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Greece residents worry about winter, spring as lake levels remain high

Douglas Dobson's Edgemere Drive home
Caitlin Whyte
/
WXXI News
Douglas Dobson's Edgemere Drive home

As a lakeshore flood warning remains in effect until early Tuesday morning, Lake Ontario shoreline residents are breaking out the sandbags once again to battle rising waters.

Out on Edgemere Drive in Greece, the grey sky seems a bit more ominous. With the winds whipping our hair around and the waves crashing on the break wall, Douglas Dobson showed me around his Edgemere Drive home.

Dobson, also the president of the Crescent Beach Neighborhood Association, didn’t even bother moving the wall of sandbags he built up this spring when flooding was at its worst.

"I had over 1,760 sandbags. I had over 400 sandbags in front of the house and close to 1,300 sandbags around my two garages on the other side."

He’s been on Edgemere for 41 years, raised a family, now retired on the lake shore, and says this past year has been of the worst weather he’s seen. The water gets higher, and stays higher, longer.

"Normally at this time of year, we have sandy beaches out here, you can walk all the way from here down to the crescent beach restaurant.”

Flooding around Dobson's garages
Credit Caitlin Whyte / WXXI News
/
WXXI News
Flooding around Dobson's garages

We walk over to the edge of the breakwall in his yard, where the water splashes over the top and onto our shoes. Not a patch of beach in sight.

"Right now, the water is probably a foot higher than normal."

If lake levels continue to stay this close to the break walls and freeze, they could crack and crumble during the winter. That’s before even worrying about what next spring’s rainfall will bring.

He points to a neighbor a couple of houses down who just installed over $40,000 worth of new break walls.

Dobson believes Plan 2014 is to blame for the flooding issues of the past year. He hopes it will be overturned or modified to include more proactive measures.

Erosion on a neighbors lawn. Dobson says the grass used to reach the metal barrier where rocks now are.
Credit Caitlin Whyte / WXXI News
/
WXXI News
Erosion on a neighbors lawn. Dobson says the grass used to reach the metal barrier where rocks now are.

"We're concerned for this spring that if they don’t let the water down to 242ft through the winter, that we're going to have the same problems again in the spring."

Dobson said he’s interested in who the three nominees will be for the IJC commissioner seats after Rep. Chris Collins called for replacements recently.