The Hudson River is flooding the Newburgh Waterfront this morning and thousands are without power across the region as a strong storm system delivers heavy rain and strong winds just two days before Christmas.
See video of the flooding below.
Winds are continuing to increase after torrential downpours dumped 1.6″ of rain overnight, increasing the storm total to 1.88″ of rain so far. Southerly winds are now increasing as the storm system exits, producing a wind gust of 44 mph recorded atop Mount Beacon.
Although the rainfall was enough to produce nuisance flooding in low-lying areas and caused a sharp rise in the area streams, the Hudson River flooding is being blamed on the strong southerly winds. The Hudson River is surrounded by mountains along the east and west shores, which causes wind tunnels and harsh conditions over the open water.
The river flooding is also being caused by storm surge flowing upstream on this tidal river. High tide occurred at 11:23am this morning.
The National Weather Service in Albany, NY has issued a Flood Warning for the Hudson River in Poughkeepsie. Flooding there is expected to compare to a previous crest on Christmas Day in 2020.
In the City of Newburgh, employees or customers looked outside to find their cars parked within rising flood waters. Panic-stricken motorists could be seen rushing to their cars to move them to higher ground.
The popular Billy Joe’s Ribworks is being surrounded by water. The parking area along the River Rose’s pier and the City of Newburgh’s public bathrooms have also been inundated by the Hudson River. Also flooded is the parking lot at the public boat launch adjacent to the former Gully’s Restaurant.
City of Newburgh Department of Public Works staff were making steady rounds of the area in several trucks to keep an eye on the flooding.
It is still unknown how much damage, if any, has been done to any of the buildings.
Meanwhile, Central Hudson Gas & Electric reported 7,232 customers across the region are without power across the region.
A large outage in New Windsor has cut power to 2,223 customers along a stretch from Route 9W to Route 32 between Forge Hill Road and Union Avenue. Power to those areas is expected to be restored soon.
In the City of Newburgh, customers are without power in the area of Broadway and Fullerton Avenue. No restoration time is yet available.
Several smaller outages are impacting potions of the Town of Newburgh. Approximately 15 customers in the Gardnertown area of the Town of Newburgh are without power, but Central Hudson line crews expect to restore it by early this afternoon. There is also a small outage in the Balmville portion of town.
A Wind Advisory went into effect in Orange County at 10:00am this morning, which expires at 6:00pm tonight. Sustained winds of 15-25 mph are forecast to gust to 50 mph this afternoon. The wind direction is expected to shift from the south to the west as the storm exits the area.
As the tide now begins to recede on the Hudson River and wind directions begin to shift from southerly to westerly, flooding is expected to begin subsiding as the afternoon progresses.
Real-time weather conditions, live weather alerts, live radar, the 7-day forecast, and more can be seen at Vail’s Gate Tower here, which is operated by The Newburgh News, LLC.
