STOCKTON - Trailers, garages and even houses were flooded thanks to the remnants of Hurricane Sandy around Bear Lake on Tuesday.
Sid Potmesil, Bear Lake Association second vice president and resident, said he has only lived along the 114-acre lake for a short time, but is told the water is at record-high levels.
"My neighbor, who has been here for 30 years, said she hasn't ever seen it so high," he said. "I guess eyeballing it, talking to other people, this is one of the highest flood levels in a number of years. The water is four feet over the banks and multiple things have been floating down the lake. Some docks have been floating around."
Article Photos
Residents around Bear Lake were dealing with “record-high” levels of water on Tuesday.
Photos by Sid Potmesil
Potmesil said during the storm, he wasn't worried too much about the rain, he was concerned with the wind.
"The wind we were worried about. Worried about things blowing over and knocking things over," he said.
"It was a nor'easter and most of the storms we get come from the west," Potmesil continued. "That contributed to things blowing out onto the lake."
Potmesil said, through talking with his neighbors, he has heard of some houses and some garages being flooded. However, the worst flood damage seems to be to trailers at the Conservation Club.
"The campground in one area is completely inundated by water," he said. "The trailers are in the water."
Art Clever, The Clever Store owner and Bear Lake resident, said he only remembers one storm in 1972 being worse. Clever, who also operates a campground, along with a store and marina, said he had about three feet of water in his campground this morning, but his trailers weren't damaged by the storm.
"I keep mine higher than the other campground. I have been through this before," he said. "Every chance I can get I put more fill in and raise them up."
Clever said he saw one house and one cabin right up to the edge of the water about to be flooded.
"There are a lot of picnic tables that floated away," he said. "When something goes over the height of a picnic table, you know it has to be at least three feet above the normal break wall level. So there probably is a total of six feet of water."