Lake Placid wakes up without power
LAKE PLACID — Power in this village is expected be to restored by “mid-morning or mid-afternoon,” Lake Placid Police Department officials said this morning.
Meanwhile, state Route 86 between Saranac Lake and Lake Placid and state Route 73 between Keene Valley and Lake Placid — which were closed Saturday evening — are open, according to state police.
The River Road in the town of North Elba remains closed due to flooding, police said.
Any resident in need of heat or oxygen can call the Lake Placid Volunteer Fire Department at 518-523-3211, as arrangements have been made to shelter people at the U.S. Olympic Training Center gym on Old Military Road.
While gas stations in Lake Placid were closed as of 7:30 a.m., residents and visitors may fill up their vehicles in neighboring communities. Maplefields in Ray Brook, the Little Supermarket in Wilmington and Stewart’s in Keene are all open, and they have power.
Tri-Lakes residents were enjoying summer-like temperatures early Saturday, but by late afternoon they were dealing with thunderstorms, heavy snow, wind and power outages amid a flood warning in the AuSable River watershed. As of 9 p.m. Saturday, electricity was still out through the totality of Lake Placid, though lobbies of a few hotels were lit by generators.
The outage, which also affected Ray Brook and parts of neighboring communities, was caused by a broken power line between Lake Placid and Ray Brook. Parts of Saranac Lake were also without power on Saturday. Lake Placid police dispatch said Saturday that a crew from National Grid was working to remedy the problem on the railroad tracks between Lake Placid and Saranac Lake.
Police also reported that a number of vehicles had slid off roadways throughout the region Saturday evening.
Route 9, between state Route 73 and Elizabethtown, will be closed from 6 a.m. to noon Monday, Feb. 27 for tree removal, according to Essex County Emergency Services.
The National Weather Service issued a flood watch through 7 p.m. today for northern New York, including the Tri-Lakes villages of Lake Placid, Saranac Lake and Tupper Lake.
A flood warning remains in effect for the East Branch of the AuSable River at AuSable Forks. As of 3:15 a.m. today, the stage was 7.6 feet, according to the NWS. Flood stage is 7.0 feet. Minor flooding is occurring, and minor flooding is forecast. Rising water is being monitored at Marcy Field and the Hulls Falls Road in the town of Keene and the Stickney Bridge in the town of Jay.
The Mount Van Hoevenberg Cross-Country Ski Center will be closed today. The Whiteface Mountain Ski Center in Wilmington is open with 3 inches of fresh snow.
The inclement weather was a sudden turn in the conditions as temperatures creeped close to 60 degrees in the Tri-Lakes earlier Saturday before the storm hit in the mid-afternoon. And as day turned to dusk, rain turned to heavy flurries that featured intermittent lightning strikes and thunder snow.
More information will be published as it is available.