Lake Nanuet Flooded Again – Closed For The Season

Lake Nanuet turned into a big mud puddle thanks to Hurricane Irene. The pool, which had opened several days late for the summer season because of a deluge in late June, is now closing more than a week early because of flooding. Clarktown’s two other pools, Germonds and Congers, close on Monday, September 5.

Lifeguards were working on Monday but not watching swimmers. They were removing seats from the lifeguard stations, cleaning water out of the pump house and clearing the grounds.

“With Hurricane Irene, it was just one strong storm that came in and took over the pool and flooded the grounds,” said TJ Boyle, one of the head lifeguards. “Nature won.”

Although the pool was flooded, pumps installed in the pump house managed to keep the equipment from getting damaged.

“The most important part is we keep the pump house dry,” said Boyle, who has worked at the pool for eight years. “We had to constantly pump it out.”

On Sunday, water rushing from nearby Routes 304 and 59, overflowed drains, pushed orange and white barricades aside, poured through a berm and rushed down a driveway and through a playground area into the pool. The barricades and berm were installed a day before the hurricane in an effort to protect the pool and pump house. Boyle said the runoff came from the highways not the adjacent streams that border each side of the pool area.

Boyle, who said the pool will be drained and cleaned in preparation for next season, is disappointed has to close early.

“During the summer, it’s my second home,” said the 23-year-old. “I don’t like to end a good season in a poor way.”

The work at the pool was not the only cleanup going on in the area. Town employees were cutting three trees damaged by the hurricane and removing them so the parking lot was accessible.