{"id":288719,"date":"2026-07-07T00:38:37","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T00:38:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/288719\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T00:38:37","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T00:38:37","slug":"severe-storms-damage-parks-trails-in-ny-ct","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/288719\/","title":{"rendered":"Severe Storms Damage Parks, Trails In NY &#038; CT"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Severe storms over July Fourth Weekend not only knocked out power to thousands of people in Connecticut, New York, and Pennsylvania, but also caused significant damage to some of the region\u2019s parks and trails.<\/p>\n<p>Several parks in <a href=\"https:\/\/northeastexplorer.com\/hiking-camping-new-york-catskills-slide-mountain-wilderness\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New York<\/a> remained closed on Monday following the storms, and officials are warning hikers to avoid an 11-mile stretch of the Appalachian Trail in Connecticut due to storm damage. <\/p>\n<p>According to New York State Park officials, <a href=\"https:\/\/parks.ny.gov\/visit\/state-parks\/james-baird-state-park\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">James Baird State Park<\/a> in eastern New York\u2019s Taconic region remained closed for a second day on Monday due to severe storm damage, including downed trees and wires.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/parks.ny.gov\/visit\/state-parks\/bear-mountain-state-park\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Bear Mountain State Park<\/a>, in New York\u2019s Palisades region, also remained closed on Monday due to a water main break reportedly connected to the storm.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"767\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/bear-mountain-state-park-new-york-state-parks.jpg\" alt=\"new-york-ny-bear-mountain-state-park\" class=\"wp-image-11779\"  \/>Bear Mountain State Park in New York. (NY State Parks Photo)<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, <a href=\"https:\/\/appalachiantrail.org\/trail-updates\/connecticut-heavy-storm-damage\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Appalachian Trail Conservancy<\/a> (ATC) officials are warning hikers to avoid an 11-mile stretch of the trail in <a href=\"https:\/\/northeastexplorer.com\/connecticut-sleeping-giant-state-park\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Connecticut<\/a> that was severely damaged by storms over the weekend.<\/p>\n<p>Officials said the conservancy has received reports that the stretch of <a href=\"https:\/\/northeastexplorer.com\/appalachian-trail-fkt-lyla-harrod\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Appalachian Trail<\/a> from approximately Belters Campsite (NOBO mile 1496.9) to Salisbury (NOBO mile 1507.9) was impacted by a series of \u201cextreme storms\u201d that hit the area over the weekend.<\/p>\n<p>They said Belters Campsite and Limestone Springs Shelter and Campsite (NOBO mile 1503.6) are heavily damaged, and people <a href=\"https:\/\/northeastexplorer.com\/best-hikes-in-new-england\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">hiking<\/a> the trail should avoid the areas.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/northeastexplorer.com\/events\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"324\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Events-Calendar-Ad-2-Northeast-Explorer-1024x324.png\" alt=\"northeast-new-england-new-york-events-outdoors-hiking-biking-kayaking-skiing\" class=\"wp-image-11293\" style=\"aspect-ratio:3.160595177013853;width:544px;height:auto\"  \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Conservancy officials warned that weather forecasts show more severe weather predicted for the area with continuous rain until mid-day Tuesday and an estimate of two or more inches of rainfall. The National Weather Service has issued a flash flood warning for the area.<\/p>\n<p>Officials \u201cstrongly\u201d suggest hikers avoid the area and wait out the storm and flooding in town. They said streams will be high with strong water flow during and after the rainfall event. Also, the weekend\u2019s storms likely damaged standing trees that could come down later.<\/p>\n<p>Volunteers in Connecticut are reportedly coordinating assessing damage and clean-up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Severe storms over July Fourth Weekend not only knocked out power to thousands of people in Connecticut, New&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288720,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10,49,51,50],"class_list":["post-288719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288719","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=288719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}