The morning after the wild winds and rain blew through Beacon all night, knocking porch swings around, tossing trash cans, and keeping sub-pumps on overdrive, the high tide of the Hudson River once again rose into the parking lots of Lock Dock Park and the Beacon Train Station. Cars were parked at Long Dock, and at least one of them was floating. Beacon Police were called when some hikers who returned from hiking through Madame Brett Park came to see that their cars at Long Dock were surrounded by water.

“I didn’t want to open my door so I opened my window by pressing and holding down my unlock button,” one hiker told ALBB. “I climbed through the window, turned on the car, and drove it here,” recalled the hiker at the base of Long Dock Road, squeezing out their socks and putting their shoes back on as they sat in the back of their Hyundai Santa Cruz pickup truck.

Another hiker, parked behind them with all doors open, was also able to get into their car by crawling through the window and driving it through the water. In the Subaru, which is lower to the ground than the pickup truck, water did get into the vehicle. Further down the parking lot, another hiker’s car was floating. The plan for that car was to wait until the water went out with the tide.

Neither the Beacon Police nor the hikers could confirm what time the water came in. One Beacon Police Officer said they had put up a barricade down at the train station at 11am, where the water had completely blocked off access to Pete and Toshi Seeger Riverfront Park and consumed the parking lot. It was around 12:45pm when the police, fire and ambulance were called to the scene of the flooded cars at Long Dock.

One hiker said that they did see twigs and other debris on the ground when they parked and left for Madame Brett Park, but didn’t think anything of it. Now they realized those were remnants of the river as it went back out with the tide. The parking lot could have been flooded throughout the night.

Parking Lot Flooded Again at Beacon Train Station

Once again, the Welcome to Beacon sign was surrounded by water and rows of parking spots were under water. Access to Pete and Toshi Seeger Riverfront Park was completely blocked by the Hudson River, which had the current moving through it as if it weren’t disturbing anything, just doing its tide thing.

As this tidal rise becomes a regular occurrence after heavy rains, compounded with melted snow, signs will need to be put up throughout both parking lots, warning of High Tide Flooding, as other coastal towns do.