Hurricane Sandy Causes Casualty, Damage at New York Clubs

The owner of Mountain Valley Resort Club in Kerhonkson was killed by debris while checking for storm damage on the property. Buffalo’s Hyde Park golf course is closed until further notice and Oak Hill CC in Rochester lost power and a few trees, but its famed “Leaning Oak” survived.

Doreen Richardson, owner of Mountain Valley Resort Club in Kerhonkson, N.Y., was checking her property for damage from Hurricane Sandy on Monday night, October 29, when she was killed by flying debris, the Hudson Valley Times Herald-Record reported.

According to witnesses, Richardson, 69, was driving past a building on the property when a strong gust of wind snapped a large overhang off the front of a rental unit and sent it flying more than 20 feet over the top of the building. The overhang landed on the windshield of Richardson’s Lexus, the Times Herald-Record reported.

“I thought she was coming to see us, but her car just kept rolling and then I noticed that her windshield was crushed,” said tenant John Dermgrdichian, who ran to a neighbor’s home to call 911. The car came to a stop after plowing into the front of an unoccupied mobile home some 30 feet away.

Mark Smith, Assistant Captain of the Kerhonkson-Accord First Aid Squad, responded to the accident along with state police, the Accord Fire Department and Rescue One Ambulance, the Times Herald-Record reported.

“We couldn’t get up there with our big ambulances, because there were so many downed trees and wires, but the medics with the smaller rigs were able to get through and they found her dead at the scene,” Smith said.

In the 1950s, the 40-acre property, originally named the Peg Leg Bates Country Club, was the largest resort owned and operated by African-Americans in the country. At its height, the resort had 70 rental units and a nightclub.

Richardson and her husband Lloyd Simmonds bought the property from Bates in the 1980s and renamed it the Mountain Valley Resort. After Simmonds’ death in 2005, Richardson tried to run it alone, the Times Herald-Record reported.

Elsewhere in the state, Buffalo, N.Y.’s city-owned Hyde Park golf course was closed at the end of October until further notice due to the effects of Hurricane Sandy, The Buffalo (N.Y.) News reported.

City officials said staff would be available from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. on November 1 at the golf course clubhouse, to assist golfers who wished to clean out their lockers for the season, the News reported.

Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, N.Y., lost power, experienced flooding and lost several trees in the storm, though its famed Leaning Oak, supported by a steel beam since 1956, still stands on the right side of the 12th hole, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reported. The club will be the site of the 2013 PGA Championship.

“The good news is that nobody was hurt, first and foremost,” said PGA Championship Director Ryan Cannon. “The damage was not significant, power has been restored and it will not impact play or the championship.”
Cannon was not certain about when the course would be cleared, the Democrat and Chronicle reported.

“They’re pretty good at what they do, so I’m sure they’ll get it done in as timely a manner as they can,” Cannon said of the Oak Hill grounds crew.

Tags: 2013 PGA Championship buffalo n.y. Doreen Richardson hurricane sandy hyde park golf course john dermgrdichian Kerhonkson n.y. leaning oak Lloyd simmonds mark smith mountain valley resort club Oak Hill Country Club peg leg bates country club Rochester n.y. Ryan Cannon