Schoharie Creek

I've been driving across Schoharie Creek to get to work for over six years now.  At first it was three times a week, mostly in the afternoon or evening, since I was working part time.  For three years now it's been five days a week.

Irene was not kind to Schoharie County.  Other places - Greene County in New York and much of Vermont - were hit harder, and neighborhoods along the river in Schenectady and Troy in New York saw flooding.  Relief and recovery efforts are underway; the small towns may take years to get back to normal.  The Gilboa dam is sound - for now - but it's in the back of everyone's mind.

I-88 bridge across Schoharie Creek was barricaded.  Traffic was diverted onto Route 7.

When Schoharie Creek came out, every bridge across it - from the Route 30 bridge in North Blenheim to the New York State Thruway and Route 5S bridges in Fort Hunter, where the Schoharie flows into the Mohawk River, were shut down.  I don't know that they were all underwater, but there was water across I-88.  That scenario I had been mapping in my head (How do I get home if the dam goes?) didn't even require the dam breaking - it just had to have record flood levels.  Luckily for me, I was on the home-side of the bridges when it happened.  I just couldn't go to work until the bridges reopened.  With the Mohawk also over its banks and many of its bridges closed, I'm not sure I could have even detoured north of the river to get there.

Schoharie Creek, about five years ago, was the inspiration for the elemental dragons I created for one of my Dungeons & Dragons settings.  Some mornings when you come down the hill on I-88, just past the 103 mile marker heading west, there's a snake of fog above the creek, tracing its route through the valley.  Unfortunately I'm driving when I see it, because I would love to get a picture of it.  Schoharie Creek has a mist dragon.