Crowds gather as emergency crews from the New York State Department of Transportation work to repair a flooded bridge in Long Lake on Tuesday, July 11.
(Enterprise photo — Arthur Maiorella)
LONG LAKE — Though two of the three major roads into town reopened two weeks ago after briefly being flooded from heavy rain, business owners and employees in Long Lake still aren’t seeing the summer traffic they rely on to make enough money to get through the slow winter season.
The message they’re trying to get out to the world is that “Long Lake is open for business.”
Locals suspect that many potential visitors believe that the town is still flooded, inaccessible or largely closed after seeing photos and videos of flooded streets and roads washed out in news articles, television and on social media. But they say the damage was minimal, the repairs have come quick and now they’re trying to make hay while the sun shines.
The flooding on July 10 and 11 in the central Adirondacks washed out roads and bridges, flooded some homes and buried them in mud, and created a mess around the towns of Long Lake, Blue Mountain Lake and Newcomb.
The cleanup work started almost immediately after the sun rose on July 10.
The roads into town, and the businesses, reopened almost immediately after the cleanup — with the exception of state Route 28N to Newcomb.
The crucial state Route 30/28N intersection was reopened the next day. The roads to Tupper Lake and Blue Mountain Lake — state routes 30 and 28N — were reopened on July 12.
While the 28N road to Newcomb is still closed to traffic, visitors can still get off the Northway in Warrensburg and come up through Blue Mountain Lake.
Hoss’s Country Corner Store clerk Bella Sandersen said people are calling to the store to ask if things are open and she’s heard about people cancelling reservations.
“All the business in Long Lake are open and we want people to come,” Sandersen said. “It’s very important. This is a touristy town, so this is when people make most of their money.”
Hoss’s was one of the closest businesses to the major flooding at a failed spillway under state Route 30, but Sandersen said the building wasn’t harmed at all. People are still rebuilding some areas but the town is mostly back to normal now, she said, except the flow of tourists is slightly lower than normal.
“We’re definitely open and operating and would like our tourists back,” Long Lake Diner Manager Britt-Noel Bozak said. “We need it. It’s a small town and winters are long. … Winters are longer than the lake. That’s one of the town sayings.”
Bozak has worked at the diner for 10 years, including during the coronavirus pandemic, and said the impact of the news of flooding has made the business suffer a loss like she hasn’t seen before.
Thursday was the busiest they had been since the flooding, and occupancy was only that of a “normal summer day,” she said.
“And I think that’s only because it’s raining,” Bozak added. “When it rains around here we get all of the campers, so it usually doubles. It should have been a killer summer day and it was a normal summer day.”
Adirondack Hotel co-owner Jennifer Jurczak said occupancy on Thursday was around half of what it was last year, comparable to occupancy in April before tourist season.
“This is what gets us all of our money so that we can stay open through the winter,” she said.
Jurczak said she was thankful for the town crews and volunteers who worked hard to reopen most roads within a few days. She said everyone pitched in because they know it’s such an important time for town.
“We rebounded very quickly. We were very lucky,” she said.
Harrietstown Councilwoman Tracey Schrader has been working at her father’s marina in Long Lake all summer long. She said she’s been getting a lot of phone calls from people not realizing Long Lake is accessible who still think the roads into town are washed out.
“The season’s so short here,” she said, and they’re trying to get the most out of it.
Schrader said certain areas were devastated, but the flooding was localized in certain areas and much of the town is undamaged. The marina didn’t lose any of its 90 boats, she said.
Over the weekend President Joe Biden approved public assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to be available for local governments repairing infrastructure. FEMA is waiting on a more full assessment of damaged private property — homes and businesses — before deciding whether these individuals will be able to apply for federal aid.
The Long Lake farmer’s market was back on Thursday. People were swimming at the town beach, driving around town, seeing concerts and getting ice cream during the “Battle of the Cones” between Custards Last Stand and The Park.
