TOWN OF HAMBURG, N.Y. (WKBW) — A flood warning was in effect until 4 a.m. Tuesday, for communities along Lake Erie, including Route 5, Buffalo's Harbor and the Dunkirk Harbor.
Among the flood-prone areas is the Hoover Beach neighborhood in the Town of Hamburg, where residents are no strangers to extreme weather.
The community boarded up homes and was bracing for high winds and rising waters.
"With climate change, we're getting more frequent storms, more high energy storms, so we protect ourselves like this until the spring," said Hank Kleinfelder, who has lived in Hoover Beach for six years.
Kleinfelder boards up the windows of his lakefront home every winter to prepare for the potential buildup of ice pushed toward the shoreline during storms.
"When the lake freezes like this, that kind of protects the shoreline but now you get some open water and some high wind event, and they're calling for the possibility of a seiche with this event, we can have this ice all pushed up to the shore," he said.
A seiche occurs when lake levels rise in one region and drop in another due to wind or atmospheric pressure.
"In this instance, Cleveland lake levels will lower and levels in Buffalo will go higher," said Sean Crotty, the Town of Hamburg's emergency manager. "We've seen anywhere from four-foot to 12-foot differences over the years, different storm events that we've had."
Crotty said that the most severe seiche in recent memory occurred in 2019.
"In 2019, the lake didn't have as much lake covered in ice as it does this year," Crotty said. "That presented a whole different challenge, but the ice is breaking up out there. If we do have a seiche then the rise in the lake level will start to break up that ice and then will start to see the shelving and the stacking of ice."
Kleinfelder and his neighbors prepared for a potential maximum seiche of five feet.
"We make sure everybody is boarded up," Kleinfelder said. "We stick together as a community so we put out notices to each other. We'll share information, we'll stop by and see if we can be helpful and make recommendations for someone else and see some areas where they may be vulnerable."
These are images provided by the Town of Hamburg Emergency Services, which show extensive ice buildup and damage along the shoreline.
Crotty emphasized that residents should stay off the ice and remain cautious.
