August 29, 2011
Borough Park woman vacationing in Catskills killed in Irene
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NASA satellite image of Hurricane Irene on Aug. 27 at 10:10 a.m. EDT over the U.S. east coast in the Atlantic Ocean. Photo from REUTERS/NASA-NOAA/Handout
A Borough Park woman is among the at least 16 killed by Hurricane Irene’s six-state onslaught.
Leah Stern, a Jewish woman reportedly in her 70s, was trapped in the Valkyrian Motel in Fleischmann’s, New York, approximately 140 miles north of New York City, when the motel was uprooted and swept away by torrential water, reported VIN News.
On-lookers could hear Stern’s cries for help until around 3:30 PM, when the cries faded.
Stern was found dead by the fire departments from neighboring Broome County some hours later, reported Yeshiva World.
The motel, including Stern’s husband, had been evacuated earlier in the morning. It was not immediately apparent why she did not leave as well.
