Storm at Catskill NY - Dock Collapse

It was a scary time, last Thursday.  The previous two days we watched a huge storm come up the east coast of the U.S.   We watched the radar, and weather carefully and thought that the main rain fall was passing safely to the west of us....  Well that part was correct, but unfortunately the rain was falling in the watershed area of Catskill Creek (where we're secured to the docks at Hop-O-Nose Marina).

There's a series of photos below... more or less in order...(at least that's the plan), showing Thursday from beginning (Dawn) to the end...(afternoon)...

We awoke, at dawn,to find the creek being very high, muddy, and fast flowing.  OH OH...it's happening...The same thing happened last year, but with no damage.
We started to disconnect TV cables, water lines, and power (anything that connected us to the dock that couldn't be easily cut or untied.
By 0800 the debris in creek was unbelievable... whole trees with root balls, and leaves were floating down, as well as all the dead trees.  The first boat to float by, and out to the Hudson was a pontoon boat, then a kayak (upside down - we hoped no one was aboard), then a canoe (just the bow visable)...
By 0820 Sean came by and advised us to vacate the boat... as the docks were beginning to compress, and take an accordian bellows shape, making walking dangerous.
At 0830 two sections of dock broke loose, and carried three power boats, and a small sailing vessel out to the Hudson River. 
Things stabilized for a short while, then while we were warming up, and having coffee in the Creekside Restaurant...and looking out toward the creek... People started yelling "there she goes".... and we watched (not being able to do anything about it)...all the boats upstream of the Autumn Borne, and a Power Boat called "Ti amo" slowly moved with the collapsing main dock, downstream... The cables, and deadmen to the shore held, but let the docks swing toward the shore as they ripped the wood out of the dock section corners...allowing them to stack line playing cards, (all at scary angles).  The access walkways were pushed high into the air or submerged in the creek flow, making access to the remaining docks impossible, or very dangerous. 
Fortunately for us, the Autumn Borne was on a straight section of face dock with no finger piers, and we were parallel to the creek flow... 
The power boat "Ti Amo" deflected most of the surface debris... and the dock on which it was secured held fast (thanks to angle bracing at the corners, and one very strong cable to the shore).
The Canadian transient boat "Walk-about" had the good sense to bring not only their passports ashore, but also a case of beer.  So, with nothing else we could do about our vessels... we sat in lawn chairs, had "breakfast beers", and watched the show in front of us... 
Just before the main dock collapse two sections of the main dock left with two more power boats attached...
Sean, and Mike Schmidt chased them down in an open john boat, and anchored them in the Hudson River... for later retrieval.  Nice Work !!!!

 the very next day, nearly all of the boaters, here at Hop-O-Nose, plus the workers for Sean pitched in and had the damaged docks removed, scavanged other docks from the north end, patched in the missing sections, and basically returned the docks to a functional system.  There's limited electrical service, no TV cable, and no water on the docks now...  but everyone that wanted to stay in the water... is still here, and secure.  Unbelievable effort on everyone's part.  

We have not been able to check underneath the AB, but believe we have suffered no damage.  Line chafe is about the extent of the above waterline damage...

We couldn't get to the AB on Thursday night, so Sean (Owner of Hop-O-Nose) offered his apartment at the marina to us, and the couple from the S/V La Vita (Kat, and Paul).   As nerve wracking a day as it was, the evening with Paul and Kat was a nice ending.  Good conversations, with a little wine helped us wind down a bit, before trying to sleep.