Little League Makeover

Capital News 9 interviewed Tom Burgess, president of the Rensselaer Little League, and has a story and video about rebuilding the ballfield after last summer's flood:

Time to play ball in Rensselaer

It's time to play ball in Rensselaer. And this season is a long time coming, after a game last year that Mother Nature played and won, causing thousands of dollars of damage.
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Eight months and a hundred volunteers later, it's a brand new season.
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“The community comes together... They can change a lot. They did a lot of work and we're back."

Ice Storm Disaster Declaration

State and local governments will now be able to access federal money for ice storm repairs.

Newsday.com: Disaster declaration for Dec. 11 storm

President Obama has declared a disaster in nine upstate New York counties struck by severe winter storms between Dec. 11-31.

Capital News 9: Federal money available for ice storm damage
Federal money is coming to help with the devastation caused throughout the region by the December ice storm.


MORE: Troy Record: More FEMA funds flowing to area to aid victims of December ice storm

Red Cross Flickr Set

The American Red Cross of NorthEastern New York has started an ARCNENY Photostream on Flickr. They have uploaded a set of 40 photos from the Rensselaer Floods Aug. 2008. It's worth a look - there are some great shots (I'm partial to the kitten photo, but that's just me).

From their Flickr Profile:

ARCNENY helps people prevent, prepare for, and respond to emergencies. Last year, nearly 1,100 residents of the Capital Region and surrounding areas were provided free, emergency assistance by ARCNENY after disasters such as fires, floods, and power outages. The Red Cross is not a government agency; it relies on donations of time, money and blood from the American people to do its work. An average of 91 cents of every dollar the Red Cross spends is invested in humanitarian services and programs.

You can donate online to the Northeastern NY Red Cross and target their Local Disaster fund.

Power's Mostly Back

Power outages in the City of Rensselaer are finally down to single digits: 9 customers tonight, versus 99 yesterday. I didn't note the total at the peak, but I think it was over 2,000. Or maybe that was Poestenkill - it's all kind of fuzzy now (I was still half-sick - it took a long time to get over that bug).

National Grid crews were working both last night and this morning on upper Washington Ave. It looks like they finally got service restored to the Farley Dr. neighborhood across the creek. Notice where the guy in the bucket is in this picture (click to zoom in). This line goes right across the gully, through the woods. What were they thinking?

I decided against a giant roundup of storm story links. But you might check out the Times-Union Storm Map, which lets you read short comments about the storm (mostly people's power status and their opinions of National Grid). These are tagged with their locations, and the points are mapped. My first try using Firefox showed me the ocean off of Africa, and then the map interface stalled. Internet Explorer wouldn't show the map at all. The second try with Firefox worked. It's an interesting application - has some potential to be useful.

Moonlight

Ice Storm Update

Just a quick update... The grocery stores on Rt. 20 in East Greenbush are open. I wasn't in Price Chopper, but Hanaford was well stocked. They didn't lose power, as far as I can tell, so they didn't need to jettison the perishables (I heard that the Hoosick St. Price Chopper in Troy did).

Also, Rt. 4 was open all the way from Rt. 20 beyond Rt. 43. (The light at Rt. 151 was out though.) All the gas stations have lines.