Catskill Maison Bed & Breakfast

I haven’t written a blog post in a few weeks because as a manager for Verizon I was summoned to “strike duty” in Queens NY since the beginning of August.  I’ve been in my NYC home throughout this time and planned to return to Windham to Catskill Maison this upcoming Labor Day weekend to receive guests.  Needless to say that will not happen.  For those of you who aren’t aware, Windham was devastated by Hurricane Irene.

I’m not going to embellish upon the news reports on this blog post or any other updates going forward…I’m only going to give my personal take on what’s going on from those that are dealing with the nightmare going on in Windham right now. 

We had guests at our B&B this past weekend; one couple (thankfully) cancelled their reservation, another left on Saturday morning and cut their trip early.  I advised the third couple to head back to New York City on Saturday as well, but they decided to stay an extra night thinking that Windham would be a better option for them than Greenpoint Brooklyn (in Bloomberg’s infamous zone “A” of evacuation in NYC) because they were going to be evacuated.  What happened over the next 24 hours is almost inexplicable.  Liz, our Innkeeper (and one of my dearest friends) has been working nonstop and tending to many wonderful guests for most of this summer thanks to the Verizon strike, and this past weekend was to be her last weekend before she got a “reprieve” by Hector and I coming up to the B&B to work.  I spoke to Liz on Saturday and told her to fill up the bath tub, get an extra flash light and buy non perishable foods “just in case” because we lose electricity regularly in the Mountains, and quite frankly that’s what I expected…a power failure of a day or two at the most, but not much more than that.

On Sunday morning at 8:30 Liz called me in Riverdale from the land line phone at the Bed and Breakfast and told me that it was pouring and windy and the Batavia Kill across the road was rising and beginning to flood the farmland across from us.  I asked her if the guests left yet and she said they were still upstairs.  Grateful that the power was still on I asked her about breakfast.  She decided not to make our normal 3 course breakfast because the power had been going out intermittently, I told her to put on another pot of Coffee just in case and to let me know when the guests leave she could lock up and go home.  At 9:15 I got a text stating that the power went out.  The news after that was right out of a movie.  The water came to the street across the road from us with only the street and the slope that our house stands on protecting us.  Emergency services dropped off an elderly man, another man and his 2 daughters and dog at our door because the homes on the other side of the road were flooded and they needed to be rescued and brought to a place on higher ground.  I had Liz give them some coffee and figured they would be with us for a couple of hours until the rain stopped and the water receded.  I was so naive and so wrong.

Morning turned into afternoon and Liz and I were in contact over the cell phone…our house was safe and dry and everyone had food and water and could use the facilities.  She said it was like “camp” as our guests and neighbors played Monopoly and Life in our Library…Liz, never breaking a sweat made sure everyone was as comfortable as possible and was the perfect hostess, even though she was texting me telling me that she was freaking out.  Afternoon turned into evening and it dawned on me that we would have to shelter our neighbors for the night.  I advised Liz to set up some rooms so that our neighbors could sleep for the night and my thoughts turned to the two little girls who were rescued by a bucket truck, and the trauma that they must be going through.  Liz ventured into town and reported that our partner Bed and Breakfast Country Suite (on the flooded side of the road) was still standing though their barn/antique/consignment shop was surrounded by water…the trailer park seemed to be still standing as well and Ashland looked fine, however Windham was a different story.  She wasn’t allowed past the entrance to South Street but she couldn’t drive down South Street either because there was a huge crater in the road.  I had seen the footage of our school buses being swept away down Main Street, and the newly refurbished bridge by Valero gas station getting hit by a house and caving in.  I knew in my heart things were bad.

Monday morning with the sun up our guests finally were able to head back to the city, the elderly man was able to get back into his home and the family into theirs.  Liz was able to really assess the damage to our property which I’m relieved to say there is NO DAMAGE!!!!!  God seriously looked out for us because our landscaping is in almost perfect condition (minus a few small branches that fell onto the lawn), and we didn’t have any structural damage or flooding.  The only thing we have to deal with is the lack of power and trying to save our food.  Some of our friends and neighbors and fellow business owners didn’t get so lucky.  Liz’s house didn’t suffer any damage either, her family is safe and her vegetables even made it in her garden.  The backyard of her house has a new “landscape” but other than that she is okay.

Here is what I know (as of this morning) from Liz and Antonia (the owner of the Windham Spa)…Prattsville is completely washed out and isolated, the bridges have been washed out and nobody can get in or out, it’s a similar situation in Maplecrest as the bridge to Maplecrest is washed out as well and Maplecrest is completely under water.  Windham’s South Street has a crater in the right lane but the left lane is fine so it’s open from end to end, therefore you can take 23 E from Ashland to South Street and make a left onto 296 and continue east on 23.  The center of town on Main Street (rt 23) is closed and a mess and suffered the most damage.  There seems to be rubble and small damage to Windham Mountain, the Alpine village (where Chalet Fondue and Albergo B&B are) is fine.  Christmans Windham House and Messinas seem to be okay minus small flooding issues.  The grounds of the Catskill Mountain Country Store are destroyed, the Windham Spa is destroyed as well the structure is still there but the flood damage is immense, but thank God Antonia and her family are safe.  Liz can’t get through Main Street so I don’t know all of the damage but she said that propane tanks and debris and cars are littering the sides of the street from what she can see.  Liz got to Cairo yesterday (Windham thank goodness isn’t isolated and Cairo has power) and picked up ice so that our food will stay fresh until the power comes back on (hopefully by tomorrow).  But it’s going to be a long and tough recovery.  I’m confident that our town will bounce back and be better than ever before but right now everyone is just stunned and trying to pick up the pieces.  Windham needs tourism more than ever after this disaster.  Many in our town will temporarily (and some permanently) be out of work.  I will post in a couple of days to speak of any new developments, but as of right now I can only state a few things.

1. We are lucky and extremely grateful and are going to help and support our community as much as possible through this catastrophe.

2.  Catskill Maison will open for business as soon as it’s safe for guests to visit and things begin to calm down in town and I will be updating the blog regularly to keep past and future guests abreast of developments on the rebuilding of Windham.

3.  Liz will continue to work with us and we will be assisting her and her family through this difficult time.

Please keep our towns in the Catskills in your prayers.