Interview: Lewis County Manager Ryan Piche provides update in wake of Wednesday's flooding

LOWVILLE- Lewis County Manager Ryan Piche provided this latest update late Thursday afternoon:

"We've made tremendous progress today. The Number Four Rd., which was our top priority due to Beaver Camp and Unirondack Camp, will very likely be open for traffic tomorrow (Friday) afternoon. However, we are still working to transport the campers out by bus in order to avoid an unnecessary amount of traffic on the road. The County bus system will pick up the campers and bring them to the JCC Ed Center tomorrow (Friday) for pick-up from their parents. Beaver Camp and Unirondack Camps are coordinating the logistics with Casie Buel's transportation team, and coordinating the messaging to parents.

At this point, the emergency is, more or less, a highway event. There is little risk of additional flooding or additional property damage, and we are now just repairing all we can as quickly as possible to get all the roads open.

The shelter at Double Play will remain open for tonight (Thursday), but will likely close tomorrow (Friday). The non-emergency number will be turned off at 4:30 (Thursday), as all county operations will be fully open tomorrow morning (Friday) for any citizen that has an issue.

The County has closed the formal Emergency Operations Center (EOC), but we are continuing to work and keep in touch, obviously.

We can all be proud of our County team over the last 24 hours. Everyone stepped up to do their jobs, and many people stepped up to go above and beyond their jobs. This is truly an excellent community and an excellent county workforce."

Be sure to listen to our latest on-air segment from Friday, July 12, 2024:

Ryan Piche image.