LONG LAKE — Roads washed out, dams and bridges were damaged, and streets flooded, leaving it impossible to cross from one end of the town of Long Lake to the other after heavy rainfall from Monday night, July 10, to Tuesday morning.

Torrential rainfall caused massive infrastructure damage in the town of fewer than 400 residents, flooding basements and engulfing lawns in mud. Flooding also caused damage and closures in Newcomb and Raquette Lake. Now, locals, as well as state and county officials, are working to put things back together again.

Standing on the edge of a great watery canyon created by a failed spillway under state Route 30 that was emptying Park Lake into Shaw Brook, six people stood, waiting for the state Department of Transportation to reopen the bridge so they could get across for a funeral burial.

Todd Newman’s father Paul died in 2017. His mother Ruth died in 2022.

“We waited to bury them together,” Todd said. “They met here in the Adirondacks 72 years ago, so their final resting place is going to be about 60 miles from where they originally met over at Silver Bay on Lake George.”

State construction officials worked quickly to restore travel between the north and south halves of Long Lake as a bridge washed away between the Long Lake Diner and Hoss’s Country Corner. (News photo — Arthur Maiorella)

That final resting place was at the Long Lake Cemetery, less than half a mile away, but across the damaged bridge. With the undertaker on the other side, Todd, Paul Trevino, Steven Schmucker, Scott Grady, Gid and Mary Fidell shared a few memories of the couple Mary called “unforgettable people.”

On Tuesday morning, the town of Long Lake declared a state of emergency due to severe flooding in the heart of the hamlet, an event that has heavily damaged highways, sidewalks, dams and bridges and forced road closures to nearby communities such as Newcomb.

Town Supervisor Clay Arsenault declared the state of emergency at 5 a.m. after a night of heavy rain, and it will remain in effect until further notice.

“There’s a lot of carnage,” Arsenault said. “Some houses have been flooded. Some silt that’s up to windows from the creeks washing out and flooding. Yeah. It’s a mess.”

He said state firefighters, state emergency workers, Department of Transportation engineers and Essex County officials were all in town, as were a lot of locals.

When Long Lake residents woke up early Tuesday morning, July 11, they found that town officials had issued a state of emergency due to flooding damage to roadways, bridges, dams and other infrastructure. Heavy rain had fallen all night long, and the damage forced the closure of key roads, such as state Route 28N between Long Lake and Newcomb. Here, Amy Zick, an area home owner, stares at the house of Valerie Galvagni just east of Long Lake, on Tuesday. Flooding swamped Galvagni’s home in 3 feet of silt and mud, as well as poured water into her basement and first floor. (News photo — Arthur Maiorella)

“People are out and about. Long Lake is a very resilient, tough community,” Arsenault said. “It’s all hands on deck. Everybody’s helping each other.”

Forest rangers with the state Department of Environmental Conservation also responded to Long Lake Tuesday.

There was no passage through town as the bridge was out from the Long Lake Diner to the state Route 30/28N intersection.

The area is in the heat of tourist season, when businesses around here make their hay for the winter. It was tough timing for business owners, who rely on tourist shoppers but couldn’t get them.

Hoss’s Country Corner owner Laurie Hosley was “very upset” Tuesday morning. She had heard about the flooding around 1 a.m. and had been up ever since.

Emergency crews from the state Department of Transportation work to repair a flooded bridge in Long Lake on Tuesday, July 11. Main Street, a part of state Route 30, was severely damaged in the early morning flooding. (News photo — Arthur Maiorella)

“Everybody’s safe though,” she said.

Hosley lives on the side of town where she could get to her shop in the morning, but she was there all alone.

“Nobody can get here,” she said, looking out at the flooding right next to her store.

The spillway on state Route 30 breached and was draining Park Lake like a “raging river.”

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Hosley said. “It’s sort of indescribable.”

Chris Pratt, far left, looks at his car just east of Long Lake, on Tuesday, July 11. Neighbors, with a pickup and a tow cable, were able to pull the Honda back onto the roadway. (News photo — Arthur Maiorella)

Across the flooding, Ken Kovalewski and Jen Jurczak, co-owners of the Adirondack Hotel on Long Lake, described a similar ordeal.

“Friends called us at 20 (minutes) to 2 (a.m.) and woke us up,” Ken said.

The pair, who were planning to stay the night in Buffalo, raced back to their hotel and arrived at about 10 a.m. They said the basement had flooded up to Kovaleski’s chest but was drying out, with damage only to the hotel’s boiler.

The pair have only owned the hotel since March 31 of this year, but other residents of the town remember when Hurricane Irene tore through in 2011 and called the two disasters comparable.

Resident George Yellott walked along destroyed sections of Route 28 on Tuesday, where water had completely washed much of the roadway away. Yellet said he was living in Long Lake in 2011 during Hurricane Irene and he didn’t remember the roads being as destroyed after the hurricane as they were on Tuesday.

A snowmobile sits in the water of Park Lake in the town of Long Lake on Tuesday, July 11. The machine is easily 200 yards from where floodwaters washed it away from near state Route 30. (News photo — Arthur Maiorella)

There is possible damage to the Long Lake Water District infrastructure, according to the town’s state of emergency declaration, plus downed electric supply lines and poles and the potential for evacuation and/or relocation of affected residents.

“The situation threatens public safety,” the declaration states.

The town’s Facebook page stated Tuesday morning that travel in and around Long Lake in the main intersection of state routes 28N/30 was for emergency vehicles only. Route 28N from Long Lake to Newcomb was closed in both directions.

At 9:13 a.m., the town stated on its Facebook page that there was water on North Point Road, but it was passable.

Anyone in need of emergency assistance was asked to call 9-1-1.

Adirondack Experience, the Museum on Blue Mountain Lake was closed Tuesday, according to the museum’s Facebook page: “Due to severe flooding and road damage, all major roadways to the museum are closed at this time and we will not be able to open to the public. Refunds will be issued to anyone who has purchased tickets to visit the museum today. Please stay safe.”

The Adirondack Interpretive Center in Newcomb also closed on Tuesday, as did John Dillon Park in Long Lake. A photo on the town of Newcomb’s Facebook page shows the bridge over Fishing Brook washed out, and the road closed.

Officials at Great Camp Santanoni in Newcomb Tuesday morning urged people not to travel to Newcomb: “We know that the rising water at the Gate Lodge is interesting, but it is not worth risking your safety for a photo or video.”

On-site staff at Great Camp Santanoni were evacuated and moved briefly to the Newcomb Town Hall until the bridge situation was resolved, the Facebook page stated Tuesday morning, and traveling across the bridge onto the site is prohibited until further notice:

“If you own the property across from the Gate Lodge, your Adirondack chairs just washed away down the creek.”

Saranac Laker Doug Haney was staying at the Great Camp Sagamore on Sagamore Lake with a bicycling group and snapped photos of the boathouse on Monday and Tuesday. On Monday, a group of people are seen in the rustic structure among kayaks and paddles. On Tuesday, the entire floor was submerged in the lake, with water stretching at least six feet past the entryway into the open-air shed.

“Sagamore Lake rose by 1.5 to 2 feet,” GCS Executive Director Emily Martz said. “We are lucky in that our caretakers were able to quickly repair the washout on Sagamore Road, so we can still offer our tours and other programming.”

Martz said the boathouse got some major repairs this spring after years of the water flooding up into the structure, so it will be OK. While it’s common for Sagamore Lake to flood into the boathouse, she said this is also the highest flooding she’s seen since she arrived in 2019.

Haney said the camp’s staff were impressively accommodating.

The Adirondack Watershed Institute has a water level sensor on Raquette Lake, which recorded three inches of rain from the overnight storm. But the water was still rising at 4 p.m. Tuesday as rain ran down into the large lake. The lake level had risen 8.4 inches between 3 p.m. Monday and 3:30 p.m. Tuesday.

AWI Senior Research Scientist Brendan Wiltse said said this is the biggest jump in water level in the shortest amount of time that he’s seen since the AWI installed the sensor in April 2022 — even more than during the spring melt. The next highest — a few months ago on April 7 — was about half that amount at 4.06 inches of water level rise in a 24 hour period.

Wiltse said there’s not many of these lake monitoring sensors around. He wants to add more to these help them understand these large rain events with hard data. AWI installed this first one with financial support from the Raquette Lake Preservation Foundation.

The AWI’s sensor data on Raquette Lake can be viewed at https://bit.ly/44zl44Y.

Essex County Board of Supervisors Chair Shaun Gillilland signed an emergency declaration for the county on Sunday, coordinating all county resources, equipment and personnel to handle the situation. This declaration was made public on Tuesday afternoon, half way through its stated duration.

The declaration allows all departments and agencies to take “whatever steps” are necessary to protect life, property and public infrastructure. All departments are asked to monitor the flooding and road conditions and provide any affected people assistance — shelter, food or other necessities.

It also allows the county chair, board and public works superintendent to enter emergency contracts if needed, side-stepping the usual purchasing policies of bidding and such.

The declaration was made due to “extensive flooding from heavy rains causing damage to roads, bridges and property. The emergency declaration was set to last for five days, unless it was extended or terminated.

On Monday, Gov. Kathy Hochul extended the state’s emergency declaration to Essex County.

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(Lake Placid News Editor Andy Flynn contributed to this report.)

State Department of Environmental Conservation officer Spencer Noyes, standing in front of the Adirondack Hotel near the town beach, uses a drone to survey flood damage in Long Lake on Tuesday, July 11. Noyes searched for underwater hazards not visible from the shore, as well as oil sheens on the water. (News photo — Arthur Maiorella)

Two men in a side-by-side shift their weight to the right as they try to squeeze by a ruined section of Route 28N, just east of Long Lake, on Tuesday, July 11. Flooding early Tuesday morning mangled much of the highway. (News photo — Arthur Maiorella)

Department of Environmental Conservation officers and Tim Helms, second from left, look at the exposed fuel tank of Helms’s Aero Service on state Route 30 Tuesday, July 11 in Long Lake. The tank was previously buried a foot deep and remained intact after the flooding. (News photo — Arthur Maiorella)

Long Lake resident Mark Easton rides his bicycle over Route 28N on the afternoon of Tuesday, July 11. Heavy flooding washed away much of the highway east of the hamlet. (News photo — Arthur Maiorella)

Construction crews and residents swap stories and look at a ruined section of Route 28N, just east of Long Lake, on Tuesday, July 11. Flooding early Tuesday morning mangled much of the highway. (News photo — Arthur Maiorella)