Wedding party stranded when ruptured beaver dam causes flash flood
Published 11:40 am Wednesday, July 13, 2016
- BeaverDam3.jpg
A large beaver dam that ruptured Saturday night in a New York town near the border of Pennsylvania caused flash flooding that left a wedding party stranded for several hours, officials said.
No one was injured, according to Richard Knapp, chief of the Hancock, New York Volunteer Fire Department, but the emergency kept a handful of area crews busy for most of the night.
That evening at 9:17 p.m., Hancock Fire and EMS were contacted regarding a report of rapidly rising water and flash flooding in the area above the hamlet of Fish’s Eddy, Knapp said.
The chief said a “barn wedding” with 130 guests was taking place at that location, and guests were advised to seek higher ground immediately.
As they arrived, emergency personnel found flash flooding in progress in the area, Knapp said, with the road impassible and covered with 1 to 1½ feet of rapidly moving water. Responding Hancock units were advised of the situation and half of the Hancock resources were re-routed to gain access through another nearby area.
The cause of the flooding, according to Knapp, was determined to be a large, approximately 4-acre beaver pond that ruptured because of the excessive rain Saturday.
“There are quite a few beaver dams around,” Knapp said. “That’s how some ponds form. And it broke because of the rain. There was just more water than it could hold.”
According to Knapp, additional swift water rescue resources from the surrounding areas were called out to accommodate the 130 individuals in danger. Another first station crew from the region was also requested to stand by with its boat and swift water rescue personnel.
Town and county officials were notified of the flooding and potential road and bridge damage, Knapp said.
After a short time, the water in the flooded area started to drop, Knapp said, allowing responding personnel to gain access to the wedding party. An incident command structure was established, and a process for accounting for all wedding guests was quickly implemented, along with a search of the flooded area, he said.
Once it was determined that the water was quickly receding and that all 130 individuals were accounted for and safe on higher ground, the additional supporting rescue resources were canceled, Knapp said.
After assuring a safe exit route, the wedding guests were assisted onto buses that had been provided for the occasion and were driven to a safety. Local public works cleared and reopened part of the affected area shortly after. However, the bridge and lower part of the flooded area near the wedding site were determined to be unsafe, due to extensive washouts and was closed off to travel.
One guest shared an image of the barn scene prior to the sweeping flood.
A photo posted by Meghan Kelly (@meghankellyteles) on Jul 10, 2016 at 6:33pm PDT
By 11:15 p.m., the area was cleared and crews returned to their stations, Knapp said. As of Sunday, the lower part of the area and the bridge had been repaired and were open to traffic again, he added.
The wedding guests were “pretty bewildered” at first, Knapp said, but “they handled it well.”
“Everyone did a great job,” he said.
Reynolds writes for the Oneonta, New York Daily Star.