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Saranac River covers Moose Pond Road

The Saranac River coveres Moose Pond Road in Bloomingdale Wednesday. (Enterprise photo — Glynis Hart)

BLOOMINGDALE – As the governor’s office authorized the release of emergency resources to protect the village of Saranac Lake from flooding, residents of Moose Pond Road in Bloomingdale, where the Saranac River washes over the road almost every spring, were going about business as usual.

“I’ve waded back and forth across that water six times today,” said Ed Kanze. Ed and Debbie Kanze bought their home on Moose Pond Road in 2000. To the best of Ed’s recollection, since then the road has been flooded every spring except one.

Normally the handful of families that live on the road can wade across the flooded part, or drive a pickup with high clearance. Several park their cars on the other side of the floodwater until it goes down.

“The worst year was 2011,” said Kanze. “For a month or maybe two weeks we couldn’t get a vehicle through. We all have boats, so we boated back and forth. Life became like one of those high school word problems: if you have four boats, and three people went over and two came back, how many people do you need to leave to keep boats on the right side of the water?

“It’s a major nuisance because of the groceries,” said Kanze. “My wife works at Will Rogers, and Wednesday is pizza night. Who wants to wade through that with a pizza? In the dark, too.”

The Kanzes have a 14-year-old son and a 12-year-old daughter. During the flooding, the school bus won’t come down their road, so they have to wade or catch a ride in a neighbor’s pickup truck.

“We certainly see a lot of our neighbors when it floods,” said Kanze.

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