Debby Hits Keuka

Debby hurricane-then-storm hit Keuka Lake last Friday with some interesting impacts.

A real gullywhumper

The storm started shortly before I departed our cottages to pick up Jacob, Kaitlin and Rory at the airport. The drive to Rochester was straightforward, but coming back (despite me trying to navigate us through high ground) we were turned back three separate times because of washed out roads. It was a long trip but we made it safely.

The video above shows what our gully, lining the north side of our north cottage, looked like when I returned. This was below crest according to Julie - it came up to just a few inches below the top of the steel sea wall. Any higher could have been devastating for that cottage.

Our ever-changing point

Big storms always change the shape of our point that juts out into the lake, but we’ve never seen a change like this. At least 30 feet of added land that will slowly drop back into the bottom of the lake in the coming weeks. Our point is at a steep decline that heads to the deepest part of the lake, about 180 feet.

The gully itself has a floor that has been raised 3-4 feet. Where before it was a climb down with hands holding the wall, now it is a simple step down. And the culvert under the highway is packed with silt, sand, and rock making it impossible to walk through like we used to. Because the state owns the highway and the culvert, they should be working their way down to clear that out in the coming days. We aren’t sure what we need to do about the remainder of the gully.

Boat hauling the carnage

We are constantly seeing barges hauling timber debris around the lake, testament to how widespread the carnage was. The roads are clear now and hopefully we stay storm free for a while.