{"id":183282,"date":"2026-04-02T10:48:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T10:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/183282\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T10:48:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T10:48:16","slug":"blame-pours-in-as-floods-keep-closing-sccc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/183282\/","title":{"rendered":"Blame pours in as floods keep closing SCCC"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Part<\/p>\n

Part of the rear parking lot at SUNY Schenectady is flooded on Wednesday in Schenectady. Storm sewers on campus were overwhelmed. (Will Waldron\/Times Union)<\/p>\n

Will Waldron\/Times Union\"SUNY<\/p>\n

SUNY Schenectady canceled classes on Wednesday after part of the campus parking lot was flooded. It was the third time in less than a month that flooding prompted school officials to cancel classes. This photograph was taken at 9 a.m., roughly two hours after students were alerted classes were canceled due to flooding.<\/p>\n

Jesse Taylor \/ Times Union\"Part<\/p>\n

Part of the rear parking lot at SUNY Schenectady is flooded on Wednesday in Schenectady. Storm sewers on campus were overwhelmed. (Will Waldron\/Times Union)<\/p>\n

Will Waldron\/Times Union\"Part<\/p>\n

Part of the rear parking lot at SUNY Schenectady is flooded on Wednesday in Schenectady. Storm sewers on campus were overwhelmed.<\/p>\n

\"Part<\/p>\n

Part of the rear parking lot at SUNY Schenectady is flooded on Wednesday in Schenectady. Storm sewers on campus were overwhelmed. (Will\u00a0Waldron\/Times Union)<\/p>\n

Will Waldron\/Times Union\"Part<\/p>\n

Part of the rear parking lot at SUNY Schenectady is flooded on Wednesday in Schenectady. Storm sewers on campus were overwhelmed. (Will Waldron\/Times Union)<\/p>\n

Will Waldron\/Times Union\"The<\/p>\n

The floodwater pump house on Washington Avenue on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Schenectady. The city-owned pump station used to clear storm sewers is currently inoperable. (Will Waldron\/Times Union)<\/p>\n

Will Waldron\/Times Union\"The<\/p>\n

The floodwater pump house on Washington Avenue on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Schenectady. The city-owned pump station used to clear storm sewers is currently inoperable. (Will Waldron\/Times Union)<\/p>\n

Will Waldron\/Times Union\"Plaque<\/p>\n

Plaque for the floodwater pump house on Washington Avenue on Wednesday in Schenectady. The city-owned pump station used to clear storm sewers is currently inoperable.(Will\u00a0Waldron\/Times Union)<\/p>\n

Will Waldron\/Times Union\"Water<\/p>\n

Water levels on the Mohawk River are elevated at Schenectady’s Stockade after periods of heavy rain and snowmelt to the west on Wednesday in Schenectady.\u00a0(Will Waldron\/Times Union)<\/p>\n

Will Waldron\/Times Union\"SUNY<\/p>\n

SUNY Schenectady canceled classes on Wednesday after part of the campus parking lot was flooded. It was the third time in less than a month that flooding prompted school officials to cancel classes. This photograph was taken at 9 a.m., roughly two hours after students were alerted classes were canceled due to flooding.<\/p>\n

Jesse Taylor \/ Times Union\"SUNY<\/p>\n

SUNY Schenectady canceled classes on Wednesday after part of the campus parking lot was flooded. It was the third time in less than a month that flooding prompted school officials to cancel classes. This photograph was taken at 9 a.m., roughly two hours after students were alerted classes were canceled due to flooding.<\/p>\n

Jesse Taylor \/ Times Union\"Schenectady<\/p>\n

Schenectady Mayor Gary McCarthy says the city has received a grant to repair this pump station next to the SUNY Schenectady, but no bids have been solicited.<\/p>\n

Jesse Taylor \/ Times Union\"The<\/p>\n

The flooding at SUNY Schenectady expanded as time wore on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n

Jesse Taylor \/ Times Union<\/p>\n

SCHENECTADY\u00a0\u2014 For the third time in less than a month, the partial flooding of SUNY Schenectady\u2019s parking lot prompted the cancellation of all classes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The storm sewers on campus were overwhelmed Wednesday. At times, heavy rain fell on Tuesday and Wednesday, but the college blamed the flooding on a rising Mohawk River. The National Weather Service in Albany says the 1.05 inches of rain that fell in the area were not significant enough to\u00a0cause flooding.<\/p>\n

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Schenectady Mayor Gary McCarthy initially said flooding of the campus parking lot was caused by failures in a nearby city-owned pump station on Washington Avenue that is used to clear storm sewers. But he later said the issue was far more complex. He said construction on the campus and other factors could contribute to the backup of water. He noted the college has its own pump stations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u00a0answer all the questions. I shoot from the hip,\u201d he said when asked about his initial remarks. He said the amount of recent rainfall and the level of the Mohawk River, which is rising from rain and snowmelt to the west, were not high enough to trigger use of the pump station. \u201cWe\u2019re not at a point where we would have turned the pump station on,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

SUNY Schenectady President Steady Moono sent a withering letter to McCarthy after Wednesday\u2019s flooding, placing the blame on the city.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt is the predictable result of a longstanding infrastructure failure that has gone unaddressed for over a decade,\u201d Moono wrote. \u201cDuring my tenure. I have repeatedly raised concerns regarding the condition and functionality of the Washington Avenue pump station. I have consistently emphasized that addressing this issue would significantly mitigate, if not eliminate, the chronic flooding that disrupts our campus operations.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Saying the college and city had \u201creached an inflection point,\u201d Moono continued, \u201cThe frequency and severity of these closures are unacceptable and the impact on our students, faculty and staff is profound.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCarthy, a onetime student, questioned the decision to close the campus. \u201cWhen I went there, we\u2019d still have class if there was a little bit of water in the parking lot,\u201d McCarthy said.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for\u00a0SUNY Schenectady said the college has two \u201csmall pumps, just to handle downpours,\u201d not an inundation of water\u00a0from a rising Mohawk River, which borders the campus.<\/p>\n

\u201cCampus has been shut down for the safety of students, facility, and staff. The pipes have backflow protectors, but with high river levels flowing in from the west, the rising water pressure can still force backflow into the parking lot,\u201d Saba Mann said.<\/p>\n

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The situation raised questions about the college’s decision to install chargers for\u00a0electric vehicles in the portion of the parking lot that floods. Mann said the devices were turned off, but did not answer a question about whether plans were afoot to move them to high ground.<\/p>\n

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A solution to the flooding, if there is one, is a long way off. McCarthy says the city has a $26 million grant in place to repair the city’s facility, but no bids have been solicited, and there is no estimate for when the work could begin. Until bids are received, McCarthy said it is unclear if the grant will cover the entire cost or just a portion of the work.<\/p>\n

SUNY Schenectady said options to alleviate flooding have been discussed on campus, including a plan to improve flood control as part of a long-gestating plan to move an Interstate 890 off-ramp to the western edge of the campus.<\/p>\n

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The campus alerted students about the closure at 7:06 a.m., but some missed the alerts and made the unnecessary trip to the campus.<\/p>\n

The water only flooded a portion of the campus parking lot.<\/p>\n

College officials canceled in-person and remote classes on Wednesday. All other campus activities were called off and offices were closed, too.<\/p>\n

Classes were canceled at the college on March 9 and 12. At the time, unseasonably warm temperatures caused the snowpack to melt and caused the Mohawk River to rise, but officials later said that was not a factor in the campus flooding.<\/p>\n

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Rain and the continued melting of snow in the western edge of the Adirondack Mountains were sending water into the Mohawk River, according to the weather service. The West Canada Creek north of Herkimer was flooding and the Mohawk was near flood stage in Little Falls. The Mohawk was not expected to flood in the Schenectady area.<\/p>\n

Sophia Mead, a hospitality and tourism major, drove from Clifton Park to Schenectady County Community College, not realizing the school had closed for the day.<\/p>\n

The 19-year-old was planning to take a test and was supposed to meet with her adviser to schedule her classes for next semester.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mead said the college typically lets students know about flood closures well ahead of time and that it was her fault for needlessly making the trip without checking her email first.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI feel like emailing at 7 is OK, but for anyone that might live farther from campus than I do, it might be a little bit difficult,\u201d Mead said.<\/p>\n

She said it isn\u2019t the first time flooding has caused the school to close, noting she was \u201ckind of bummed\u201d but not too upset.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we get rain, it pretty much is flooded,\u201d Mead said.<\/p>\n

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Mann said the campus sent a variety of messages via social media posts, email, robocalls, text messages and other means of communication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Part of the rear parking lot at SUNY Schenectady is flooded on Wednesday in Schenectady. Storm sewers on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":183283,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[610,9,11,10,49,51,50,8147,133],"class_list":{"0":"post-183282","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-local","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-headlines","11":"tag-new-york-news","12":"tag-new-york-state","13":"tag-new-york-state-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-state-news","15":"tag-skco","16":"tag-weather"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}