Slow Recovery from Fast Flood

Like most of the East Coast, Jim Lyons braced for Hurricane Irene last August. Unlike most Easterners, though, his in-plant is only now recovering from the resulting catastrophe.

As the storm bore down on New Paltz, N.Y., which lies about 85 miles north of New York City, flood waters collected outside the loading dock doors of the Haggerty Administration Building at the State University of New York (SUNY) at New Paltz. As the water climbed halfway up the dock doors, maintenance workers used boxes of paper from the in-plant in an attempt to barricade them. But it wasn’t enough.