Having once owned a home in Windham, and with many of our friends still living in this beautiful area of the Catskills, we’re reeling from the news of the hurricane and sending positive vibrations to all. Hurricane Irene wreaked devastating damage to this sweet mountaintop town as well as nearby Prattsville, and many other historic towns throughout the Catskills.

In Windham, The Batavia Kill runs parallel to Main Street — it was overflowing yesterday with reportedly four feet of water making its way down the center of town. The South Street Bridge got rammed by a floating home, (above) school buses were drifting, cars crashed, homes and businesses are flooded and most, if not all, of the town is without power.

When you’re without power, and faced with highway and local road closings, trying to contact friends and family can be impossible. If you need any info about travel and conditions, or are trying to contact folks in the area, here are a few resources that may be of some help:

• a great live-streaming blog with updates, photos, and local reports – set up by WatershedPost.com
• New York State’s emergency services web page lists closures, power outage info, shelter locations and much more.
• make a donation to help rebuild Windham @ windhamrebuild.org
• another source of road closure info: ynn.com
• if you’re looking for someone check out the Red Cross’s SafeandWell.communityos.org
• a site has been set up as a forum for relief efforts: Catskills Irene Relief Resources
• 511ny.org has a map with road closings, detours and traffic updates
• on Twitter get info through #catskills
• here’s a Google map created to show bridge damage and road closings
• locals can charge their cell phones at the Jewett Firehouse

Please provide any additional emergency info or links as a comment and we’ll add them to the list.

Local radio station WRIP (97.9 FM), serves as a hub for the local community. Although ISP service is currently down today, (no email or audio streaming), you can checkout their website for street closing and emergency travel info. Shout out to Guy and Jay. Phone 518 734 4747 if you need to contact the station.

photo credits: ABC News (top) and Karen Thompson (bottom – Main Street, across from Carole’s Gift Shop).