Shipping season opened today (Thurs) on the Great Lakes, meaning the Lake Ontario-Saint Lawrence River Control Board has cut down the outflow from Lake Ontario to avoid putting shipping at risk.
But local and state officials are urging the board to keep the outflow at maximum as they did during the winter in an effort to avoid a repeat of spring flooding along the lake shore. Governor Cuomo has written to the regulators, asking them not to decrease the outflow.
Lake Ontario is currently about 11 inches above average for this time of year, although three inches lower than when the flooding started last spring.
Monroe County Executive Cheryl Dinolfo and Monroe County Office of Emergency Management Director Tim Kohlmeier hosted a multi-agency planning meeting today to prepare a coordinated response — so local communities can act quickly if and when the lake levels rise again this spring.
In preparation for any potential flooding , Monroe County says it has 40,000 sandbags that can be distributed to communities in need along the lakeshore. New York State also maintains 15 stockpiles of sandbags located in strategic areas across the state.