One big puddle at 2673 Lake Road in Brockport. Photo by Rick Nicholson.

More like a lake – the Salmon Creek exceeded its banks as the result of the series of thunderstorms which traveled across the area May 22-24. Above, the Hilton Firemen's field was under water. Volunteers were kept busy with over 40 calls for flooded basements. Photo by Walter Horylev.

There was no chance for a picnic at the village park. Though the water receded relatively quickly, silt, branches and other flotsam deposited caused clean-up problems in some areas. Photo by Walter Horylev.

Area weathers the thunder storms, begins clean up

With more than five inches of rain falling over the May 22 to 24 weekend, area residents have had to deal with flooded basements and back yards, downed power lines and flooded roadways.

In Sweden, Fred Perrine, the town's highway superintendent, said his crews and the residents were faced with many of the same problems other areas dealt with. "We had a couple of homeowners call with problems because of flooded basements," he said. "East Canal Road was flooded and was closed for a while."

Perrine said about three inches of rain fell between Friday and Sunday.

Residents in Hilton didn't fare quite as well as other areas. It was reported that three inches of rain fell in as many hours. "We got hit hard with flooding," Assistant DPW Superintendent Mike McHenry said. "We didn't close any roads but they were covered in water. There were also a lot of calls for flooded basements and back yards."

Hilton also reported widespread power outages. McHenry said the department is concentrating on branch and tree removal as well as cleaning debris out of storm drains. "The storm sewers are being checked and cleaned and we're going to be sweeping the streets," he said.

McHenry said there were some cases of erosion where high waters damaged grading that had recently been repaired because of winter plow damage.

Town of Clarendon officials and residents didn't see too many problems, Highway Superintendent Larry Swanger said. "We got the heavy rains and a bit of standing water, but we didn't get hit as hard as the towns down by the lake."

The low, flat landscape of Clarkson led to areas of standing water, some measuring up to one foot in the 3000 block of Sweden Walker Road. "There was quite a bit of standing water in the town," Highway Superintendent Dave Goodwin said. "One of my men has a rain gauge and he measured two and one-quarter inches of rain over Sunday night - any time we hit that two inch rain mark we run into problems."

Even though there was more than eight inches of standing water in the 2000 block of Lake Road near Lifetime Assistance, Goodwin said there was no flooding inside the building.

Sporadic power outages, while bothersome, didn't cause many problems with sump pumps because they were of short duration, Goodwin said.

Clarkson's crew will be out with the bulldozer clearing fallen logs and branches from a creek. "The log jam caused a few flooding problems during the storm," Goodwin said.