Rain and wind from Tropical Cyclone Debby ripped through the region overnight Friday and into Saturday, leaving hundreds without power and flooding some low-lying areas along waterways.

The storm came less than one month after the remnants of Hurricane Beryl dropped heavy rainfall on this region, washing out roads and trails throughout Essex County.

The bulk of the storm damage late last week came not from rain, but from wind. Wind speeds on Friday night reached up to 35 mph during gusts, according to Jessica Storm, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Burlington, Vermont. The wind downed trees and power lines, leaving thousands without power. National Grid reported 93,700 customers without power throughout upstate New York.

Nearly the entire town of Keene — around 1,000 people — were without power at one point, according to Keene town Supervisor Joe Pete Wilson Jr. By Sunday morning, power had been restored for the majority of residents.

The power outage temporarily derailed operations at the town’s transfer station. The station lost power after it closed on Friday, forcing the town to close the station midday Saturday. Though power was back on by Sunday, the trash compactor needed repairs, according to Wilson. By late afternoon Sunday, the compactor was repaired and the transfer station reopened, thanks to assistance from New York state Electric and Gas and the Essex County Department of Public Works, according to Wilson.

There was minimal flood damage in Keene, with water from the AuSable River overflowing to the brink of state Route 73 and Hulls Falls Road, but road closures weren’t needed, according to Wilson.

A section of Styles Brook Road in Keene connecting two bridges — one owned by Essex County, one by the town of Keene — remained closed as of Sunday. Abutments on both bridges were undermined by the storm, according to Wilson. The town and county are awaiting an assessment of the bridges to find out whether the repairs will be minor, extensive or require a total replacement. A barn located in the closed section of Styles Brook Road caught fire around 8 p.m. Saturday. Fire investigators are still working to compile details about the fire. No one was hurt in the blaze, but because of the location of the fire, Keene Valley Fire Chief Jody Whitney said it was hard to access.

“By the time we got there, it was 90% involved,” Whitney said.

Flooding of the East Branch of the AuSable River prompted a few road closures in the town of Jay, including Hesseltine, Straight, Carey and Clark roads. Jay town Supervisor Matt Stanley said that repairs will be needed along road shoulders and on dirt roads, but there’s been no reports of any residents impacted by the storm.

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Tri-Lakes

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Jessica Storm said the Tri-Lakes region got less rain than the surrounding regions — 1 to 3 inches over the course of the storm.

Wind gusts kept Tri-Lakes fire departments stayed busy over the weekend, fielding reports of trees blocking roads and wires down throughout Friday evening, but there was not much flooding or property damage in the Tri-Lakes region.

Lake Placid Volunteer Fire Department Driver Matt Wood said their first call for a downed tree or a tree on wires came at 5:40 p.m. Friday and they were busy with the cleanup until past 8 p.m. In that time they responded to 10 calls — mostly for trees in the road.

“The wind surprised everybody,” Wood said.

A tree landed on a house 25 Liberty Hill Lane at around 6:30 p.m. and punctured through the roof. Firefighters removed the tree and patched the hole.

Wood said there was minor flooding on Mirror Lake Drive near Northwood Road, but the flooding stopped with the end of the rain. The AuSable River at River Road in Lake Placid never crested.

Saranac Lake Volunteer Fire Department Driver Garrett Foster said SLVFD responded to six calls for trees and wires in the road between 5:29 p.m. and 8:16 p.m. There was no property damage they knew of, and no flooding they responded to.

St. Armand town Supervisor Davina Thurston said that the town saw a few trees downed and some minor driveway washouts, but the damage was “not bad” overall.

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Countywide

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Essex County Emergency Services Director Matthew Watts said the county overall fared “much better than expected.”

“We fared very well, better than we expected to,” he said. “Wind was more of an issue than the rain.”

The vast majority of households that lost power on Friday and Saturday had power restored by Saturday evening, according to Watts.

The southern end of the county — primarily the towns of Schroon Lake and Moriah — got the brunt of the storm damage, along with the towns of Essex and Willsboro, which saw downed trees and power lines, according to Watts.

The cost of the damage countywide wasn’t yet clear Sunday. Watts hoped to get a better assessment on Monday.

In Franklin County, the storm damage was concentrated in the northwest end. Multiple roads closed in Bangor, Brandon, Burke, Constable, Dickinson, Fort Covington, Moira, St. Regis Falls and Westville. The county seat, Malone, saw the closure of Marion Street, Webb and Pershing avenues.

Both Essex and Franklin counties declared a state of emergency on Friday, joining the statewide state of emergency declared by Gov. Kathy Hochul the same day.

“This state of emergency has been declared to address the concerns associated with the extreme rainstorms which have caused dangerous flooding and damage to many critical roads and other structures throughout Franklin County,” reads Franklin County’s declaration, signed by Franklin County Manager Donna Kissane.

By declaring a state of emergency, governments can access aid to fund repairs to infrastructure.

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“Really paid off”

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In towns like Keene, where flooding has become a more common occurrence over the years, flood resiliency is at the top of local officials’ minds.

It took the town of Keene nearly a decade to fully recover from damage wrought by Tropical Storm Irene in 2011. One of two firehouses in town were torn in half by Gulf Brook floodwaters and some homes were flooded, as was the downtown.

Friday’s storm was the third severe weather event so far this summer — Beryl was followed up one week later by a rainstorm that washed out some of the same roadways damaged by Beryl, according to Wilson.

Though flooding still happens in Keene, Wilson believes that by prioritizing flood resilience and riverbank rehabilitation as they repair areas post-storm, some progress has been made.

“The work that was done in the years following Irene has really paid off,” he said. “I really am a firm believer that the work we’ve done, based on the damage, has really paid off and we’re seeing less severe impacts in the area where resiliency has been built into the projects. The work we’ve done has helped us get through these repeat storms much better.”

But with more storms, different problems have arisen. Wilson pointed to the impact of the outage on the town’s transfer station as an example.

“In planning for keeping our transfer station running, now I’m starting to think, ‘Do we need a generator?'” he said. “‘What can we afford that will help us keep going when we need to keep going?'”