Disaster Planning at Woodstock — 50 Years in Review

Article updated on the event’s 50th Anniversary with images from Woodstock then and in 2011 when this piece was first published.

August 30, 2011

This past weekend, while Irene was threatening the East Coast, my husband and I were in the Catskills for visiting day at our daughters’ summer camp. We decided to extend our stay through Monday to avoid the surge and inevitable traffic delays following the storm’s projected landfall in New York City on Sunday.

Rather than avoid trouble, we found ourselves in the middle of it, as the Catskills experienced some of the worst storm-surge damage in the country: downed trees, road blocks, raging forest streams. If fact, a large white pine at the inn where we were staying fell inches from our unit’s porch, bringing several smaller trees down with it.

When it was safe to venture out, a trip to the Bethel Woods Museum at Bethel Woods Performing Arts Center, site of the 1969 Woodstock festival, interestingly, provided some perspective on disaster planning in the area.