OtegoNY.com

There will be a fundraiser for local flood victims on Friday, Sept. 23rd, in Capresso Coffeebar, 215 Main St. in Oneonta. All proceeds will go to the United Way of Delaware and Otsego Counties’ Disaster Relief Fund. All funds will be used for victims in Delaware and/or Otsego Counties.

Seating is very limited. There are only 30 seats in all. The entire audience will have a close-up view of sleight-of-hand magic.

In case you are not aware, I am “The Amazing Great” (alternately “The Magnificent Humble”.) I’ve been a full-time professional magician since the 70′s, but have taken a hiatus for the last few years. I’d like get back into the game to do some benefits for our neighbors who’ve been affected by the recent storms.

Today is the second day of a massive flood due to tropical storm Lee.

Many roads in Otego are out (our road – Briar Creek Road) is impassable a little north of where it meets Wheaton Creek, and I suspect other places as well, and is officially closed). Some folks around the flood plain of the Susquehanna have been evacuated.

It looks like they are expecting more rain today and tomorrow. It is relentless.

If anyone knows of a local, or maybe Oneonta, place that takes donations for local disasters, can you please leave a comment here? I’d like to try to raise some funds after this is over for neighbors who have been affected.

Please leave a comment if you have any fundraising Ideas.

You can get live updates about Hurricane Irene, road closings, etc. from Watershed Post at
www.watershedpost.com.

The Watershed Post is using a liveblogging service called CoverItLive to bring you real-time updates on Tropical Storm Irene’s devastating impact on the Catskills. The liveblog, which has been live for over a week, is being staffed by a group of citizen-journalist moderators, and is also automatically updated.

More news:

Check out the CNN iReport from Mill Creek at http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-669841

Maybe some good will come out of all this. When roads and powerlines are repaired maybe they will be built better, and we can get some of the copper phone wires replaced with fiber-optics. Maybe somehow this will expedite getting better internet coverage for this area.

Right now, if you are from Otego, reading this, you are probably thankful that you have internet coverage at all. If you have a slow connection, though, you can’t take advantage of all the websites that can give you as-it-happens information, which could be potentially life-saving.

Let’s push for total high-speed coverage of our area after this, and after we thank all the amazing police, fire, and other rescue and help personnel who have been working so hard.

Here’s another resource, again from a Facebook post by Kellie Place (thanks again!) where you can monitor the Tri-county Public Safety live audio feed (only if you have a good internet connection, though):Tri-County Public Safety. Click on the speaker icon and another window will pop up. Then click on the “play” triangle.

Another resource: Flood Map for the area, privately run by a volunteer (THANK YOU!)