I’m lucky in that I don’t live in one of the many mandatory evacuation areas in New Paltz, nor did I lose power or have flooding in my home.  I can’t say that for others I know in the area.  Save for a few hours of driving rain and wind (that woke me up around 5 am), I weathered the storm by laying on the couch and watching too much TV.  I ventured out later in the day to check out the flooding.  The Walkill, as usual after a big storm, was moving swiftly, but this time carrying pumpkins and produce that undoubtedly came from the Walkill View Farm or the Gardens for Nutrition (which were both under many feet of water).  It’s a little surreal watching people fish vegetables from the river like they’re shopping at the market and in some ways it almost seems like the appropriate kind of “looting” that would happen in New Paltz.

The police shut the town down and imposed a 7 pm curfew as the river was expected to crest to a height of 20 feet higher than normal later tonight.  Here are a few shots of the flooding.

Lower Town and Country Condos on Huguenot Street – this always floods, but this is the worst I’ve ever seen.  The river is on the other side of the trees off to the right.

Down by the bridge across the Walkill – you can see the pumpkins floating

Produce “looting” out of the Walkill

Looking down Plains Road

Pony Boy Curtis (Kevin’s new dog) made sure we stayed safe on our walk

I moved to NY 10 years ago.  My first 3 years here were in Poughkeepsie, and for 2 of those years, I was a member of the Poughkeepsie Farm Project at Vassar Farms.  My memories of the time I spent there are still vivid — picking okra for the Thursday farm market, gathering bags upon bags of strawberries the first year they were planted and, in general,  gaining an understanding of the harvest cycle that I didn’t get growing up in suburban New Jersey.  So, when my friend, ChiWei, approached me about photographing “A Seat at the Table“, a 5-course fundraising dinner comprised of local, farm fresh food, I jumped at the opportunity.  It was humid and rainy, but it was no match for the amazing food, drink, music and company.  A few of my favorite shots from the day are below.

Most people come home on a Friday afternoon wondering what to do.  The nice thing about living in a village is that you can just walk and decide along the way.  After a drink at the Gilded Otter and dinner at a Tavola we ran into the G String Orchestra playing on a corner in town.