42 56.89 N 074 12.72 W
As we traveled up and down the Erie Canal in the past two weeks, we gathered some lore and stories about the great flood of 2006 that struck this area.
Lock 14, and Canajoharie just below the lock, were hit hard in the flood. The city dock where we stayed last night was under 25 feet of water at the crest. Main Street, the Arkell Museum, Beech Nut, and the south end of the bridge over the river were all flooded. I saw one picture of 4 or 5 boats all piled on top of each other after the flood. I don't know the story of how those boats fared or about damage. It appeared that it would have been a very frightening situation to be in a boat during that flood.
I talked to the lock master at lock 12. He explained that lock 12 was designed to be flooded because Schoharie Creek conflows with the Mohawk just above the dam. Schoharie Creeks floods often. Spillways on both shores carry most of the excess water away.
Lock 12
I talked to the lock master at lock 11. She said that because the river is very wide at that point, that the flood was not so bad. She did however have one boat tied up on the wall. She moved the boat to the lock chamber, tied it up with ropes in 4 directions, then left the lower valve open to drain the lock. The flood spilled over the upstream side of the lock, but because the down valve was open, the water level in the lock stayed below flood level and was relatively still. The boat rode through fine.
Lock 10 didn't have the advantages cited by locks 12 and 11. It was wiped out. The small buildings that house the lock equipment and controls were engulfed and washed away.
Down in the Hudson River, the floating docks for Albany Yacht Club broke away from shore and floated downstream will all the member's boats still attached. The yacht club has all new docks now.
Worst of all for a cruiser. I believe that the canal remained closed for the rest of the year. Any boats there were trapped for the season and for the next winter. Brrrrrr.
At the time of the flood in 2006, Libby and I were in the Chesapeake. We were shocked at the surge in debris that came down the Susquehanna River. It filled the whole Chesapeake with hazardous floating stuff. We used the C&D canal to cross over to the Delaware River. It too was full of debris. That was quite a flood.
In 2007, when Libby and I went up the Erie Canal the first time, we didn't hear most of the flood stories. All the people were too busy cleaning up and rebuilding.
Below, a video of the flood at lock 8. Note the two boats riding out the flood in the lock chamber.
Posts
On Friday, July 14th, 2006 the 11 boaters stranded at Riverfront Park in Canajoharie since the June 28 floods were escorted by tugboat up river to St.Johnsville. They needed an escort since the channel markers had been swept away. The stranded boaters had been taken in at the Mid-County Ambulance Squad building across the river in Palatine Bridge. While they were there the boaters helped to clean up the damaged Canajoharie Library and Art Gallery and other buildings, helped out at the churchfire scene, and helped to clean up Riverfront Park. Before they left, the boaters expressed their thankfullness for the kindness and generosity of the villagers despite the devestation the village was suffering. I'm sure the boaters will remember their unplanned visit to Canajoharie/Palatine Bridge for a long time!
ReplyDeleteHere's a NYS Canal Corp News Release about the Stranded Canajoharie Boaters leaving:
http://www.nyscanals.gov/news/pressrel/2006/2006-07-14-boaters.html
Set of "Flood" photos on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/20193861@N00/sets/72157594193993336/
Fred of Tug44 was stranded for a short time at Lock E3 in Waterford with others due to the flooding, they dubbed themselves the "Lock 3 Yacht Club":
http://www.tug44.org/2006.flood/lock3yachtclub.htm
Lock 10 was damaged the most during the flooding. The small building in your posted photo was not a building that housed lock equipment. It was more of an office.
Lock controlls and equipment was not washed away. a large amount of soil was washed away, and equipment on site for a then ongoing refubishment of the movable dam.
The canal was not closed for the rest of the year. The canal corp had contractors working on Lock 10 24/7 recovering and repairing the movable dams there and the lock.
The canal was only closed for about 10 weeks.
At Lock E10 in Cranesville after the flood damage the River/Canal was not navigable, therefore construction work did not take place from floating barges. Stone from Cushing Stone quarry (just across Route 5S) was used to build a causeway to access the damaged sheetmetal coffer dam to continue work which was underway before flooding. They worked 12-hour days, 7 days-a-week, which required the use of the lights for nightwork. Damaged sections of the upstream cofferdam had to be removed. In order to do this, approximately 15,000 cubic yards of stone was brought in to build the temporary access road across the Mowhawk River. This temporary roadway streached across more than half of the river. Upon removal of the temporary road, the stone used to build the road was then used to replace some of the material on land that was eroded away by the flood waters. By August 19th, Lock 10, and thereby the entire Canal, was re-opened to traffic, two weeks ahead of schedule.
HC Ohlhous