Turning a former Stewart’s into an emergency shelter

Adirondack communities come up with new ways to support residents during severe weather

By Mike Lynch

In Indian Lake, the former Stewart’s Shop reopened in the summer of 2022 as the town’s welcome center. Food aisles were transformed into a cozy room with Great Camp-style furniture and the back-wall coolers were covered with images depicting Adirondack wilderness.

Like many community buildings in the park, the structure serves multiple purposes: hosting a food pantry, seasonal farmers market, chamber of commerce and office for the head of the town’s economic, marketing and events department.

It is also headquarters for the One Call Emergency Alert system, which sends alert phone calls and emails during natural disasters to both seasonal and year-round residents who subscribe to this free service.

Equipped with a backup generator, new cooling and heating systems, it can serve as a daytime space for people dealing with an extreme weather event. (The town has other buildings, such as the local school, as designated overnight shelters.) It can also be a distribution center for water during a storm or power outage. The large walk-in freezer has been used by fire victims needing a place to put food.

Christine Pouch, Indian Lake’s director of economic development and marketing, said recent weather events created the need for this type of use. She recalled how a July 2023 storm left dozen of guests at the Hemlock Hall lodge on Blue Mountain Lake needing to be evacuated. Many were taken to the Indian Lake School before they were able to go home or find other lodging.

“It would have been nice to have a more comfortable place,” she said.

The welcome center is an example of adjustments local governments have been making to improve emergency communications and shelters to keep residents and visitors safe.

Last fall, the town of Jay upgraded its cooling system at its senior center located in the town’s community center. The town of Keene recently installed a new emergencies text alert system. Essex and Warren counties have launched apps that provide alerts and information. The American Red Cross, which underwent a nationwide restructuring to allow them to respond faster, is constantly looking to add new shelters.

Related reading: Preparing for future storms: Adirondack town officials discuss emergency responses

A response to extreme weather events

The upgrades are being made to respond to the more frequent and severe suite of natural disasters and extreme weather events the region has seen in recent years.

In 2024, New York state saw 32 tornadoes, including about a half dozen in the southern Adirondacks. That’s the most since the National Weather Service (NWS) started keeping track in 1998. That’s 11 more than 2011, the second highest total.

It was also a record breaking year for temperatures in some areas. In Plattsburgh, located just northeast of the park, the city recorded its highest mean average daily temp—49 degrees—since 1946, the start of the NWS’ dataset. That’s about 4 degrees higher than other years. During last summer and fall, drought caused a rare wildfire season in New York and neighboring states.

Not to mention, the remnant storms from hurricanes Beryl and Debby caused millions of dollars of damage to infrastructure to communities.

Because of the unpredictability and severity of these weather events, Sunita Halasz, project coordinator for the Adirondack Climate Outreach and Resilience Network (ACORN), said it’s important for communities to have designated places, or emergency hubs, where people can get resources, such as water and dry ice, in times of need.

These facilities can also be helpful for people who need to power medical devices.

One of the most well-equipped and established places is in Brant Lake at the town of Horicon’s community center. This building is an official American Red Cross shelter that could house 88 people short term or 44 long term. It has a kitchen, backup power sources including solar panels, kitchen, and public Wi-Fi.

Horicon Supervisor Michael Geraci said the hub hasn’t been used as an overnight shelter since he took office in 2021, but people do come in during power outages to keep warm and use the Wi-Fi to connect with relatives and friends and get updates on the current emergency.

“When you have no communications, when you don’t know how long your power is going to be out, if you can’t communicate, the anxiety is what drives your internal fear,” said Geraci, who also is the chair of Warren County’s public safety committee. “People just want to know exactly what’s happening.”

Seldom used, but still essential

While emergency shelters are essential during major disasters like the 1998 ice storm and Hurricane Irene in 2011, both of which left roads impassable and people without power for days, there is some unpredictability about when people will need them and they could go unused for years.

There are also situations like last July when 15 people had to be rescued late at night in town trucks from Champ RV Campground in Port Henry. Eight people found overnight refuge at the Moriah Fire Department.

But in many cases, people take care of themselves, multiple emergency managers told the Explorer.

In Essex, a town of roughly 600 people, town supervisor Ken Hughes said they’ve opened up the Whallonsburg Grange—which has a kitchen and common room—numerous times during weather events in recent years. However, he could recall only one person showing up. That occurred during a spring snow storm when power was out for several days.

“I find that people tend to just hunker down. They’ve got wood stoves, or they have family members that they stay with or they’ll go to Plattsburgh or other places like Saranac Lake or Lake Placid,” he said. “They’ll drive to those places and take care of themselves.”

The Grange did get used as a shelter during Irene.

Jay Supervisor Matt Stanley was living in Florida for college during the 1998 ice storm, but recalled his parents doing exactly as Hughes said. They hosted local family members at their house as they waited for power to be restored.

“Because my parents’ house had a gas stone and wood heat … everybody sort of collected together there instead of seeking shelter down here,” Stanley said.

But the town of Jay has learned from past storms, especially Irene, that shelters can be essential during disasters and they have been continually upgrading their community center as an emergency hub and shelter. Its facility includes a large gym where cots can be set up, a commercial kitchen, showers, and back up power.

Related reading: FEMA’s role in rebuilding

Stanley said the last time he remembered it being used as an overnight shelter was in 2011 during Irene, but it gets used during power outages. Several years ago, a flood displaced about 20 families but the Red Cross gave out vouchers for hotels, he said.

Red Cross to the rescue

Mike Tripodi is the regional disaster program manager for the Red Cross based in Glens Falls and serving the southern and eastern Adirondacks. He has also helped develop some of the current sheltering policies for the Red Cross on the national level.

The Red Cross is often called to assist with more serious situations. In December, it responded to Whitehall in Washington County, located just outside the Adirondack Park, when the community’s drinking water reservoir went dry. The Red Cross set up a warming center and supply center and handed out 30,000 bottles of drinking water.

Tripodi frequently surveys Adirondack communities to add to the list of shelters and services Red Cross can use during a natural disaster or other emergency. His work includes visiting buildings and restaurants to find out their capacity to help out in emergencies.

He said the warming climate is changing the way Red Cross provides services because natural disasters are happening so frequently and unpredictably.

“We used to have a major hurricane every five, six years, so we had time to build things, but then we’re just seeing this chronic disaster, disaster, disaster,” he said.

In response, the organization has shrunk its regions, hired more staff, and shifted some of its approaches, including doing more community training. It is also looking to add more non-traditional shelters, like using summer camps during the off seasons.

“You can never say there is enough,” said Ann Marie Mason, Warren County’s director of emergency services. “We continue to make sure that we are as prepared as possible to meet the needs of our community and keep them safe.”

Photo at top: The town of Jay Community Center is home to a senior center and has the capacity to serve as an emergency shelter. Here, senior center site manager Tiffany Thomas stands below a heat pump installed last fall to allow it to better serve as a cooling center. Photo by Mike Lynch