Last Wednesday night, heavy equipment operator for the Town Highway Department, Dennis Alleger, was called into work to assist with the flood response in Woodhull.
Alleger needed to move the heavy equipment to higher ground but saw the Highway Department was already flooding.
He said the flood started coming in fast and was already knee high before breaking down the garage doors. It became waist high almost immediately.
Alleger was able to climb to the top of one of the dump trucks and watched the water engulf smaller trucks as electrical wires sparked.
He said where he was located the waters were about five to five and a half feet deep, but the older part of the Highway Department had even deeper water inside.
For three hours Alleger waited for the water to go down and finally climbed down when waters were knee deep again. He was picked up by coworkers in a payloader outside.
Alleger said his own truck was completely submerged outside the shop where he always parked and it completely totaled.
The final assessment for the region flooded was that up to a dozen buildings were entirely destroyed, 25 sustained major damage and over 500 homes and businesses were damaged to some extent.
The Highway Department is hoping to have their fleet of trucks that they could save repaired by winter.
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