 

To that end, Blue Buffers is meant to help people find housing within the same community. Requests for proposals for its first round of funding were due in September.

Alison Branco, the New York climate adaptation director for The Nature Conservancy New York said the buyouts will facilitate a smoother transition for families. “When they’re not in an emergency situation, when they can have a cool head and make the right decision.”

The state’s Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services scheduled a fall series of trainings for the public on emergency preparedness with Tupper Lake, Johnstown and Lake George as session sites.

On-the-ground solutions

A group convened last summer to compile a list of grants for climate change adaptation projects. Beginning in October, the Adirondack Climate Outreach and Resilience Network (ACORN) is traveling to regions across the North Country to hear how extreme weather is stressing local governments and residents. 

Project coordinator Sunita Halasz said ACORN plans a roadmap and a database of funding updated through Paul Smith’s College’s Adirondack Watershed Institute. The park can be forgotten for project funding in the state, she said, necessitating a stronger network of help from neighbors and local organizations.

“It takes individuals caring about communities in the Adirondacks and wanting to see them thrive to really pull us all up by our shared bootstraps,” Halasz said.

The network began in 2023, with ideas for a model similar to New York City’s Center for Climate Solutions on Governors Island. Where the city-based climate hub focuses on urban research and projects, ACORN aims to prioritize rural resilience.

The Ausable Freshwater Center is offering assistance. “I don’t want towns to feel limited by their budgets,” said Kelley Tucker, executive director. “We can write grants together, there are a lot of resources. We can figure this out together.”

Adirondack towns have a history of sharing resources and working together in response to major weather events and other emergencies. The summer storms were no exception.

Local governments across the Adirondacks are planning to collaborate proactively to find storm defense resources.

The Adirondack Association of Towns and Villages (AATV) is gathering representatives from FEMA, the state Office of Emergency Management, the National Guard and others in December. AATV began planning for the meeting after the deluges this summer. 

“We’re not getting the traditional storms anymore,” said Shaun Gillilland, supervisor of Willsboro. Instead of relying on FEMA, he said the towns should organize a parkwide plan before the next round of storms. As soon as a powerful storm hits, the towns would deploy officials and equipment to respond. 

Minerva Supervisor Stephen McNally, who is the president of the Adirondack Association of Towns and Villages, said the meeting is a step forward for the rural communities to protect their roads, bridges and residents from future floods and natural disasters. Waiting for outside funding after the events is not the only option for the local leaders. 

“We don’t want to be relying on one agency to bail us out,” said McNally, who has lived most of his life in Minerva. “We want to be able to help ourselves. And with a little planning that should work for us.”

Zachary Matson and James Odato contributed to this report.