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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. For our last 15 minutes today, we want to invite your stories from Sunday night's intense rain event. Give us the view from your window or the depth of the water in your basement, or anything you want to describe. Put a human face, put a human voice on the story for which many people have only heard the news reports. Did it affect you? Did it affect your community? Highland Falls, West Point, anywhere else around there. 212-433-WNYC. 212-433-9692.

We know some of the other intense effects were in South Eastern Vermont, the Ludlow area, in particular, and around there. If anybody happens to be listening from that region, we can take your stories too. 212-433-WNYC. 212-433-9692. Tell us about what it's been like for your home, for your car, for your train route, anything. 212-433-9692. Governor Hochul described this as the 1,000-year storm. Here's what she then had to say about the results.

Governor Hochul: We have one confirmed fatality at this time, but there are some missing individuals. Literally in one situation, a house was swept away.

Brian Lehrer: The governor has since declared a state of emergency in Orange County that includes Highland Falls, West Point, all that area due to the widespread damage to infrastructure and property. Listeners, 212-433-WNYC. How was it at the worst of it? How is it now? 212-433-9692. We're joined by our Albany reporter for WNYC and Gothamist, Jon Campbell, who headed out into the field to brave the waters and the destruction and see the effects of the storm for himself, and he joins us now to share his reporting. Hi, Jon.

Jon Campbell: Hi, Brian.

Brian Lehrer: Take us into the storm. How strong was the rain for people who didn't experience the worst of it? What did the actual storm look like as it touched the ground?

Jon Campbell: Yes, the big thing witness it was just constant rain for a long period of time. It started Sunday afternoon around noon, and went well past six into the night, even toward midnight in some areas. We're talking eight or nine inches of rain in some areas and a compressed period of time, particularly right near the West Point, the US Military Academy, and that's where you find the village of Highland Falls, which really, really seemed to take the brunt of this, but it's not just limited there. There's all sorts of roads in Orange County that were just washed out.

I mean gone. Not just a little pothole, not just like a little damage, just sections that disappeared, essentially. That's really where the bulk of this damage is going to be and the bulk of the infrastructure rebuilding efforts is going to have to be centered.

Brian Lehrer: For people not familiar with Highland Falls, south of West Point, along the west bank of the Hudson, what were the geographical elements there that made it so vulnerable to this kind of flooding?

Jon Campbell: It's a small village, it's about 3,700 people. It's where the Visitors Center to West Point is. It's where you start a tour for West Point, the West Point museums there, so it's very ingrained with the military academy. It is very much an army town. The big thing in terms of flooding here is it's right near the Hudson. There's a brook that runs through Highland Falls that curves in between houses and back behind businesses, and that really is the big issue here. It's on a downslope, so you had the water really rushing toward the bottom.

That's how you saw a lot of damage to roads. You saw a lot of damage to houses. They've opened up a shelter at the Sacred Heart Church right across from the Visitors Center to West Point where 11 people were staying as of yesterday, and that is what led to this unique circumstance in this village, but it wasn't just Highland Falls either. The town of Highland had a lot of flooding, Fort Montgomery had flooding, which is right next door and that is unfortunately where we saw the one fatality of a 35-year-old woman who was trying to get out of her home.

Brian Lehrer: Timothy in Putnam Valley, you're on WNYC. Hi, Timothy.

Timothy: Hi there. I'm actually on my way up there now, and so it's anecdotal through my wife, but we're on the lake about 10 minutes from Garrison, and the lake has never in my lifetime been this high. It's about a foot over the highest point I've ever seen. Our basement was okay, but a neighbor that I know, her ground floor was flooded, a lot of damage on Lake Oscawana mostly around the lake houses that are on the lake.

Brian Lehrer: What's the conversation in the neighborhood to the extent that you know, Timothy? Is it that anybody has to do anything different to protect their homes than they've done in the past? Or, "Wow, this was horrible," but you're seeing it as a one-time fluke? Or, what's the conversation about implications?

Timothy: I think we're hoping it's a one-time once in 1,000 years, as the governor said. There's not much you can do if you live on the lake and you're a foot or so above the highest shoreline that we're aware of, and this happens. What can you do? You're not going to raise your house. I think it's to be determined what will happen in the future. It's terrifying about it could happen again.

Brian Lehrer: Were you affected by Ida when that storm came?

Timothy: Not particularly. Sandy affected us, but nothing like this. We've had hurricanes that never had the lake rise this high. I think it was 10 inches of water, and the lake gets all the water from the hills around it feed down into the lake. It's tough to know what to do.

Brian Lehrer: Timothy, thank you very much. Yes, Jon, every storm is different.

Jon Campbell: Yes, absolutely. You mentioned Ida, I thought back to 2011, and there was Irene that caused a lot of damage in the Catskills. Not exactly at the Orange County area, but further north and I had covered some of that aftermath, and it felt very similar. You have these roads that are washed out. You have just mud in people's basements or even in their homes, and you have this cleanup effort immediately after that binds the community together. You wake up one day and your town is not the same as it was the day before. Brain Lehrer: Alice in Brooklyn was driving on the Palisades Parkway during the storm, I think. Hi, Alice, you're on WNYC.

Alice: Hi, Brian. Can you hear me?

Brian Lehrer: I can hear you. Yes.

Alice: Yes, hi. My husband and I were driving on the westbound lane of the Palisades Parkway, and the east side lanes are about 10 feet elevated. The road is uneven there. Literally five cars ahead of us, the embankment in between the two lanes just gave way, so all of the stones and the ground just blocked the parkway. One of the cars in front of us actually, the traffic stop, one of the cars got stuck on a rock and we all decided that there was no way through this.

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Brian Lehrer: Go ahead, I'm sorry. Go ahead.

Alice: Ultimately, what happened is that a bunch of people who were stuck in traffic, a bunch of guys found shovels in their trucks. About 20 of them got out and shoveled it out and moved all the boulders and all the rocks, and even though there were emergency vehicles on the site, it was the people who were stuck in traffic who cleared the logjam.

Brian Lehrer: Don't you love people sometimes when there's an emergency, they'll get out of their cars, they'll come out of their houses, they'll do what needs to be done to help their neighbors, right?

Alice: Yes, my husband said it was actually fun in the end. He was soaked to the bone three seconds of being inside, but he said it was actually a lot of fun.

Brian Lehrer: Alice, thank you. It's a heartwarming story, Jon, and we talked so much in news coverage about how horrible people can be to each other in various ways. People can always be great to each other, dudes in pickup trucks shoveling the boulders.

Jon Campbell: Yes, and there's a sense of we're all in this together, and it's very nice in some ways when you find yourself in those situations as horrible as they may be. I experienced a little bit of that up in Highland Falls when I was at the shelter, the temporary shelter at the church across from the West Point Visitors Center. Just people in droves dropping off water, dropping off paper towels saying, "Hey, our home was fine. We want to help those in need," and you saw a lot of that yesterday.

Brian Lehrer: I don't know how crowded that roadway was but I'm thinking Sunday evening, at the end of a summer weekend in July, coming back from upstate or points west because of the way she described the Westernmoor road of the Palisades Parkway, I guess that would be the southbound road headed toward the George Washington Bridge. For people coming back into the city probably pretty crowded and all of a sudden there's a landslide on the Palisades Parkway. Wow. Well, let me play another clip of Governor Hochul actually, who had declared a State of Emergency in Orange County, like we said. Here's a little more of what she had to say just seven seconds.

Governor Hochul: It's not just when the rain stops, it is making sure that these roads and bridges are tested to make sure that they're still safe for our motorists.

Brian Lehrer: If she said this is a 1,000-year rain event, that might be in historic terms but of course, the scary thing is in the global warming era, it's not going to be 1,000 years again, maybe it's going to be 1,000 minutes. We don't know.

Jon Campbell: We always hear those terms when these big storms happen, 100-year storm, 1,000-year storm. Essentially, it means that it's supposed to be exceedingly rare but it seems anecdotally like that's happening more and more and more. The Governor on Sunday, she declared a State of Emergency on the state level for this. That essentially means that it relaxes state contracting rules so if you need to say get a crew to fix a bridge very quickly, you don't have to competitively bid it or buy supplies or move supplies across county of mines. It eases those kind of issues, that's why she did that the other day.

Brian Lehrer: Virginia in Manhattan was on the road Sunday night as well. Virginia, you're on WNYC. Hi, there.

Virginia: Hello.

Brian Lehrer: Hello.

Virginia: Hi, Brian. I've called you many times but I was on my way coming down from Tannersville in the Catskills after a performance up there. I used my GPS because I haven't driven from there in a long time so I kept my GPS on. I knew it would be about a two-and-a-half-hour trip and it had just started raining up there. All of a sudden, I see it's going to be a three-and-a-half-hour trip up to four hours and I say, "That's strange."

I'm driving out and I'm on the Thruway and I thought truly straight through Palisades, George Washington, I'll be home in no time. Well, I got rerouted three times by my GPS [laughs] and it just got worse and worse and worse, and then even hit an accident where we sat for about 20 minutes, and the trip into New York took about close to four hours. When I got home and saw on the news, I said, "Boy, I was lucky."

Brian Lehrer: You were lucky.

Virginia: I was happy I didn't--

Brian Lehrer: Yes, you were.

Virginia: I was really happy I didn't take the Thruway straight through.

Brian Lehrer: Virginia, thank-- [crosstalk]

Virginia: Normally, I wouldn't use the GPS. Anyway, thank you, Brian.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you very much for telling your story. Jon, we've got 30 seconds left. What's the latest on the trains? Last I heard you couldn't get above Croton on the Hudson Line on Metro North and Amtrak between New York and Albany was out.

Jon Campbell: Yes. Don't I know Amtrak between New York and Albany was out because I was supposed to take the train down here but the Metro North is-- there's limited bus service for essential travelers from Croton–Harmon and Poughkeepsie because the lines are washed out there. They're operating on the Hudson Line between Grand Central and Peekskill at least once an hour.

Brian Lehrer: Jon Campbell, our Albany reporter somehow made it from there to here to continue reporting this story. Jon, thanks a lot for coming on.

Jon Campbell: Thank you for having me.

Brian Lehrer: That's the Brian Lehrer show for today. Produced by Mary Croke, Lisa Allison, Amina Srna, Carl Boisrond and Esperanza Rosenbaum. Zach Gottehrer-Cohen produces our daily national politics podcast. Sign up for that. Megan Ryan is the head of live radio and we had Juliana Fonda and Milton Ruiz at the audio controls. I'm Brian Lehrer. Thanks for listening today. Stay tuned for Alison.

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